JSS Advantage - October 2010

Even with the change of seasons, there's still work to be done. You can plant certain vegetable and flower seeds now to overwinter for an extra-early harvest next year. Garlic needs to be planted in fall. And you can extend the season of your current crops by being ready for the changing weather ahead.

Get ready for frost
For some of you, the first frost is fast approaching. If you'd like to buy time to extend your harvest season, be prepared for the autumn ritual of pulling row cover over your plants. Here's some advice on how to make it easier.

Row cover is available in different weights, which determines the amount of frost protection it provides. Heavier weights provide more protection, but also cost more. So figure out how low the temperature is likely to go before you can get your crop harvested, and purchase the appropriate weight.

If your fall crops are grouped into a single area, consider buying one big piece of row cover that you can pull over multiple beds. It's available in sizes as large as 50' x 1,000'. Be sure to anchor it carefully so the wind can't get underneath and carry it away like a big kite.

For light frosts and low-growing plants such as spinach and lettuce, you can lay the row cover directly on the plants. Heavy frosts, however, can freeze plants where they touch the row cover; to prevent this, put hoops over the crops to hold the row cover above them.

Upright plants can have their growing tips damaged by abrasion of the row cover. Suspend the row cover above those plants with hoops or posts.

Spreading row cover is best accomplished with at least two people. While one person unrolls or unfolds the row cover and lays it on the crop, the second person should be following with weights to hold the edges down.

Row cover will last many years if handled carefully. As soon as your crop is finished, roll the row cover back up and put it in a barn or other building. If you worry that mice will get into it during the winter (they love to nest in it!), put it in a bag and suspend it from the building's rafters.

Overwintering crops
With the proliferation of hoophouses and low tunnels on farms, many growers are trying a new strategy to extend the season: planting seeds in fall to get the earliest possible harvest in spring. Southern growers and others with mild winters routinely use this strategy with many cool-weather vegetables. In the North, Quick Hoops™ with row cover and greenhouse poly moderate the cold and allow for successful overwintering. Spinach is often produced by fall seeding, resulting in harvest a month before spring-seeded crops. Many other crops are good candidates for overwintering, though there are few definite guidelines yet, especially given the wide variations in temperatures that are possible from one location to another. Here are some results of other growers' trials that may help inform your own efforts to get extra-early spring veggies.


At Johnny's Research Farm in Albion, Maine, we conducted overwintering trials under Quick Hoops™ last year. Spinach was direct seeded in early October; it germinated but stayed dormant until March and was ready for harvest around April 1. The flavor was remarkably sweet. Mache was direct seeded and it grew very well during the fall but bolted quickly when the weather started to warm up. This crop should be harvested either during the winter or very quickly in spring. Lettuce was seeded in mid September and transplanted to the Quick Hoops™ in mid October. Heads were harvested the beginning of April and, again, the flavor was good with no bitterness.

Eliot Coleman writes in his book -- "The Winter Harvest Handbook" -- about his ongoing experiments with seeding or planting in fall in Quick Hoops™. Spinach and lettuce direct seeded or transplanted in fall are ready a month earlier than spring transplanted lettuce. Overwintering scallions are ready five weeks ahead of spring-planted scallions. In considering other crops to overwinter, Coleman writes "we are just beginning to tease out the possibilities." Arugula, beets, carrots, and peas will germinate in February or March in the hoophouse, so why not in the field in Quick Hoops™? He intends to continue to trial crops and varieties to find the best timing for fall seeding or transplanting.


Fall-planted flowers
In the southern half of the United States, fall is the best time to plant hardy annuals that will bloom next spring. Some of the best hardy annuals used as cut flowers include agrostemma, bachelor buttons, bupleurum, larkspur, and nigella. Any other flowers that normally self-seed in your garden are also good candidates for fall seeding. Some will germinate in fall, grow into small plants, and then go dormant. Others won't germinate this year, but will sit in the soil until the chilling requirement is fulfilled and the weather warms. Larkspur is a good example of a cut flower that is much stronger and taller when direct seeded in fall.

