Professional farmer and backyard nurseryman likewise need to be able-bodied to key crops . Though sodbuster and gardeners be given to tag crop at the compass point of planting , when those labels are lost or not assigned properly , it is useful to cognise some basic designation summit . vegetable and fruits can be identified as too soon as when they first emerge from the dirt or by their special leafage , prime and fruiting characteristics as they get on .

Cotyledons

When craw first go forth from their seed above the soil , their first leaves are call cotyledons . Plants will either have dicotyledons or liliopsid . exogen ( sometimes just cry dicots ) will have two foliage attached to a single fore . Broccoli and Lycopersicon esculentum are examples of dicot . Moncotyledons ( also called monocots ) have only one leaf attach to a stem . Corn is a endogen . A majority of vegetable and yield crops are dicots ; therefore , you may need to further learn to describe dicot leaf . For example , Brassica oleracea italica dicotyledon leaves are spirit shaped , where as tomato dicot leaf are long and narrow like a sword .

Edible Plant Parts

If you are patient and can wait to identify your crop until it has senesce several calendar week , you should be able-bodied to identify it by its obvious comestible parts . Peas , for example , will eventually produce little , lily-white flowers follow by the egress of seedpod . Broccoli will begin to crown in the center of plant . This poll is the recognisable forefront of the broccoli that is eat . The trouble with look to key out crops by their eatable parts is that you may not place the craw in time to give necessary fertilizer and amendment .

Leaves

Leaf identification is a common agency to identify both cosmetic and eatable plants . base vegetables such as carrots and potatoes have discrete leave-taking that get above ground , while the edible root of the plant grows below ground . Carrots leaf are slender and fan like , while spud have larger leave of absence on multiple stem turn . Many crops such as lettuce , spinach plant and arugula are grown for their edible leaves . Each has a distinguishable leafage from the other . pelf leaves are encompassing with smooth or serrate edge . Spinach has smooth leaf edges and tend to be darker greenish than simoleons leaves . Arugula leaf are lob and minute .

Growing Season

harvest are grown at different time of twelvemonth . William Green such as Spinacia oleracea and arugula develop best in the cooler temperatures of the spring and gloam . Hot weather craw such as tomato plant , common pepper and eggplants grow at the superlative of summer when they receive the most daylight and consistently warmer temperatures . you’re able to assist your craw identification hunting by noting what time of year the crop is acquire .

Resources

There are several resource available to farmers and nurseryman for assist with craw plant life recognition . The USDA maintain a plant database that is searchable by scientific or common name . Enter the name of a harvest and it will show you the plant life ’s introductory characteristics . Perhaps your best resources for flora identification are your fellow gardeners . Take a picture of your unidentified industrial plant to show to other gardeners , your local extension office or a long - time farmer .

References

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