Growing and canning your own vegetables can be incredibly fulfilling. After all, you grew the vegetable from scratch, and now you’ve turned it into a delicious treat! But if you’re not seasoned in the world of gardening and canning, it can be challenging to know where to start. Luckily, Tractor Supply makes it easy by offering the latest gardening and canning supplies, allowing you to find everything you need to get going. Learn more about how to grow and can vegetables and which products can help you achieve success.
Step 1: Growing Plants from Seeds
The first step in preparing veggies for canning is starting their seeds, which helps to kickstart their growth cycle in a suitable, controlled environment. It works to germinate seeds, allowing them to sprout until they’re ready to be transplanted to larger gardens or pots. Seeds are typically started indoors, and later moved to outdoor garden spaces, keeping them in optimal conditions so they can grow.
But alongside the type of seeds you plan to grow, starting them will require many other supplies, as well as specialized care to ensure they germinate and sprout as expected. The types of supplies you’ll need for starting seeds include:
- Cold frame or greenhouse: This allows you to start seeds outdoors while keeping them in a controlled environment.
- Pots or trays: These hold your seedlings until they’re ready to sprout. If using a tray, each section should have only a few seeds each, so you can increase your chances of plants germinating successfully.
- Seed starting mix: This is designed specifically for starting seeds, made as a soilless mix with enough airflow for ample drainage, giving plants a clean soil to start with.
- Spray bottle: This helps lightly water plants without worry of overwatering them, which can damage veggies and prevent them from seeding.
- Plant markers: These come as small stakes or sticks, where you write the name of the plant you’re growing, making it easy to identify which plant you’re caring for.
- Grow lights: These are used as supplemental light when you lack the sources to keep plants in natural sunlight, with seedlings requiring at least 14 to 16 hours of sunlight per day.
- Heat mat: This provides seedlings with the warmth needed to grow, as seedlings require more humid, moist environments to germinate. Purchase a heat mat for your setup, or use other resources, such as the top of your refrigerator, to give them warmth.
- Humidity dome: This should be placed over trays to cover them, keeping heat and moisture inside containers so seedlings stay in optimal growing conditions. If you don’t have a humidity dome, you can cover seedlings with plastic wrap.
Keep in mind that not all veggie plants need to be started before moving to larger gardens. Some plants, such as squash or cucumbers, do better when directly sown into your outdoor garden. Be sure to follow the planting instructions on the back of your seed packet before planting.
Step 2: Caring for Your Plants
Once seedlings germinate, which occurs once you notice their first sets of true leaves growing, it’s time to transfer them to your outdoor garden or larger pot. Start by ensuring the weather is suitable for planting, as different plants require various temperatures to grow.
Some vegetables, such as spinach, prefer cooler ground temperatures, meaning you should plant them before grounds become too warm. On the other hand, peppers, tomatoes and others need warm ground temperatures to grow and thrive. You should wait to plant them once temperatures are warm and the grounds thaw out from winter.
Transplanting your seedlings requires much care. Your garden space should be ready before removing them from their pots, ensuring you can quickly transplant them, and they experience less stress. To prep your gardens, consider the following tools:
- Hand tools: Garden forks, hoes and trowels all work to amend and mix soils, airing them out and keeping them fluffy and ready to plant seedlings.
- Wheelbarrows or garden carts: These allow you to hold supplies for easy access while gardening, or carry dead debris, leaves and branches collected from unused garden spaces.
- Garden soil: This is made to keep soil conditions optimal for outdoor growing, with raised beds using a raised garden bed soil to give plants all the properties needed to thrive.
- Soil amendments: These should be mixed in with ground soils to make up for any missing nutrients, allowing plants to receive everything they need to grow and stay healthy. They can also be used to make challenging soils, such as clay or sand, suitable for plant growth.
- Mulch: These go around the base of your plants, helping to improve drainage, retain moisture in soils and keep weeds from growing in.
