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RON FINLEY: Right now, we're about to talk about vegetables.
We're going to get down, and I'm gonna show you
how to plant some shit.
So you guys ready?
Let's do this.
First of all, we're going to have--
we've got some kale seedlings, show you
how to put those in the ground.
We're going to put those in one of the boxes
that we worked on that I showed you that you can repurpose--
a dresser drawer.
We also have some snap peas, and we've got some sweet potatoes,
so we're going to show you how to plant those too.
Three of my favorite vegetables.
Y'all want to plant some motherfucking kale?
[LAUGHTER]
Right now, I'm gonna show you guys how to plant some shit.
We about to get in this right now.
I'm gonna show you how to have food on your plate
in a matter of a month or so, depending on what you plant.
So we're going to get into kale.
And it's a some leafy green.
The thing about most leafy greens,
they have folic acid, they have vitamins A, C, and K,
and a lot of fiber and iron.
So this is the bed that we started earlier with our soil--
our store bought soil--
and our compost.
So I'm going to let you guys see how we plant seedlings.
So you can see these are already started.
This is kale.
So what you want to do is you don't want to break the plants.
So you want to create a safe haven with your fingers,
and you want to squeeze the pot.
And fortunately, these are not root bound.
This is a good example of what you
would want to buy at a nursery, because you can
see how healthy the plant is.
It's all bright and the colors.
There's no yellow branches on it,
and it's just it's a healthy plant.
You can see.
You will want to buy this also because it's already grown.
So rather than planting seeds in the ground that
sometimes might come up, sometime they might not.
You already know that this is going to come up.
You already have it.
And if you look closely, you can see
how long some of these roots are,
and I like the consistency of the soil.
I like the fact that it's not pulling away from the roots.
That you can see that it is clumping,
but it's still breaking apart.
So what you want to do--
I just do it with my hand, but for people
that are scared of soil and worms, what you can do,
you don't have to dig a hole.
You basically just move the soil out of the way
and put your plant there and cover it.
But what you don't want to do, you
don't want to go too far below the root ball
or where the plant is coming out of the ground.
You don't really want to plant higher
than that, because that point here
is the hardiest part of the plant,
and it will resist a lot of times breaking and rot.
So again, your spade, pull the soil out of the way
and put the plant in there.
Soil that's attached to the root ball as you can.
A lot of times, people go to the nurseries
and they buy these plants, and they fuck up
because they take all the soil off of the root,
and they put the plant in shock.
You want to keep it attached.
These are some real hardy containers.
There we grow.
And all the soil is in place.
I plant real close.
The reason why plant closes because you get more volume out
of the space that you're planting in.
If you're looking at a book or some information
telling you six inches apart, just
imagine if you plant something every six inches
how much space you need, and the plant really
doesn't require that.
A lot of times, that's done because people
are using mechanized equipment.
We're not.
We're doing this by hand, so plant very close, and test.
Don't be afraid to fail, because it's not really failing.
You're learning.
So sometimes you can get two plantings
depending on how you plant this because you can harvest it
in the summer and you can get another batch
in before the freeze comes in the winter.
So once you have your seedlings in the ground,
it's super, super important that you keep them watered,
and what you would want to do too soon
is you plant them you want to water them.
A lot of times, when I plant, I like to make an indentation
in the soil to catch water.
Kind of like a reservoir.
OK, so we've watered, and I think
I should say what we just did applies to almost
any leafy green that you plant.
Basically, this techniques applies
to even root vegetables, but we'll get into that later.
OK, let's recap.
I like growing leafy greens from seedlings rather than seeds
because it gives you a head start
and they're sturdy enough to transplant.
When transplanting, try not to remove all of the soil
from the root ball, because that can stress out the plant.
Don't plant any deeper than the top of the root ball.
And once planted, water them often
to keep the soil from drying out.
The best time to plant leafy greens
depends on your climate and the variety,
so check out our workbook for information on seasonality.
So right now, we have some kale that we already
put in the ground, so let's talk about harvesting this.
This kale will get a lot bigger if you allow it to.
But right now, it's still edible.
It's still ready to eat.
These are tend to greens, and you can eat them.
What happens to this kale the longer you let it grow?
The bigger the leaves get and the hardier the leaves get,
and the flavor profile is definitely
going to change from this size.
What you would have to worry about
is somebody whose leaves I've seen they have holes in them,
and a lot of times you got to look and see
what pest is causing that.
A lot of times it's the cabbage moths.
A lot of these white moths that people think are butterflies
and they think they're sexy, they're not.
They're assholes, because what they do,
they leave this green worm that you can bar-- you can't see it
because it's the same color as the leaf,
and you got to look real close, and they can take out
a whole leaf in a day, and they'll just
decimate your plant.
