10 Crops You'd be Foolish Not to Plant in April

today me and tuck are going to share with you 10 crops you should be planting in April let's go let's jump right into it with our first crop peas nothing compares to grabbing fresh snaap peas right off the vine not only do they taste great they also look beautiful and come in different colors besides the standard green I love the look and taste of the purple peas and also the yellow ones before planting I suggest you soak your pea seeds for 24 hours this will help with the speed of germination and also help with the germination rate when planting Peas I like to place my peas about 2 to 3 in apart then I will go back and push them in to a depth of about 1 to 2 in after that I will water them in in about 2 weeks they will Sprout and you will see them pushing out of the soil in the past I have had problems with the birds eating my young peases now I use this insect netting to protect the peas and it has made a huge difference for me early peas like growing in a raised bed or a Sandy LOM soil that heats up quickly that's why this section is perfect for my early peas because it's up against this white fence it heats up really nicely in the spring but back here it gets really hot in the summer the next crop you should be planting in April are carrots tux alltime favorite veggie to dig up and also snack on we love orange carrots yellow carrots red ones white ones the varieties are endless carrots can be a bit finicky when germinating let me show you a trick I use to get good consistent germination when it comes to planting carrots I use a square foot method so I plant 16 carrots per square foot I'll just make a slight indentation just like this four rows of four not deep just enough to cover them with just a little bit of soil then I'll take my seeds and I'll just drop them in a few carrots per indentation and then I'll just come back and then I'll just cover them with about a/4 inch of soil just like this next we'll water them in then cover it with a board your carrots will sprout in about 1 to 3 weeks so come out here regularly check if they're starting to sprout and once you see them starting to pop out of the ground remove the board after my carrots Sprout I will go through and thin them out and be left with 16 carrots per square foot growing carrots that have a nice shape is a lot about having good rockf Free Soil so the roots could easily push through it soil like this makes it easy for the roots to move and not get obstructed if you do have a section that has a lot of rocks just go through and dig them out but if you make your own soil like I do you won't have to worry about that in mid to late April is when I start planting my cucumbers inside there's nothing more refreshing than grabbing some fresh cucumbers during the heat of the summer this year I suggest you plant some burpless varieties of cucumbers like the Su long the cucumber beetles are less attractive Ed to the burpless ones and they're less bitter cucumbers like the soil temperature to be between 60 and 90° if the soil temperature is about 80° F they'll take around 3 to 5 days to sprout let's drop these in just like this cover them up and then we'll water them in just like this then we'll grab our cover and pop it on top cucumbers are a summer veggie and are very sensitive to cold they need both the soil temperature and the air temperature to be warm in order to grow well when it comes to planting cucumbers don't rush it's better to plant a little too late rather than too early I have found that once the temperatures are right cucumbers explode into growth if you try to get them out too early they kind of just seem to just sit and wait for the temperatures to get just right young healthy cucumber plants planted out l do much better and they surpass the growth of older cucumber plants that were planted out a little too early I got Tuck under me right here he's just kind of hanging out protecting the garden make sure you guys spam some hearts down low if you love seeing the little boss in the videos he's working hard he's so excited that spring is here and so are we now that spring is here me and Tuck want to mention it's the perfect time to grab a raised bed one like you see over here or grab some of the game changing add-ons that will take your garden to the next level literally like this trellis right here you got to also check out the garden covers that we have to protect your garden from the impending pest Invasion check them out at teamg grow. us late April is a great time to get your squash planted I suggest you grow some summer squash varieties like the costado Romanesco zucchini the Gerber englisher custard squash the white scalp squash I also suggest you plant some winter squash for ities like the butternut squash which is practically immune to vine bores if you want to start your squash seeds inside I suggest you use a container that's relatively large cuz they can get root bound easily when they sprout we'll make our holes and they like the soil temperature to preferably be above 70° f with soil temperatures like that they'll only take about one week to sprout so we'll drop these in and then cover them up then we'll just water them in really quick just like this then just pop a lid on top when your seedlings Sprout and they have two true leaves like you see here that's a good time to transplant into a larger container or into the garden if it's warm enough squash hate the cold and thrive in the heat you want any danger of frost to be far past and soil temperatures to be warm before you get your squash in the ground it's always is better to be a couple weeks too late rather than too early when it comes to planting squash I will also direct sew squash in the garden in early May and plant another round of squash in late June or early July to make sure I always have young healthy thriving plants growing also when planting another round late you won't have to worry about Vine borers because you'll be outside the window of time when the adults are out laying their eggs spinach is the next crop we can direct sew in April I have grown some massive spinach plants in my race beds and early spring is when your spinach plants will Thrive before the heat of Summer causes them to bolt spinach seeds do not stay viable for years like tomatoes do so I suggest you buy new spinach seeds every year or save your own I also suggest that you soak your spinach seeds for 24 hours before planting