Pruning Tomatoes
Removing row covers
Removing another row cover from squash plants
Monday, July 7, 2008
Images from the farm
Cultivating Radishes
Pruning Tomatoes
Removing row covers
Removing another row cover from squash plants
Pruning Tomatoes
Removing row covers
Removing another row cover from squash plants
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Photo from one of Johnny's Customers, Westridge Produce
We love our customers.We especially love it when our customers send us great pictures of the products that they grow from Johnny's Selected Seeds.
One of our customers, Westridge Produce from Blue River, Wisconsin, recently sent in a photo of their daughter, Autumn Rose (4), holding a huge head of lettuce that Johnny's sells called "New Red Fire". This head of lettuce looks almost as big as Autumn! Mom and Dad (Kimberly and Jake Jakubowski) must be very proud!
Westridge Produce, located in southwestern Wisconsin, farms intensively and organically on 1 acre. Per Kimberly, they sell their produce at local farmers markets and co-ops. Kimberly reports that this is their 3rd year of doing the garden full time and she gives all the credit to her husband of 10 years, Jake (they are celebrating their 10th anniversary in August - congratulations Kim and Jake!). They have a small hoop house that they use to start their seeds in and they hope to get a greenhouse this fall and try some greenhouse tomato varieties. Good thing Johnny's has them!
Autumn Rose also has a little brother, James, who is 16 months old.
Thank you, Jakubowski Family, for sending in the terrific picture and for sharing with us. We at Johnny's wish you the best growing season yet - and when you get pictures of those greenhouse tomatoes, be sure to send them in!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
What's New At the Farm 7/02/2008
At least we’re not irrigating!
With three inches of rain last week we won’t need to irrigate for a while. That’s the good part; now for the bad part: the weeds keep on growing and diseases run rampant now what with the humid clammy weather. You can cultivate all you want; it doesn’t amount to much. The weeds take root wherever you move them to; it’s kind of like transplanting them. Killing weeds is much easier when the sun is shining. They shrivel up and die right before your eyes.
I’m not going to talk about weeds this week, any more than I already have. Instead I’m going to switch to insect pests; aphids in particular. Aphids are known to gardeners and farmers everywhere and are usually kept in check by natural predators. Usually chemical control is only necessitated when the population gets out of control.
By far the most interesting info about them is their life cycle. They begin as eggs laid the previous fall which hatch out as soon as the weather warms, or as soon as the greenhouse gets heated which may be the case. The first generation consists entirely of females which give birth to live young which also starts feedi immediately. As the population increases, winged aphids make up a generation which flies off looking for new feeding grounds. Rapid population explosions are common in the aphid world. They say if all the descendants from a single aphid lived for a summer there would be over 5 billion of them.
As the summer wears on and the food is becoming limited and the temperatures are cooling, a generation consisting of both males and females appear. They mate, lay eggs and die setting the stage for the next season. Aphids will over winter in a greenhouse; opening the sides or otherwise providing cold air circulation will help kill them off.
Aphids pierce the plant stems and leaves and suck the juices out. Because of their high population; a single leaf can have over 100 aphids, the effect of their feeding is both noticeable and devastating As soon as they feed on a leaf it will curl and provide a safe haven for aphids as it is hard to get a pesticide into the curled leaf area. As they move from leaf to leaf and from plant to plant they spread diseases between plants. As there are literally thousands of aphids diseases spread quickly throughout the field.
Control is easier said than done. Because there are many generations per year, they quickly build up resistance to pesticides. When a pesticide is used it kills most of the insects; the ones that aren’t killed have some resistance. Their offspring will typically have some degree of resistance to the pesticide when their born/hatched. Aphids have so many generations per year they can really build up resistance fast. Where Pyganic worked earlier in the season nothing seems to work really well now.
Susie has released lady beetles and lace wings to gain some control. She sprayed last week with Neem oil before the beneficials were released. The Neem oil seemed to work pretty good, but it rains as soon as we spray – best way to get it to rain is to spray.
Until next week, Brian
With three inches of rain last week we won’t need to irrigate for a while. That’s the good part; now for the bad part: the weeds keep on growing and diseases run rampant now what with the humid clammy weather. You can cultivate all you want; it doesn’t amount to much. The weeds take root wherever you move them to; it’s kind of like transplanting them. Killing weeds is much easier when the sun is shining. They shrivel up and die right before your eyes.
