FRAME: A garden frame is a bottomless box with a transparent top that is used to provide favorable conditions for the plant's growth and to cover them during harsh weather. The top is made of plastic or glass set in a wooden or metal frame. To allow for proper ventilation, the top is formed with one or two moveable sections called sash; the sashes are moved by sliding them up and down or, if they are hinged, by raising their fronts. Their are unheated and heated frames and they are both good for raising seedlings ahead of the outdoor season and for growing early crops of Lettuce, Cauliflower, Radishes, Corn, Snapdragons, and other vegetables and flowers.
FRAGIPANS: The hard and brittle layers in soil that roots and water can't penetrate because it is so dense and compact.
FREE: Used to describe the condition of a substance within a mixture when it isn't chemically combined with other components of the mixture.
FRIABLE: Rich, loamy soil that is easily worked and loose; soil of a crumbly texture, able to be worked easily. Friable soil crumbles easily when worked with a spade, fork, rake, etc. The opposite is a tenacious, clayey soil. The particles of this soil cling together forming clods that are difficult to pulverize. Nonfriable soil can be enhanced by the following methods: Mixing in organic matter such as manure, leaf mold, peat moss and compost; turning under cover crops or green manures such as Winter Rye, Ryegrass and Buckwheat and adding sand or gritty coal cinders; liming; and the use of synthetic soil conditioners.
FROND: A leaf of a palm or fern.
FRONDAGE: A group of fronds.
FRONDENT: Leafy.
FRONDESCENCE: The period or state of coming into leaf; leafage; foliage.
FRONDESCENT: Coming into leaf.
FRONDIFEROUS: Producing fronds or leaves.
FRONDLET: A small frond.
FRONDOSE: Bearing or resembling fronds.
FROST: 1. That state or temperature of the air that occasions freezing of water. 2. The state or condition of being frozen; said of the surface of the ground when frost extends to a depth of 10 inches.
FROST CONTROL: The act of minimizing frost damage to plants by covering them, watering them lightly, or placing them in a protected area.
FROST-FREE DAYS: The number of days in a growing season in any given area.
FRUCTESCENCE: The time fruit matures.
FRUCTIFEROUS: Bearing or producing fruit.
FRUCTIFICATION: 1. The production of fruit by a plant; fruiting. 2. The ripened ovary and its appendages; the fruit of a plant.
FRUCTIFY: To bear or produce fruit; to make fruitful.
FRUIT: 1. Any product of vegetable growth useful to humans or animals (i.e. grapes, figs, corn, cotton, flax, and all cultivated plants). There are many kinds of fruit and they differ greatly in character and degree of complexity. 2. The reproductive product of a plant; the seed of plants, or the part that contains the seeds. 3. An edible, juicy product of a plant, usually covering the seeds (i.e. apple, orange, a berry, a melon, etc.). 4. The matured ovary of a plant, consisting of the seeds and their pericarp (coating) and including whatever may be incorporated with it; also, the spores of cryptogams and the organs accessory to them. (verb) 1. To produce fruit; to come into bearing.
FRUIT, COMPOUND: A fruit that is made of several ovaries.
FRUIT DOT: The sorus of ferns.
FRUITING BODY: A specialized organ for producing spores, as in mosses and mushrooms.
FRUITLET: 1. A small fruit. 2. A unit of a collective fruit.
FRUIT TREE: A tree grown for its fruit, or a tree whose main value consists in the fruit it bears (i.e. cherry tree, apple tree, pear tree, etc.).
FRUIT TREES, DWARF: Describes genetic dwarf trees and trees grafted onto dwarf roots. For example, peaches that are genetic dwarfs produce full size fruit on trees that hardly ever grow more than 3 feet high. Fruit trees grafted onto dwarf rootstock, such as citrus or apples, produce normal fruit on trees that only grow up to 8 feet high. Many grafted fruit trees are also sold as semi-dwarf, growing to about 10 feet high. Dwarf fruit trees are great for growing in suburban yards, containers, and in areas with little space.
FRUMENTACEOUS: Having the character of or resembling wheat or other cereal.
FRUTESCENT: Having the appearance or habit of a shrub; shrubby, as a frutescent stem.
FRUTICOSE: Resembling a shrub; shrubby, as a fruticose stem.
FRUTICULOSE: Resembling a small shrub.