Update on our Asparagus Crown Planting: Part III

Our Final Asparagus Crown Planting Update 

May 2015

Here’s the last update ‘til fall for our newly planted asparagus crown bed. At the end of the last post, we mentioned that as the spears grow, you will gradually fill in your furrow with soil until its top surface is even with the surrounding soil line. We have been doing this since our last post, adding the final layer of soil to finish filling in the furrow today.

Surrounding Soil
Filling the Furrow

The process is the same as before: Gently pull soil into the furrow, while not completely covering any buds that are still emerging. Yesterday a large afternoon thunderstorm had already started to fill the furrow with surrounding soil. We used a collinear hoe to once more level out the rest of it. You might notice in the photos that some of the crowns are establishing faster than others and those spears have already grown well above the soil line. This is okay – some are just slower to snap out of their stay in cold storage than others and will catch up eventually.

Leveling Out the Furrow

Now that the soil level is where it should be, the next step is to cover the bed with mulch to suppress any weeds that might begin to grow. Keeping your asparagus bed free of weeds will not only save you a lot of labor, but support nutrient and moisture availability to the crowns. We use straw to mulch our bed, but other materials that allow water to percolate through, such as composted leaves, can also be used. Leave a couple inches of soil surface open around the line of spears down the center, of the bed, or keep the mulch layer thin in this area, especially if there are any crowns with spears that have not yet emerged above the soil line.

See photos below:

Your asparagus bed is now well set until fall — but keep an eye on it, and keep the soil moderately moist throughout the hot summer months.

In the fall, when the fronds have died back, cut them off at soil level, and be sure to remove all the debris, to eliminate potential habitat for asparagus beetles. Fall is also the time to add more compost, if needed, and to freshen up the mulch for the winter ahead.

Happy Holidays!

Winter Trials Summary: Lettuce, Greens, and Herbs

At the end of last year (2013) we conducted two winter trials on specific types of Lettuce, Greens, and Herbs at our Research Farm in Albion, Maine. Steve Rodrigue, the Johnny’s Product Technician who oversaw the trials, summarizes the process below:

The overwintering trials took place in two of our caterpillar tunnels at the Johnny’s Farm. The caterpillars we used were slightly different from those we offer via the catalog and online, because they have both end walls and side roll-up walls. With roll-up walls, we were able to ventilate much more throughout the trial - until the snow eventually prevented us from doing so. We had several small trials happening in the tunnels, which included  Salanova Lettuce, Baby Leaf Lettuce, Greens, Spinach, and Cilantro. 

   The Salanova performed very well and lasted into the New Year. For that trial, we had two different seeding dates at two weeks apart. The earlier seeding allowed for the plants to grow to a marketable size whereas the later seeding and transplanting did not mature before going into the Winter. This is another indication of how important it is to experimenting with several seeding dates.

   We had some issues with Bottom Rot with the Salanova, but we felt that was due to inadequate ventilation. Moving forward with our future overwintering trials, temperatures will be monitored several times throughout the day in order to best time the removal of the inner covers (agribon). Also, while the caterpillars did a fair job at protecting the crops through the harsh winter, we found them to be more of a challenge for adequate temperature regulation than a Hoophouse or High Tunnel. The short height and smaller volume of the Caterpillar Tunnel results in much larger fluctuations in temperatures, which means you have to do a lot more regulating of the temperatures.

1. To learn more about our Research Department, head to the Johnny’s website 
2. Explore information on our Breeding Department 
3. Shop our Vegetable Seed line 

Banker Plants

Protected culture structures, such as hoophouses and greenhouses, are by nature limited in growing space. Many growers make the most of the available space by planting crops that have high returns; i.e., tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants. In a closed environment, it is also well worth it to put a little of the area aside for banker plants.

Any crop that provides a habitat for beneficial insects can be used as a banker plant. One of the greenhouses at Johnny’s research farm is dedicated to peppers and eggplants — both of which are susceptible to predation by aphids. In addition to the peppers and eggplants, space has been reserved for containers of oats which serve as banker plants by providing habitat for oat aphids. The oat aphids are released into the oats, which are then covered to allow the population of the pest to grow.

Why would someone release an aphid of any kind into their greenhouse and then build their population? The oat aphid is host-specific to only oats; it won’t attack any other crop. At Johnny’s, once the oat aphid population has grown, Greenhouse Manager Pam Carter releases parasitic wasps that attack aphids of all kinds, including those that pose a danger to the peppers and eggplants. As a side benefit, the oats can also provide habitat for ladybugs, another beneficial insect and predator of aphids.