The area where larkspur should be fall seeded is generally Zone 5b and warmer, except in parts of the Pacific Northwest where fall seeding is not advised because rainy winters may cause seeds to rot. Larkspur seed needs 14-21 days of soil temperature below 55˚F (13˚C) to germinate. Once the seeds germinate, the seedlings will grow through the fall and form small rosettes of lacy leaves. The plants will remain green until the coldest weather of winter, when they will start to look bleached out and dead. They will just be dormant, though, and will green up and start to grow again as soon as the coldest weather is past.

Larkspur seed can be planted with a precision seeder or by hand at a rate of .3 oz. per 100' of row. The seed should be covered completely because darkness aids germination, and watered in well if the weather has been dry. The rows should be clearly marked because the beds will need to be hoed once or twice before spring. Cool-weather weeds such as henbit can choke out a bed of emerging larkspur if not controlled.

The best flowers result when the plants have experienced six weeks of temperatures below 55˚F (13˚C). By planting in fall, growers with mild winters are more likely to capture the amount of chilling required.

In the North, however, longer, cooler springs allow for adequate chilling when the seeds are planted in spring. Larkspur can be direct-seeded as soon as the ground can be worked. Or it can be started from transplants, after the seed is chilled for several weeks in a refrigerator, and grown at 55˚F (13˚C).

Planting garlic

Seed garlic from Johnny's is shipped in October so that you can plant it at the best time for your climate. The goal is to get good root growth to anchor the bulbs before winter, but no top growth. Depending on when the ground freezes in your area, it can be planted from the first frost through November. Until you're ready to plant, store it in a cool, dry place, 50-70F (not in the refrigerator).

Garlic is a heavy feeder and will produce the biggest bulbs when the soil has adequate nutrients. Compost is best, as it provides fertility, improves soil organic matter, and increases drainage. Garlic does not compete well with weeds, so prepare your beds, allow weed seeds to germinate and then cultivate shallowly to make a clean seed bed without disturbing new weed seeds.

Separate the cloves from the bulb and plant them 6" apart, with about 2" of soil on top. As soon as the soil freezes, mulch the bed with 4-6" of hay, straw, or grass clippings to prevent the bulbs from heaving.

For more information about growing garlic, see our Tech Sheet.

Crop walk video: Portuguese Kale trials; tomato seed processing

In this week's crop walk, we look at our Portuguese Kale trials and Black Cherry tomato seed processing.

Johnny's events calendar - October 2010

Click to enlarge! Download printable .pdf (450K)

Johnny's at Common Ground Country Fair this weekend

Join us at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, Maine on Friday September 24th to Sunday, September 26th. Our booth is near the Rose Gate entrance in the northeast corner of the fairgrounds. We're located across from the amphitheater.

Visit our fair tent for great deals, tool demonstrations, Eliot Coleman book signing, and more! You can also get a 10% off coupon for future use!

For more information about the fair, including directions and tickets, visit the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association fair site.

What's new at the Farm? 9/22/10

This week finds us picking more tomatoes. And pumpkins. And still more tomatoes:


We start the week by picking Black Cherry for seed. Lots of tomatoes means lots of seed. I figure it will take the whole farm crew a day and a half to pick and process it and two days to sluice it. At least it's a nice field to work in; the big, new field that is. I think I mentioned in a previous article how fields got their names; I asked Kelly to name this field hence the "Big, new field". It's a nice field, about 5 acres in size, with a southern exposure. Its history includes being in continuous conventional corn for 25 years or so, then hayfield and now we use it. It's kind of funny that I'm farming the same field I did 30 years ago but organically now.

Video of sluice.


We're also picking Cherokee Green tomatoes on Thursday this week, along with some small increases during slow periods of our work days (ha-ha). And other than harvesting, we don't have a whole lot pressing; of course we're eye-ball deep in harvesting.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a hay/grain conveyor from a local farmer:

It is a John Deere grain elevator with a "3" for the serial number. Once we got it home, no small feat in itself, I let Jeff know what I wanted to do with it and "have at it". It started out at 52 feet long and now is 32 feet. Besides shortening it we had to change its power supply from 230-volt electric to a gasoline powered motor. I think it will work really well, and if it doesn't, well, we've have a conveyor to use for conveying something.