So what you want to do when you harvest this is you
want to get the lower branches first,
because those are the older branches.
And what you want to do, you want to pull down.
You don't want to pull up, because you might pull
the plant out of the ground.
If you have multiple plants, it's great
because you can get more food.
Have a dish or a basket to put your harvested goods in,
and just can go from plant to plant
and take the leaves from the bottom.
So you don't want to go and take these leaves that
are at the very top, because this will basically
kill your plant a lot of times-- it'll stop growing.
If you harvest like this from the bottom up,
your plant will continue to grow,
and you will continue to get brand new leaves.
Rule of thumb is don't take more than one third of the plant
out when you're harvesting, because you
don't want to stress the plant out,
and it'll stop producing for you.
I know a lot of people out there you don't like leafy greens.
I don't either, but put them in your diet
anyway, because this is one of the healthiest things
that you can possibly eat.
And you might not want it in this raw form,
so saute it, cook it, and you can even
make kale chips, which are delicious,
and you can eat them all day.
Snack on them.
So just try it.
Try to be creative with this.
That's what this is all about.
It's experimenting.
As the plants mature, be on the lookout
for signs of pests that can destroy your crop.
And don't worry, we're going to talk about dealing
with pests later on.
When you're harvesting, take only the leaves
from the bottom of the plant and leave the top ones alone.
Pull in a downward motion, and make
sure you don't take more than one third of the plant
at a time.
If you do all this, your plants will keep producing for you
and give you a longer and more plentiful harvest.
Hey, what we're going to talk about now is legumes for all
you motherfuckers that don't know what legumes are.
We're talking about peas.
Specifically, we're talking about beans,
and these are sugar snap peas.
What's beautiful and unique about legumes,
they're one of the only plants that actually pull nitrogen out
of the air and put it where it can really be used,
and that's in the soil.
That's why these things are really important,
not only to your garden, but to the planet,
and there's a bunch of different ways
that you can plant these, because you can use these
with your corn, you can use these
with your green leafy vegetables.
The great thing about planning them with corn and things
like sunflowers that have stocks is now
you don't have to use a trellis because your sunflowers
or your corn stocks are now the trellis.
So let's get into how you should plant these.
Some plants I'd like to start with seedlings,
but with a lot of beans, I like to put the bean directly
into the ground, because it becomes
accustomed to that soil.
Because a lot of times when you plant beans, a lot of times,
the stock can be really, really fragile, but here, you can
you can actually see how healthy and long
these particular roots are.
When you plant it directly into the ground,
the seed becomes accustomed to that soil,
and you're not messing with it.
I like to start these as a seed, and I like
to start the seed in water.
And you can see how the root started coming out of this
already.
It might take a couple of days, but you'll
see the root come out, and that's
when they're ready to plant.
It's real simple to plant.
Stick your finger in the ground, and you go about maybe an inch
and you just drop it into the ground and you cover it.
I would plant a whole area of these peas
because of what they're doing for the soil
and what they're doing for the plants
around them pulling the nitrogen from the air
and putting it back into the soil,
and that gives nitrogen to all the plants that are around.
And once you put this in the ground,
it'll probably come up in 5 to 10 days
that you'll start seeing a plant.
And the thing with these, you can plant these two inches
apart.
Because you got to plant a shit ton of these
if you want to get a plate full of peas.
So we have some peas here that is maybe three weeks old,
but this is what your peas are going to look like.
What I would do--
this is because we're here, but I will make a higher trellis
than this, but you want a trellis your peas because you
don't want them on the ground and wrapping around plants that
they shouldn't.
So you want to trellis them, but you
don't have to necessarily attach them to the trellis,
because if you put them close enough,
they're going to find it because they have these tendrils
that once they feel something, they wrap around it
for security, because they know how big that peapod is,
and they know they need something
that's going to support them so they can grow.
And they will grow up.
These will probably get to--
I don't know, 6 to 8 feet high, easy, and this is what you get.
Snap peas.
You can tell when sugar snap peas are ready to harvest
once the pods get to about three or four inches long,
and you can see how--
the beauty of these and how they are attached to the pod.
The root to these peas are attached to the pod,
and these are--
this right here is a whole plant.
So you have one, two, three, four, five, six.
You have six whole plants in this one pod.
Snap peas.
Crunchy, taste like edamame.
Anybody?
These are good.
So let's recap.
Plant these as seeds as opposed to seedlings,
because unlike other seedlings like kale,
they're super fragile.
The best way to get them going is
to put the seeds in water for a few days
until you start to see a sprout come out.
Plant a ton of them all over the place for a plentiful harvest,
and for trellising legumes, give them
something to grow on like a fence, a trellis,
or even plants with tall stalks.
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