I’m not going to talk about weeds this week, any more than I already have. Instead I’m going to switch to insect pests; aphids in particular. Aphids are known to gardeners and farmers everywhere and are usually kept in check by natural predators. Usually chemical control is only necessitated when the population gets out of control.
By far the most interesting info about them is their life cycle. They begin as eggs laid the previous fall which hatch out as soon as the weather warms, or as soon as the greenhouse gets heated which may be the case. The first generation consists entirely of females which give birth to live young which also starts feedi immediately. As the population increases, winged aphids make up a generation which flies off looking for new feeding grounds. Rapid population explosions are common in the aphid world. They say if all the descendants from a single aphid lived for a summer there would be over 5 billion of them.
As the summer wears on and the food is becoming limited and the temperatures are cooling, a generation consisting of both males and females appear. They mate, lay eggs and die setting the stage for the next season. Aphids will over winter in a greenhouse; opening the sides or otherwise providing cold air circulation will help kill them off.
Aphids pierce the plant stems and leaves and suck the juices out. Because of their high population; a single leaf can have over 100 aphids, the effect of their feeding is both noticeable and devastating As soon as they feed on a leaf it will curl and provide a safe haven for aphids as it is hard to get a pesticide into the curled leaf area. As they move from leaf to leaf and from plant to plant they spread diseases between plants. As there are literally thousands of aphids diseases spread quickly throughout the field.
Control is easier said than done. Because there are many generations per year, they quickly build up resistance to pesticides. When a pesticide is used it kills most of the insects; the ones that aren’t killed have some resistance. Their offspring will typically have some degree of resistance to the pesticide when their born/hatched. Aphids have so many generations per year they can really build up resistance fast. Where Pyganic worked earlier in the season nothing seems to work really well now.
Susie has released lady beetles and lace wings to gain some control. She sprayed last week with Neem oil before the beneficials were released. The Neem oil seemed to work pretty good, but it rains as soon as we spray – best way to get it to rain is to spray.
Until next week, Brian
The Webmaster's Garden
Wow, I can't believe it's July already! I've got almost everything planted in the garden, and my beans, squash, and corn are looking good. I do have a flat of lettuce and a flat of leeks waiting for me, but that's it. I got the peppers in (hot and sweet, several varieties of each), and my 45 tomato plants are thriving as much as they can considering that we've been averaging 3 thunderstorms per week lately, complete with downpours. Rain is good for the garden, but an inch in a few minutes can take its toll. Lots of my plants have holes in their bottom leaves from the violent splashback. I haven't noticed any hail but it's not impossible that we had it.
Last week I was in the grocery store when a thunderstorm rolled through. It rained very hard for about half an hour, and when I got out my car was in an eight-inch deep puddle. I had to wade to it - luckily my pants were easy to roll up, and I was wearing sandals. Here is a (cell phone) picture of the maelstrom at the drain in the parking lot.
We're sure not lacking for rain this summer!
Last Saturday it was barely misting, so I went to a local strawberry farm and picked 25 pounds of berries. Many went into the freezer, but some will be used for strawberry shortcake, and I'm also going to make some nice strawberry jam. It is a good feeling to have lots of strawberries put away for the winter, and having a taste of summer in February is very pleasant indeed.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fourth!! I think I'll be buying my peas this year, since things are behind in my own garden. Thankfully there are lots of farms in central Maine, so I'll just take advantage of what they've grown.
Last week I was in the grocery store when a thunderstorm rolled through. It rained very hard for about half an hour, and when I got out my car was in an eight-inch deep puddle. I had to wade to it - luckily my pants were easy to roll up, and I was wearing sandals. Here is a (cell phone) picture of the maelstrom at the drain in the parking lot.
We're sure not lacking for rain this summer!
Last Saturday it was barely misting, so I went to a local strawberry farm and picked 25 pounds of berries. Many went into the freezer, but some will be used for strawberry shortcake, and I'm also going to make some nice strawberry jam. It is a good feeling to have lots of strawberries put away for the winter, and having a taste of summer in February is very pleasant indeed.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fourth!! I think I'll be buying my peas this year, since things are behind in my own garden. Thankfully there are lots of farms in central Maine, so I'll just take advantage of what they've grown.
Monday, June 30, 2008
What's New at the Farm, 6/25/08
Work continues at a feverish pace on the farm. Lots to do: tomatoes to trellis and prune, weeding and cultivating all our crops, cover crops going in and the ever present pests eating their way through the farm. Along with those activities are getting ready for the deer fence to be installed, last minute planting and transplanting and keeping the deer, turkeys and geese from eating what we’re trying to grow.