We're going to process a pumpkin this week before the squirrels do any more damage. We get to use our new conveyor (new to us) for processing this one. That's one of my bright ideas for 2010. Usually we toss pumpkins up into the Vine Harvester but I dislike this method. It takes several people and as the ground becomes wet and slippery, it makes a hazardous site to work in. Mud and ice make for slippery walking. Using the conveyor will enable us to load the pumpkins at a safe distance from all the moving parts of the process.

Using the conveyor will also enable us to feed the fruits into the vine harvester at an even pace. Instead of getting lots of fruit all at once, we can pace ourselves so the timing of fruit being loaded can facilitate the machine having time to properly separate the seed from the pulp. I'll let you know how it all works out in a future column.

Signs of the changing of the seasons are all around us; wood stove smoke, geese and crows joining into flocks. The swallows and hummers are gone and a steady procession of birds migrating over the next couple of months. Killdeer must have left as I haven't seen any in a while, lots of ducks flying around and rat/squirrel holes around the buildings as they prepare to spend the winter near their food supply. Fall is definitely here.

Until next week enjoy the season, Brian

Stevia: How sweet it is!

If you've hit your favorite local coffee shop lately for a caffeine fix, you've probably noticed little green packets on the condiments counter near the soy milk, half and half and sugar. Most likely you're looking at a natural, herbal sugar substitute known as Stevia.

Sweeter than sugar!

In its powder form, Stevia more than holds its own vs. artificial, chemical-based sweeteners in coffee or tea. It's not just for hot beverages, however.

The leaves of Stevia may be used fresh, dried, or as a liquid to sweeten just about any food. The plant, a native of South America, produces leaves that are said to be 15 times sweeter than sugar.

Here's an excellent article about Stevia from Mother Earth News. It covers the history of Stevia, nutritional and dietary aspects of the herb, and concludes with several recipes.

You can easily grow your own Stevia. It's a good herb for containers. Last winter, one of our international salesmen successfully grew several Stevia plants under a grow light in his office.

Here's some information about growing and enjoying Stevia from Johnny's Grower's Library:

STEVIA Stevia rebaudiana

Stevia plant at Johnny's Research Farm.

Description: Stevia is a tender perennial hardy in USDA Zones 9 and 10, or where temperatures do not fall below freezing. When grown as an annual, it reaches a height of 18-24 inches with bushy sideshoot growth. A native of South America, Stevia has been used as a natural sweetener for over 1,500 years. Today, the remarkably sweet leaves are used as a sugar substitute throughout the world. Virtually calorie free, sweeteners made from Stevia do not raise blood sugar levels, and are generally safe for diabetics.

Parts used: Fresh and dried leaves.

Culture: Recommended indoor planting method: Start seeds 6-8 weeks before last frost date. Sow shallowly in a well-drained soil mix in flats at a temperature of 68-75ºF (20-24ºC). Transplant to 3" pots when seedlings are large enough to handle. Do not over-water. For bushier plants, pinch back growing tips every few weeks for the first 1-2 months after germination.

Outdoor planting: Stevia generally does not tolerate temperatures below 45ºF (9ºC). After all danger of frost has passed, transplant outside 12" apart. Stevia is also an ideal plant to grow in containers as a houseplant, or in the greenhouse. For container growing, choose a pot that is at least 14" across, and provide soil that is well-drained. Maintain even soil moisture, and provide shade in extreme heat.

Light/Soil/Water Requirements: Stevia performs best in average, well-drained soil in full sun. Avoid overuse of nitrogen-rich fertilizers, as they cause the plant to produce large leaves with little flavor. Do not over-water, especially when being grown as a container plant or when transplanting. In extreme southern areas and when growing in containers, afternoon shade may be need.

Pest/Disease Problems: Carefully watch for any signs of insect damage to the leaf. Whiteflies and leafhoppers may pose problems.

Harvest: Pick in the morning and before flowering occurs for highest sugar content. Leaves may be harvested throughout the season once the plant has become established, with the main harvest occurring in September or October. Fresh or dried leaves are delicious in salads, sauces, and beverages. To dry, hang small bunches of stems in a well-ventilated, dry area out of direct sun. Dried leaves may be ground into powder for storage. Fresh leaves can be used to make a liquid sweetener by steeping one teaspoonful of dried leaves in one cup of boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes.