For those of you with concerns about the use of insecticides, banker plants are a practical alternative. In many cases the resulting natural controls by beneficial insects will reduce the need for insecticidal applications.

Further Resources

Johnny's offers a line of farm seed and other types of seed varieties that Attract Beneficial Insects »

To learn more, see our articles on Attracting & Putting Beneficial Insects to Work »

Beat the Heat - July 2014

The high temperatures we've been experiencing at the Research Farm in Albion, Maine have made for great conditions for our trial crops, but they've also challenged the Johnny’s staff to find ways to stay cool in the intense sun.

Here's a look at how we've tried to beat the heat recently:

Andrew and John Paul from the Johnny’s Research Department stay cool in their wide-brimmed hats, as they prune and trellis 2 successive rows of peppers. 

The other crops shown in the foreground of the greenhouse photo above, are eggplants. 

Jill is cultivating the soil at the edges of the plastic. 

The red umbrella was attached to the tractor using a factory kit with modifications.

At the Research Farm - July 16, 2014

Johnny's Research Farm Shop Clerk, Bruce Webber, completes repairs and modifications to our Bedding Pro, a tractor attachment that shreds round bales.

An Update From Albion - July, 2014

The past several days at Johnny’s Research Farm in Albion have been quite the contrast to each other. Last Thursday was overcast with rain in the morning. Even though the first day of summer was only a week prior, it felt more like the typical, damp spring in Maine. Hillary Alger, the Product Manager for flowers, snapped a wonderful photograph of the delphiniums that were cut at the farm that morning before it began raining. The cool color tones of the flowers truly reflected the slight chill in the air.

Delphiniums at the Farm

Alternatively, the next day, Friday, the temperatures hit 80°F. Birdhouses are scattered throughout the farm and the birds could be seen zipping through the air, glad to have clear skies and sun. As with any open field in Maine, the killdeer were also active, protecting their nests. Walking through the fields, it was easy to see the rain from the previous day had done its work. Everything was lush with color. Bunch a couple of stands of spinach and, not only could you see the sunlight reflecting off the leaves, you could see how rich with green the leaves were.

Spinach

If you could only choose one type of weather to have, it would be a difficult decision. Early in our lives, aren't we all told the simplified version of what basic needs of a plant are? It’s really simple, but it holds true: Beside soil, it’s water and sun.

Using Johnny's Long-Handled Tools

What’s New at the Farm- A Look Back at 2013, and Forward to 2014

Each year about this time, we sit back and look at the growing season; what worked and what didn’t, as well as what could stand some improvement. We also consider the challenges we may face in the next growing season. Some things like weather and pests are give ins each year, but other large issues that only surface once in a while for a grower - and how they’re approached- will determine your level of success that season. A varied list of challenges await all farmers each growing season and to assess them now, and come up with a thought-out plan of approach, will hopefully lessen the effects of these issues in the busy Spring planting season ahead.

I’ve outlined below some challenges we faced in the 2013 growing season and how we plan on overcoming these issues in the upcoming year.

Soil:

This was a big issue in 2013. A part of this was getting our compost and fertilizers delivered and spread on time; supply problems you could say. For compost, we had four suppliers and of these four suppliers one had weed issues, one had rocks in the compost, and one had delivery problems. The fourth was the most expensive, but they have an excellent product and their delivery schedule is second to none. If I needed 300 yards for Monday morning, when I got to work on Monday there would be six 50-yard trailer dumps waiting to unload. The best product and best service gets my vote. All of our compost for 2014 has been delivered and will be ready to spread when we are next spring.

 

We use pelletized chicken manure for our organic fertilizer. We have been purchasing from a company which also spreads the product. With our dry, then wet Spring, we had many problems getting our fertilizer spread in time to do our fieldwork. In early May, when the field conditions were fairly dry, the supplier first couldn’t get the product and then didn’t have time to spread it before the heavy rains arrived. When everything else finally cooperated, the spreader truck was out of commission. The end of May found us scrambling to fertilize, prepare the soil, lay the plastic, and plant all in a rather frenzied procession. For 2014, we purchased our own new fertilizer spreader which holds four tons (our old one held 600 pounds). I will order our soil amendments (based on soil test results) this month so we’ll have them on hand come February 15^th. The advantages of this include having adequate supplies on hand, being able to spread in that early season window if we have one, not having to worry about the roads being weight posted, and lastly, being able to haul 4 tons of material instead of 600 pounds. Loading one- ton bags will be faster and easier than using 50 pounders too. Four tons will cover eight acres so many fields can be spread with one load instead of many.  