Last week I wrote about Hairy galinsoga so this week I’ll write about another hard to control weed: Purslane.
While closely related to the purslanes we sell, there are a few distinct differences, namely the ones we sell are bigger, more succulent and don’t make a nuisance of reseeding. Wild purslane in the field is a big nuisance. It forms a prostrate mat that can grow in the understory of our crops. You’d probably not know it was there unless you looked for it. Purslane spreads by seed and by stem pieces, so if you rototill it you’ve created lots more plants. Pulling purslane and leaving it on the soil surface doesn’t work either as it will reroot and/or just grow without any roots being in the soil. If you pull up the plants and toss them on black plastic, they will continue to grow and set seed without any soil.
The best method to get rid of wild purslane is to remove it from the field. It makes a good salad green and animals love it, especially chickens. Composting also works well. Unlike galinsoga, wild purslane doesn’t migrate into the fields nearly as bad. If you only have a few plants, pull them out and get them into the hen yard or compost pile and you will have the weed under control.
So in order to control weeds there are a few basic guidelines which need to be followed:
1. Identify the weed in question – what kind of weeds they are, what is their life cycle and what best to use for control? Will they be easily killed or do they require special attention? No need to kill galinsoga if there’s a frost coming in the next few days – better spend your energy on something else.
2. Kill weeds when they’re young; that’s the easiest time and you can kill thousands quite easily. Good scuffle hoeing will kill thousands of weeds in a relatively short amount of time; much faster than pulling thousands of weed individually.
3. Let no weed mature to the point of setting seed. Pull them out, cut them off or otherwise get rid of them before they set seed. Where you have one weed this year you could easily have a thousand next.
Until next week, I’ll be in the field.
Brian
Last week I wrote about Hairy galinsoga so this week I’ll write about another hard to control weed: Purslane.
While closely related to the purslanes we sell, there are a few distinct differences, namely the ones we sell are bigger, more succulent and don’t make a nuisance of reseeding. Wild purslane in the field is a big nuisance. It forms a prostrate mat that can grow in the understory of our crops. You’d probably not know it was there unless you looked for it. Purslane spreads by seed and by stem pieces, so if you rototill it you’ve created lots more plants. Pulling purslane and leaving it on the soil surface doesn’t work either as it will reroot and/or just grow without any roots being in the soil. If you pull up the plants and toss them on black plastic, they will continue to grow and set seed without any soil.
The best method to get rid of wild purslane is to remove it from the field. It makes a good salad green and animals love it, especially chickens. Composting also works well. Unlike galinsoga, wild purslane doesn’t migrate into the fields nearly as bad. If you only have a few plants, pull them out and get them into the hen yard or compost pile and you will have the weed under control.
So in order to control weeds there are a few basic guidelines which need to be followed:
1. Identify the weed in question – what kind of weeds they are, what is their life cycle and what best to use for control? Will they be easily killed or do they require special attention? No need to kill galinsoga if there’s a frost coming in the next few days – better spend your energy on something else.
2. Kill weeds when they’re young; that’s the easiest time and you can kill thousands quite easily. Good scuffle hoeing will kill thousands of weeds in a relatively short amount of time; much faster than pulling thousands of weed individually.
3. Let no weed mature to the point of setting seed. Pull them out, cut them off or otherwise get rid of them before they set seed. Where you have one weed this year you could easily have a thousand next.
Until next week, I’ll be in the field.
Brian
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Video from the farm
Here are a few more videos of the farm for your viewing pleasure.
Distributing Ladybugs
Planting sweet potatoes
Mowing cover crops
Distributing Ladybugs
Planting sweet potatoes
Mowing cover crops
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Pictures from the farm, 6/19/08
Transplanting tomatoes into the hoophouse.
Putting up the new hortonova as a temporary fence.
Putting up the new hortonova as a temporary fence.
Thinning carrots.
Distributing ladybugs for pest control.
Cultivating tomatoes in the field
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
What's New At the Farm? 6/18/2008
The planting is 99% complete and now all we have to do is take care of everything. Weeds are an ever present challenge as you well know. Today I will address one common weed and its life cycle and how to avoid getting the weed along with some of the controls used battling it.