What's new at the Farm? 9/16/10

Today I'm going to cover harvesting cucumbers for seed. We grow several varieties of cucumbers here on Johnny's farm for seed including Northern Pickling; this is what we harvested this week.  We start the seedlings the middle of May and transplant into the field once the weather is warm in June. They get planted on IRT mulch with floating row covers for added heat and for insect control. The biggest pest is of course, the striped cucumber beetle. Although cukes aren't their favorite meal they'll attack them if there's nothing else. Once the cukes start blossoming the covers can come off and the vines allowed to grow out into the aisle creating a canopy which stops most weed growth.

We don't pick the cucumbers like we would in the garden so they'll set fruit, mature the fruit and die. Often they get a late season disease like downy mildew which kills the leaves but doesn't affect the maturing of the cukes. As long as there are roots and vines the fruit will mature and we can harvest the seeds from them. A ripe fruit with mature seed will be fat  and brown and getting very close to being rotten.

Cukes are usually harvested late in the fall; up until they freeze to insure the seed is mature. We've harvested them as early as September and as late as November; it's best to leave them until they are nearly impossible to pick up and put in a bucket. You can't have them over ripe; they just don't get too ripe. They can, of course, lose their shape and become dried and flattened which them makes it nearly impossible to extract the seed on a large scale but we pick before they come to this stage.

Once we determine the seeds are ready to be harvested we pick them into 5 gallon buckets and deposit them into a machine we call the Vine Crop Harvester. This machine (more on the actual machine in a later column) grinds the fruits releasing the juice and the seed. This mixture of juice, seed and crushed fruit drops into a rotating screen with perforated holes which separate the seed and juice (now called slurry) mixture from the pulp. The pulp goes to the compost pile or back onto the field and the slurry mixture gets put into barrels:

Slurry mixture ready for phase 2.

This mixture sets overnight and then is ready to be sluiced. Sluicing separates the good seed from the juice, seed coat and fruit pieces, and leaves clean seed. We sluice many wet seed crops here and cucumbers and melons are the most fun to do. They separate quickly and the seed comes out very clean.
This is a picture of the sluice way here at the farm; it is filled with cucumber slurry and the foam is from the fermenting that occurred overnight.

Sluice

The slurry mixture is slowly added to the sluiceway and seed separation occurs:

Seed ready to be dried.

As you can see here the clean seed is sitting on the bottom of the sluice waiting to be removed and dried.  Once the water is drained the seed is taken out of the sluiceway and placed on the drier in the greenhouse. We use a drier in a greenhouse to harvest the large amounts of free heat generated in there this time of year.

Until next week, enjoy the fall. Brian

Customer's photos: Watermelons and lettuce

Anneli Velt, a customer from Estonia, sent us these photos of her watermelon crop. Anneli says she enjoyed a great harvest of Sunshine, a yellow-fleshed variety, and Sweet Favourite. One of her Sweet Favourites topped 27 lbs. (10.4 kg). Conditions in Estonia were favorable for melon growing this season. Estonia, located in the Baltic Sea region of Northern Europe, had a warmer and sunnier summer than usual, she said.

---

Spencer Carter, of Campbell, N.Y., sent us this photo of All-Star Gourmet Lettuce Mix.

What's new at the Farm? 9/10/10

The harvesting started last week with three lots of Swiss chard and a tomato. The swiss chard was planted early last fall in Oregon, grown through the winter and selected for desirable traits in March. In early April it was transplanted here in Albion on plastic and had row covers installed to increase the available heat. As soon as the chard pushes up the row covers, we remove the covers and basket-weave them like you would tomatoes. The middle part of August they start to drop seed so they were cut and stacked in the field like you see here.

Jeff and Becky threshing Swiss chard with our Cecoco thresher.

After a couple of weeks drying (we had perfect drying weather this year), we run them through the thresher as above. Once the seed is separated from the stalks and leaves, it is bagged and placed in our controlled atmoshpere storage until mid-fall when we start seed-cleaning operations.

We're also harvesting tomatoes last week and this week and probably every week for a month and a half or so. We harvested a cherry tomato last week; I figure there were between 150 and 450 thousand cherry tomatoes in that field. After doing this a few years we have become adept at harvesting cherry tomatoes quickly and efficiently so it only took us a full day to pick them.