this will greatly help with germination I plant my spinach seeds in the square foot method like a lot of my other plants you could plant either four per sare foot or nine I suggest planting four if you want your plants to get big that's what I like to do if you plant n per square foot you're just going to have to come out and harvest more regularly so what I'll do is we'll make our little divots in the soil not too deep four per square foot we'll grab our spinach seeds that we had soaking and we'll just drop a few in each hole just like that then we'll cover up all of our seeds just like this next we'll just grab our hose and water them all in your spinach seeds will sprout in about 5 to 9 days after they sprout I'll go out and thin them to four plants per square foot spinach grows quick and in no time you'll have a super healthy green you can add to your eggs or add to your salad let's move over to the quickest producing crop you can plant in April I'm talking about radishes a variety like the pink lady slipper radish only takes 30 days from seed to harvest I use a squ foot method when planting my radish es I'll Plant 16 per square foot and I'll plant them about a/2 in deep so we'll just go through make our 16 holes here and drop our radishes in just like this then we'll cover them all up with soil then I'll just water it in I will keep planting radishes every week to make sure I keep a staggered hard harest going and in no time we'll be harvesting fresh pink radishes another crop you can get planted in April are potatoes digging up potatoes is so much fun it's like digging for treasure you never know what you will get I grow potatoes in buckets as well and get great harvests from them so don't let a lack of space hold you back I plant my potatoes about 3 weeks before my last spring Frost and I space them 6 in apart and then cover them with about 5 in of soil in a couple weeks your potato should begin to sprout and as the plants grow I will H up some soil around them the next crop to get planted in April are onions you can plant onions from seed like you see here but if you're going to plant an April I suggest Planting onions from sets I plant my onion sets about four to 6 weeks before my last frost and grow about nine onions per square foot I also make sure the onions are right side up with a flat side down and the tail side pointed up where the new growth is coming from also at this time of year you can get some lettuce planted I love having lettuce in the garden it grows quick it tastes great and it looks beautiful when direct sewing lettuce I plant four lettuce per square foot then I'll just lightly cover them with about a/4 inch of soil just like you see here and then I'll Water them in lettuce seed need light to sprout so make sure not to plant them too deep I'll plant a few extra lettuce seed per hole then I'll go back and thin them out so there's only four lettuce plants per square foot the majority of the time I will start my lettuce from seed inside and then transplant it into the garden like you see right here I think this is more efficient instead of waiting for the lettuce to sprout we can plug this into the garden and it'll start growing immediately make sure to continue planting lettuce seed every 2 weeks this will give you a staggered Harvest and ensure that your lettuce bowl stays filled Swiss Chard is another crop we can get planted in April Swiss chard will grow all year long even through the heat of Summer plus it looks beautiful and is an underrated veggie in my opinion when it comes to Swiss chard I plant four per square foot just make some indentations just like this then we'll drop our seeds in a few seeds per hole just like that we'll cover them up and water it in then after the seed Sprout I will thin them out so there's only four Swiss chard plants per square foot Swiss Chard is an easy crop to grow just make sure you stay on top of watering when the heat of the summer comes if you do that it will continue to kick out food all year long the next crop to get planted in April are beets like most root crops beets do best when direct sewn I'll plant nine beets per square foot so we'll just make our holes just like this nine of them in one square foot we'll plant our beets about a half of an inch deep throw a few seeds in there then we'll cover them up and then water it in after the Beet seed Sprout I'll go through and thin it to about two to three beet plants together in a clump and allow them to grow like that they don't seem to mind growing together and you still get good production beets grow best when the temperature is between 60 and 65° F so spring is the ideal time to get your beets planted for a bonus crop to plant in April I'm going with arugula this this is a delicious one you got to get it planted so you can enjoy the unique flavor of the Nutty yet sharp leaves you can direct so arugula but my favorite way to do it is to plant it inside and then transplant it into the garden arugula will bolt when the summer heat comes so you want to get it planted about now it's also cold hearty so it will take a light frost I'm telling you get some arugal in the ground and enjoy that nutty delicious flavor that's today's video Growers thanks for watching we hope you enjoyed it we hope you got something out of it me and tu had a lot of fun out here he's been working the whole time you know this guy never takes a break and we hope we encourage you to get some of the stuff planted in the garden spring is here things are going to start exploding into growth so you got to get stuff planted so you can get to harvesting this guy's always looking for a snack he's thinking there might be some carrots it looks like he can climb into the deep EDS to be able to harvest some of his own carrots in the future again if you enjoyed this video share with your friends hit the like button and subscribe to the channel we also want to make mentioned to check out the merch down at team. us and check out all of our fantastic guarding products so you can get a step closer to harvesting one more thing me and Tuck wanted to mention was a thank you to one of our new channel members Margaret Cox thanks for being a part of Team grow thanks for having your hand in everything we're doing out here tuck and James will be back at you again real soon we out

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 70,294

Keywords:

Id: HtGL_lZ0qkM

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024