Tracking soil or mud from one field to another is a sure fire way of getting new and unwanted weed seed into your garden or field. Be vigilant about keeping equipment clean between fields. If you have your garden tilled for you, make sure the tiller gets a thorough cleaning and washing before it sets down on your garden. Make certain there’s no dirt or mud on the equipment prior to tilling. This may come across as excessive, especially if you till gardens in your spare time, but believe me when I say it’s worth it. Same advice goes with your hand tools and your shoes. I’ve brought galinsoga into my garden and greenhouse by way of my shoes.
I know about moving weed seed from personal, as well as professional, experience. We bought a piece of land several years back which hadn’t been planted in at least 40 years. I thought we would have few if any weeds and, after battling weeds here at Johnny’s so long, would be happy to have a plot without them. My well meaning but unknowing neighbor tilled the garden with a tiller used in a conventional corn field. You could tell by the weed germination pattern exactly where it was tilled. The plant population of lambsquarters, redroot pigweed and velvet leaf was easily noticed. I had seen none of these weeds previously and now have my hands full.
Galinsoga is clearly the worst weed we have. If you don’t have it, don’t get it at all costs.
I quote Weeds of the Northeast “Hairy Galinsoga is one of the most difficult to control weeds of vegetable crops”. Be vigilant in your efforts to not get it. Years ago we didn’t have it here on the farm. One year it appeared in field 11 and the rest is history. It now has spread to every field on the farm and most of our isolated fields.
First the bad news: Galinsoga has small yellow blossoms which hold seed that is mature once the blossom opens. That seed has no apparent dormancy so as soon as it blossoms, it can germinate creating generation after generation rapidly. Several generations per year are common. The plants have a large root system so when pulled out and left on the soil surface, they will often reroot. Each plant is capable of producing up to 7500 seeds so you can see the importance of getting all the plants in blooms out of the field.
Now the good news: Galinsoga seed is short lived. Estimated time of viability is two years in the soil. If you have a plot you can take out of production for a couple of years, you can get some control of this weed. Killing Galinsoga is also relatively easy. If cultivated when small it is easiest to kill. It also is susceptible to flaming and kills easily with organic herbicides. Galinsoga is frost sensitive so will turn black and mushy with the first frost. Timing is crucial in controlling this weed; if you are expecting a frost at a certain time, you can let it grow until then and hopefully you’ll get that frost; if you don’t you’ll have to use some kind of control lest it get out of hand.
Until next week, Brian
Webmaster's note:
For more information on Hairy Galinsoga, as well as some pictures, Virginia Tech's weed identification guide website is a good resource.
Tracking soil or mud from one field to another is a sure fire way of getting new and unwanted weed seed into your garden or field. Be vigilant about keeping equipment clean between fields. If you have your garden tilled for you, make sure the tiller gets a thorough cleaning and washing before it sets down on your garden. Make certain there’s no dirt or mud on the equipment prior to tilling. This may come across as excessive, especially if you till gardens in your spare time, but believe me when I say it’s worth it. Same advice goes with your hand tools and your shoes. I’ve brought galinsoga into my garden and greenhouse by way of my shoes.
I know about moving weed seed from personal, as well as professional, experience. We bought a piece of land several years back which hadn’t been planted in at least 40 years. I thought we would have few if any weeds and, after battling weeds here at Johnny’s so long, would be happy to have a plot without them. My well meaning but unknowing neighbor tilled the garden with a tiller used in a conventional corn field. You could tell by the weed germination pattern exactly where it was tilled. The plant population of lambsquarters, redroot pigweed and velvet leaf was easily noticed. I had seen none of these weeds previously and now have my hands full.
Galinsoga is clearly the worst weed we have. If you don’t have it, don’t get it at all costs.
I quote Weeds of the Northeast “Hairy Galinsoga is one of the most difficult to control weeds of vegetable crops”. Be vigilant in your efforts to not get it. Years ago we didn’t have it here on the farm. One year it appeared in field 11 and the rest is history. It now has spread to every field on the farm and most of our isolated fields.
First the bad news: Galinsoga has small yellow blossoms which hold seed that is mature once the blossom opens. That seed has no apparent dormancy so as soon as it blossoms, it can germinate creating generation after generation rapidly. Several generations per year are common. The plants have a large root system so when pulled out and left on the soil surface, they will often reroot. Each plant is capable of producing up to 7500 seeds so you can see the importance of getting all the plants in blooms out of the field.