Let's see: Let's say we had 300,000 tomatoes to pick, we had 10 farm crew members and it took us 8 hours to pick and crush the fruit. In theory each person picked an average of 4,688 tomatoes per hour or 1.3 fruit every second for 8 hours straight. Of course that's not what happened, but when you are picking thousands of tomatoes in a seemingly endless row with no end in sight, then you have some time to play around with numbers. Case in point (this is from some years back) if each of those 300K tomatoes were 4 inches across (average hamburger size) you would have enough to go about 19 miles, or from Albion to Augusta. That's a lot of burgers!

Speaking of hamburgers I bought a cow over the weekend. Well, actually a half a cow, well actually a half of a half of a cow. My neighbor raised three beef cows over the past two years and had a half to sell so I bought it. We were talking about raising cows last Sunday morning and how the cattle yards out west looked; crowded, dirty and generally not how I want my beef handled. Growing up on a dairy farm we always had lots of beef to eat; we didn't think much about it. Off the farm for thirty years I have bought my beef in a local butcher shop or occaisionally in the grocery store. I remember as a kid it was common for someone to raise a few beef animals and sell them to friends and neighbors. I wonder what ever happened to this. Well, at least right now, and in my neighborhood, it's back. The farmer wants $ 1.50 hanging weight and the local butcher gets 75 cents for his part so I'll wind up with around 150 pounds of beef at $ 2.25 a pound across the board. 

We put 24 pints of sweet corn in the freezer over the weekend. I bought six dozen ears from a local farmer and Peg and I blanched it and removed it from the ears and froze it. This will last us pretty much all winter. Along with the beef, and chickens we put in the freezer earlier, we should have a decent supply of food on hand before cold weather comes. I do hate going to the store every night.

Until next week, enjoy the coolness of September. Brian

Pest of the Week: Gray Wall/ Blotchy Ripening

Blotchy Ripening

Photo Courtesy of Timothy Coolong, University of Kentucky

Gray Wall/Blotchy Ripening of Tomato

Life Cycle: Gray Wall or Blotchy Ripening is a physiological disorder that can be caused by several environmental factors. Extreme high heat, high humidity, temperature fluctuations, low light levels during high temperatures (potentially from dense vine coverage, or from fog or clouds during hot weather), high nitrogen, low potassium, low boron, bacterial/fungal infections, TMV (Tobacco Mosaic Virus), or excessive soil compaction can all potentially contribute to gray wall/blotchy ripening. Some of these causes seem contradictory, but the disorder is believed to be caused by many different factors contributing to the symptoms listed below.

Plants affected: Tomatoes

Symptoms: Tomato fruits look as though they have uneven ripening. When still green, areas of gray wall/blotchy ripening may appear gray or brown from the outside. As fruit ripens, it will have blotchy green or yellow areas. Yellow shoulders are another symptom that can be observed with or without other symptoms listed here. Upon cutting the fruit open, there may be areas of yellow, brown, or white tissue in the fruit wall, denoting uneven ripening. There are varying degrees of symptoms involved with this disorder.

Control: Keep plants healthy by providing a well-rounded nutrient and irrigation program. A soil test on a yearly basis where tomatoes are/will be grown is recommended to assess what soil nutrient requirements will be. Keeping tabs on the weather is important. If hot cloudy or hot foggy weather is predicted, then removal of the leaf blade above ripening fruit will allow more light to penetrate the canopy. Be aware that too much canopy removal and high light levels can cause sunscald. It is important that the plant has adequate potassium levels in the soil. Grow varieties that are resistant to TMV.

Resources:
http://www.extension.org/article/18629
http://vegdis.cas.psu.edu/VegDisases/Identification_files/tomatodis.htm
http://nwrec.hort.oregonstate.edu/tomato.html

Crop walk video: Basil and Baby Leaf Greens trials

At this week's crop walk, we looked at our basil trials and baby leaf greens for salad mixes. It's been a hot summer in Maine. The heat caused our basil to flower earlier than normal. The plants aren't quite as large as they were last year at this time.

What's new at the Farm? 9/1/10

The first of September is here and harvesting is cranking up. Hopefully with the change of the calendar the weather will change as well. While it's been a great growing season the hot and humid weather is becoming a bit old at this point. Cooler, dry weather will be welcome after this latest stretch.