Weeds:

Weeds are a constant challenge in any farming system. In our squash and pumpkin trials and nurseries, we like to leave a bed between planted beds so it’s easier to trace the vines for accuracy in determining which fruit go with which vine. This amounts to approximately ten feet of space between the strips of plastic in which weeds like to grow. Weed control while the plants are small is relatively easy; it’s once the vines come out into the open and are between the beds that weed control becomes difficult. The vines make it nearly impossible to mechanically cultivate the areas with weeds. A few years back, we started using hay mulch for weed control; a good idea but fraught with drawbacks.  The labor it takes to roll out and spread 350 large round bales of hay is a tremendous amount. To put in perspective, it takes approximately 320 hours.  The thickness at which it rolls out varies with how the hay was baled and what type of grass it was. A thin grass, like annual bluegrass, rolls out to a 3-4 inch depth whereas a swale grass can be a foot thick. Therefore, the bale may cover two hundred feet, or it may cover only fifty.

 

This year we purchased a straw shredder which unrolls and shreds the bales before spreading them onto the field. We took delivery of this unit last month and did some testing in the field to try it out. It will put down a uniform layer of hay mulch to four hundred linear feet twelve feet wide. Two people should easily be able to spread 3 acres a day; therefore all of the work will be finished in less than three days.   

 

Another success from 2013 was widening out the rows of crops on plastic that have row covers on them. We cover our peppers to prevent cross pollination and to give the plants some protection from the harsh Spring elements.  We use wire hoops to keep the row covers up off the plants, however. This also prevents us from cultivating the peppers as we don’t have a tractor tall enough to straddle the covered rows. By spacing out the rows to allow us to go between them with our smallest tractor, as well as a four foot tiller, we can now cultivate out the weeds all season long. It uses a bit more room this way but saves a tremendous amount of hand labor, which we can always use somewhere else. We’ve used this spacing for years in our tomatoes to facilitate equipment for spraying so the setup was easy to figure out. This allows more crops with wider spacing for next year; at least the ones with row covers.

The Land Base:

 You can almost never have enough good land to have a good rotation plan. If we had 35% more land than we need in any given year, think how much we could put into cover crops and devote to rotation plans. Last year I added a twelve-acre field and this year I added seventeen more. I think that’s good for a while. We’ve got a couple of small land projects that will add another four acres of good soil. Many of our fields need work to become productive again so this is where we’ll focus some of our attention in the upcoming years. We added a couple thousand feet of drain tile this year and have some stumping to do next year, so it looks like we’ll be busy in 2014 too. Farming is always busy!

 

The Weather: 

No, I can’t control the weather. All we can do is prepare for the worst and enjoy the best. We do everything we can in the previous Fall so we don’t have to do it in the Spring. Two years running we’ve been on the fields earlier than ever before, and then we got constant rains which put us behind. Once you get behind, it’s pretty hard to catch up and stay caught up. This year we’re implementing a seven day work week schedule. No, not seven days in a row but rather spreading out the work to seven days instead of five. It’s just too hard to schedule the same two days a week off for everyone. We work hard all week then everything stops for two days then we’re back at it for another round on Monday.

I realize not everyone wants to work only on sunny days and have rainy days off. Me neither, but I do want to get the work done, and if we have the optimum weather conditions and it just happens to be a weekend- we’re going to work. And, if we get heavy rains during planting season, I know we have done everything possible to get the crops planted correctly and on time. At all costs, try to be ready for Spring long before it gets here.

Lastly, one final thing I think will make a big difference to the folks working on the farm, is for me to spend more time in the field and less in the office. I like being in the field; that’s where I started. I can do everything here that needs to be done, and more importantly I can train folks how to do the tasks we need to do. I researched most of the equipment here; in fact I bought most of it, and know how best to use it to achieve the results we’re looking for. I know the funny little nuances and quirks of the equipment and tractors. I know how to cultivate and plow and spread compost and so on. I also know how I want it done. I want it done to the same high standards we do everything here at Johnny’s. I’m sure the farm crew will enjoy more of my presence in the field in 2014.

Until next time,

Brian

See the 2014 Catalog Cover and Explore our New Products

Don't feel like waiting any longer to see our NEW 2014 catalog cover? Well here it is! 

 

You can now also browse all of our NEW products at Johnnyseeds.com.
Let us know which new product is your favorite by leaving us a comment under this blog post.

The NEW Johnny's Catalog is Finished

Our NEW catalog is officially at the printer!

