> Next: Watering
Special Care Techniques
On this page find how two special vegetable care methods help produce attractive white greens and large-bulbed root vegetables, including:
-
- Descriptions of lodging and blanching, two care practices used to grow certain vegetables.
- When to use blanching and lodging on your vegetables.
- What lodging is and how it works to force root vegetables to produce larger bulbs.
- What blanching is and how it works to produce attractive pale or white salad vegetables and prevent celery from tasting bitter.
- How blanching vegetables in the garden differs from blanching vegetables in the kitchen.
About Lodging and Blanching
Lodging and blanching are two unusual techniques used with some perennial and bulb vegetables.
Lodging—bending over and tying stalks to stop foliage growth and increase root size in onion-family root and bulb vegetables—occurs late in the season when flower shoots begin to appear.
Blanching—depriving shoots and flower heads of sunlight so that they remain an aesthetically pleasing white instead of turning green—is less common in home gardens than in farm production, but shows accomplished mastery of an advanced-gardening technique.
Lodging
Gardeners lodge root vegetables, such as garlic, onion, and shallots by bending their stalks over or tying their foliage. Lodging limits the plant’s foliage growth and prevents them from forming seed heads. By limiting their growth, plant concentrates its nutrients and energy to produce larger bulbs.
When lodging, use care to avoid breaking off the stem. Bend the stalk sharply to crease the veins inside and stop sap flowing up from the roots and into its foliage. Tie the foliage to keep it bent, or tie the foliage in an overhand knot to hold its place.
Blanching
Not to be confused with the technique used in cooking to dip vegetables briefly into hot water, garden blanched vegetables are more appealing and unique when served at the table in white or light lavender hues rather than their customary green colors.
Vegetables commonly blanched include asparagus spears, Belgian endive (chicory), and some cauliflower varieties.
Block sunlight from reaching these vegetable by wrapping them in opaque paper, placing them into bags, or tying their leaves up over their stems and flower heads.
Without light reaching their chlorophyll, The result is a pleasing white appearance preferred by many for use in fine dining recipes and salads.
Begin blanching as soon as heads—in asparagus, shoots—appear. It is important to block all light, so bury the wrapping deeply in the soil surrounding the plant. Belgian endive usually is transplanted indoors to a container set in a dark place.
How to Lodge and Blanch Vegetables
Lodging stops the growth of foliage on many root and bulb plants, from onions to kohlrabi.
The plants respond to lodging by directing nutrients from their roots and the energy from photosynthesis in their foliage to their bulbs, making them swell and store sugars and other carbohydrates.
In blanching, the foliage of plants such as celery, Belgian ‘Witloof’ endive, and other green vegetables is wrapped tightly with opaque paper or banked with sand while young, stopping photosynthesis but allowing it to continue its growth.
The plants respond to the blanching by losing their green color, turning pale yellow or white. This desirable coloration is the goal of the care technique.
In the case of celery and to some degree in other blanched vegetables, it also reduces the peppery flavor and bitterness of plants exposed to sunlight and prevents their stalks from becoming woody.