After transplanting your seeds, they’ll still have some growing to do in your garden. But different plants require varying amounts of sunlight, water and other nutrients. Because of this, you should always research how to care for your specific type of plant. When tending to your plants through the growing season, it can help to have a few more accessories on hand, such as:
- Watering can: This makes it easy to pour water over your plants, ensuring they receive ample hydration and stay hydrated throughout the day.
- Garden hose: These connect to your home’s water supply so you can water garden spaces. Drip irrigation hoses are buried underneath garden soils, featuring small holes throughout that slowly drip water, keeping plant roots moist.
- Fertilizers and plant food: These give plants a boost in nutrients, including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous, with organic options keeping plants safe and healthy to consume. They come in granule, liquid or powder forms, which you simply pour over garden spaces.
- Pruners: These are designed as smaller scissors, making it easy to cut off dead leaves and branches from plants, allowing them to stay healthy and continue growing.
Step 3: Harvesting and Canning Your Veggies
When your veggies are finally suitable for harvesting, you’re ready to start the canning process. But doing so requires specialized tools and supplies so veggies stay preserved and safe to eat, even after sitting for some time in your pantry. Some basic canning supplies to have before you get started include:
Canning Jars and Lids
Some of the first items you’ll need for canning are jars and lids. While you can complete the canning process in metal jars, it’s recommended to use glass jars, as these can be washed and reused, and are easier to seal. Be sure to have a few jars, depending on how many veggies you plan to can.
In terms of lids, these are essential for creating a tight seal, which keeps contaminants and bacteria from entering during storage. They’re designed in two parts – a flat disc that sits atop jars to cover them, and a screw lid with a lip that screws over jars, securing the flat disc in place. Although jars can be reused, it’s not recommended to reuse lids, as this can impact its ability to create an airtight seal.
Spices and Preservatives
Not only is canning great for preserving fresh foods, but it’s also a way for you to make jellies or pickled veggies. But to do so, you must have the right canning ingredients. If you plan on turning fruits into jellies or jams, pectin is essential for thickening up preserves and allowing them to easily spread on your toast.
But if you’re looking to pickle your veggies, you’ll need some pickling spices or salts, which feature special ingredients that preserve and add flavor. Pickling spices include a variety of herbs that give veggies that classic pickle taste, such as peppercorn, mustard and dill. You can also make your pickling spices with whatever ingredients you enjoy most. Pickling salts feature no additives, which prevents preserves from caking up. If you don’t have access to pickling salts, opt for Kosher salt instead.
Canning Funnel
Canning funnels are made to sit on top of jars, allowing you to fill them with ease. To use one, simply place it inside the jar, with the widest part of the cone facing up and the smallest part protruding down into the jar. This gives you a wider surface to pour liquids and mixes in, keeping them from falling out onto countertops. In turn, you’ll have less mess to clean up, and fewer veggies and preservatives will be wasted.
Canner and Canning Rack
The last piece of canning equipment you need for your veggies includes a canner, which works to create an airtight seal and preserve veggies in different ways. Your options for canners include:
- Pressure canner: This uses heat and pressure to seal meats and low-acid vegetables, such as tomatoes or cucumbers, and eliminates spores that could survive in boiling water.
- Water bath canner: This seals and eliminates bacteria by dipping jars in boiling water, which heats them up to get rid of harmful ingredients. Be sure to use a canning rack with this type of canner, as it allows you to insert and remove jars from boiling water.
- Steam canner: This uses steam to heat up preserves and get rid of bacteria, with steam canners featuring the ability to reach the same temperatures as boiling water.
Find Growing and Canning Accessories at Tractor Supply
Whether you’re just learning how to garden and can or are looking to re-up on your canning and gardening supplies, our selection of products makes it easy to get started. From veggie and herb seeds to watering cans and soil monitoring equipment, we have everything you need to build your garden from the ground up and keep plants thriving for the long haul. To learn more about what we offer, visit your local Tractor Supply store today or browse online.