Trellising: Grow Up Not Out

Tomato plants on a wire trellis Lots of the plants we grow for their delicious vegetables take up a lot of space in the garden. You can reduce the space cucumbers, melons, squash, pole beans, and even vining tomatoes take up by training the plants to grow on a...

Why Do Vegetables Bolt?

Lettuce bolting in Lapeer County in 2014. Photo by Ben Phillips, MSU Extension. The term “bolt” means premature flowering in vegetables. Many cool-season vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, and onions, are grown and harvested before they flower. A...

What Does pH Mean for Your Plants?

Drawing by Edward Stevens The technical definition of pH is the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration. In English, soil pH is a measure of how acid or alkaline the soil is. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14. Zero is the most acid, with the fewest hydrogen...