 

The team here at Johnny's works tirelessly on this effort, logging many, many hours. It seemed only right to give them a shout-out now that the catalog is finished… and will be in your mailbox soon!

 

 

 

Thank you again to our catalog team: Jeanne, Heidi, Kristen and John (not pictured).

 

The Advantages of Cover Crops

By Lynn Byczynski

Cover crops are an essential component of every sustainable farm. They are an investment in your gardens and fields that will pay future dividends of healthier, more productive cash crops. The benefits of cover cropping are numerous and impressive:

• Cover crops increase soil fertility. Annual legumes such as soybeans and cowpeas can be grown in rotation over several years in vegetable fields. Perennial legumes such as clovers can be maintained for several years on fields that aren't needed for cash crops. Legumes fix nitrogen while they're growing, and add organic matter when incorporated into the soil.

•Cover crops prevent soil erosion in winter by keeping the soil covered. A mixture of oats and winter rye, for example, can be planted in fall. The oats will be killed by cold weather, but their root systems will hold the soil in place. Winter rye will form small plants that will grow rapidly in early spring, to be mowed and tilled in before planting the field the following summer.

•Cover crops prevent weeds from flourishing on bare soil, in which case they are known as "smother crops". Fast-growing annuals such as buckwheat or soybeans can be planted after a crop is harvested to outcompete weeds. They also can be underseeded with taller cash crops or between rows to cover the soil and prevent weed growth.

•Cover crops can be planted as a "catch crop" after a vegetable crop is harvested to use nutrients that might otherwise leach into groundwater.

•Cover crops improve soil tilth. Besides adding organic matter when tilled in, the roots of actively growing cover crops loosen and aerate soil. Deep-rooted cover crops such as sweet clover will help break up hardpan layers several feet deep. Several cover crops can be grown to be cut for hay or straw, to feed livestock or mulch horticultural crops.

Shop by Farm Seed use at Johnnyseeds.com >>>

About the author:Lynn Byczynski was growing organic vegetables and cut flowers for market when she decided to create a magazine that would help market gardeners nationwide share experiences and information. Her first issue of Growing for Market appeared in January 1992 and it has been published continuously since then. GFM is renowned in the market gardening world for realistic articles that give growers practical, how-to information about growing and selling produce and flowers. Lynn is now partnering with Johnny's to provide similarly useful information for the johnnyseeds.com website and other publications.

Lynn is also the author of several books about market farming:The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers; The Hoophouse Handbook; Market Farming Success

What's New at the Farm

Harvesting Tomatoes for Seed

After a hiatus of several weeks I’m back to writing about what’s new at the farm. The cool and sometimes crisp mornings signal that the end of another growing season is fast approaching. The days are noticeably shorter, and there’s less heat in the sun than there was. On a brighter note, the humidity has dropped off and it’s great working weather.

We started harvesting tomatoes for seed this week, so I thought I’d share some photos of the process:

We’re harvesting Brandywine tomato here. This is about a quarter of an acre in this field; we have another three-quarters of an acre, too. Our “Vine Harvester” is on the right side, hooked up to our Farmall 200. This machine separates the tomato seed and juice from the majority of the pulp. We only use this machine on larger seed productions, as it’s harder to clean than our smaller unit. The first stage of the seed harvest involves picking the tomatoes, filling up all the buckets, and starting up the seed separator.

 As the tomatoes are dumped into the hopper, they are crushed to release the seeds and the juice. Not ground, for we don’t want to damage the seeds, but rather crushed. The crushed fruit are then dumped into the rotating drum, where the separation takes place.

 Once the slurry is collected at the bottom of the machine...

 ... it is placed into barrels to ferment overnight.

 The next morning it looks like this.

The gel coating around the seed has broken down and the seed is ready for sluicing.

The sluice is filled with water and the slurry mixture is added. The good seed sinks to the bottom while the skins, dirt, pulp, and immature seeds float off. Here’s a shot of the good seed waiting to be removed from the sluice.

Once the seed has been taken out of the sluice it goes into one of our seed dryers, and then into our controlled atmosphere storage to await milling. In October, it will be cleaned further and then sent to our warehouse for storage and packaging.

Working for a seed company like we do, we get to see what we call “seed-to-seed.” We start the seed in the greenhouse, grow the plants, and harvest the seeds from these plants. When we grow these crops again, we’ll use seed that was grown here previously—a full circle, you might say.

Until next time, I’ll be in the field. Enjoy the changing of the seasons

—Brian
09/17/2012—Albion, Maine