Now the good news: Galinsoga seed is short lived. Estimated time of viability is two years in the soil. If you have a plot you can take out of production for a couple of years, you can get some control of this weed. Killing Galinsoga is also relatively easy. If cultivated when small it is easiest to kill. It also is susceptible to flaming and kills easily with organic herbicides. Galinsoga is frost sensitive so will turn black and mushy with the first frost. Timing is crucial in controlling this weed; if you are expecting a frost at a certain time, you can let it grow until then and hopefully you’ll get that frost; if you don’t you’ll have to use some kind of control lest it get out of hand.
Until next week, Brian
Webmaster's note:
For more information on Hairy Galinsoga, as well as some pictures, Virginia Tech's weed identification guide website is a good resource.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Corn and cucumbers, so far
Whoops, time got away from me! When summer showed up last weekend and really drove the garden guilt into high gear. The tomato plants have been patiently waiting for me during this time, and are now hardened off and ready to go in the ground. After my hectic weekend I was exhausted, and just happy to come into work and sit under the air conditioning vent and mouse around doing my job. I also used every muscle in my body to excess (note to self: wait for husband to get home before you move the chest freezer or other heavy appliances) and needed a little rest. Going home in the heat after work did not preclude getting out into the yard, I’m afraid. Finally, last night, after some more reasonable spring weather arrived, I got some direct seeding done in my own garden. Also, weeding was completed, last year’s tomato plants torn up (with the help of my husband), and cucumber seeds and some corn seeds were planted.
Last Saturday I helped a friend put in her garden, and we had a wonderful time hanging out for the rest of the day. Sunday I had a lot of household stuff to do in preparation for visitors at my house (happy birthday sis!), so I never got to any work in my own garden. During the “lets hang around outside” phase of the birthday party I did get the irrigation system hitched up (it’s set up underneath my “I don’t have time to weed” garden fabric, and rows are set up along it so every plant gets plenty to drink right at root level, to prevent fungus growing on wet leaves. I know its a little OC…). Luckily, it had only come apart in a couple of spots, and it was a pleasure to fix the geysers on such a hot night. I set my automatic timer to water it nightly, which may seem excessive, but our soil has super drainage and the onions have grown quite a bit this week alone.
I sure hope that no relations of the pesky chipmunk who made our garden home last summer show up this year. That chipmunk systematically ate every squash, cucumber, and corn seed I planted, and dug up the beans and left them on top of the soil because they weren’t tasty enough, apparently. He is now in chipmunk heaven, and I hope that none of you think less of me for it. I tried bribing him first with some delicious sunflower seeds, but apparently his appetite was insatiable. I finally figured out what was going on and got all of my seeds replanted in mid-July, and had to buy cucumbers to make my pickles. This year I don’t want to have to do that.
So goals for tonight and tomorrow (before I head south for familial obligations) I want to get more seeds planted (squash, beans, and more corn), and get tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the ground. I am probably deluding myself in thinking I can get 80 seedlings planted tomorrow, but I can try!
Last Saturday I helped a friend put in her garden, and we had a wonderful time hanging out for the rest of the day. Sunday I had a lot of household stuff to do in preparation for visitors at my house (happy birthday sis!), so I never got to any work in my own garden. During the “lets hang around outside” phase of the birthday party I did get the irrigation system hitched up (it’s set up underneath my “I don’t have time to weed” garden fabric, and rows are set up along it so every plant gets plenty to drink right at root level, to prevent fungus growing on wet leaves. I know its a little OC…). Luckily, it had only come apart in a couple of spots, and it was a pleasure to fix the geysers on such a hot night. I set my automatic timer to water it nightly, which may seem excessive, but our soil has super drainage and the onions have grown quite a bit this week alone.
I sure hope that no relations of the pesky chipmunk who made our garden home last summer show up this year. That chipmunk systematically ate every squash, cucumber, and corn seed I planted, and dug up the beans and left them on top of the soil because they weren’t tasty enough, apparently. He is now in chipmunk heaven, and I hope that none of you think less of me for it. I tried bribing him first with some delicious sunflower seeds, but apparently his appetite was insatiable. I finally figured out what was going on and got all of my seeds replanted in mid-July, and had to buy cucumbers to make my pickles. This year I don’t want to have to do that.
So goals for tonight and tomorrow (before I head south for familial obligations) I want to get more seeds planted (squash, beans, and more corn), and get tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the ground. I am probably deluding myself in thinking I can get 80 seedlings planted tomorrow, but I can try!
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