Did I say harvesting? Yep, seed crop harvesting begins this month with Swiss chard and tomatoes. Hopefully by  the time you read this we'll have the swiss chard seed crop harvested and drying in small seed storage – well, actually I don't think it will need any additional drying as it's pretty dry in the field now. We cut the plants off last week and they've had the past week to dry so threshing will be relatively easy now.

I plan on threshing Tuesday this week and harvesting tomatoes Wednesday this week too. Looks like a busy week!

The tomato seed crop we are harvesting is a small gold cherry. We have 1,500 plants and each plant has at least a hundred tomatoes, so we have a minimum of 150,000 tomatoes to pick this week; hopefully in one day as we have other projects that need doing as well. There are around 400 tomatoes in a five gallon pail and it takes about 20 minutes to pick a pail so it's a big time consuming project. It would take the farm crew of 8 people at least two full days just to pick this crop let alone process them. After doing a tomato like this one last year, we should be able to pare the time down to about a half of a day, with some harvesting shortcuts we have developed over the years. We'll see.

The summer squash and cucumber trials are done now and the eggplant will be soon. Tomatoes are ripening full bore now and everyone has far more than they need. I think the melons are about half done, the spring carrots are done as is the summer broccoli and the bush beans; done and gone and soon to be planted to a cover crop to get some growth before winter.

The swallows have gone south or at least I haven't seen any around. I expect the hummingbirds will be next. The young ospreys are flying with their parents and, I assume, are hunting on their own now, or will be shortly. Turkeys are everywhere in all different stages of growth. Goose season has started; September again this year to thin out some of the local geese. I remember when seeing geese were a rare thing and seldom did you see them nesting in central Maine; now they're pretty common here and everywhere in Maine. Lots of them in Aroostook also.

Time now and for the next few weeks, for the agricultural fairs around the state. I think we'll plan on going to Windsor this week. We like to go in the mornings to see the animals and displays without the throngs of people. The midway has lost something over the years, and yes now, the vegetable exhibitions mean a lot more. It's interesting to see so many of Johnny's varieties displayed in the exhibition halls. 

The advantages are in for us not having a garden this year. Although I miss working in the garden I find I have more time for other projects and I have plenty of them. I'm still trying to get the bark mulch put around my blueberry bushes, and I still need to build the arbor for my grapes. It's just really hard after working in the hot and humid weather to do more of it when I get home. Plan for next year -- do everything I can before May because once May hits I don't have much free time right through October. I suppose if I took the time I spent thinking about the blueberries, and applied that to putting the mulch on, I'd be long done, but you know how that goes.

Until next week, enjoy the last hot spell of the season, Brian

Johnny's events calendar - September 2010

Click calendar for larger, printable view.

JSS Advantage September 2010

The shorter days and cooler temperatures of September provide a reminder to start planning for winter. This month, your work might include:

• Planting cover crops to protect and improve your soil; 
• Seeding hoophouse and low tunnel crops to harvest in October, November, and December;
• Making value-added products to sell at fall and winter markets;
• Stocking up for your own table.

Protecting soil in winter
The best cover crops for planting now are those that grow quickly in cool weather. Some will winter over and start growing again next spring. Others will be killed by cold weather but will have enough root and top growth to hold the soil in place during the winter. These two types require different management next year, so it's important to figure out how the cover crop fits into your spring planting schedule. Here are some of the considerations for cover crops to plant now.


Johnny's Fall Green Manure Mix contains winter rye, hairy vetch, field peas, crimson clover and ryegrass. The winter rye and hairy vetch are hardy and will grow rapidly in spring. The field peas, clover, and ryegrass will winter kill in the North.

Oats, field peas and oilseed radish are cold-tolerant, but will be killed by a hard freeze. They are easy to incorporate in spring.

Winter rye can be planted latest of all the fall cover crops and it will overwinter. It will start growing early next year and need to be tilled in before it produces seed.

To help you choose the cover crops that are best for your farm, we recommend our free Cover Crop Comparison chart and the book Managing Cover Crops Profitably, which is sold on Johnny's website.

Hoophouse and Quick Hoops™ crops
With an unheated hoophouse or Quick Hoops™ covered with greenhouse poly, you can have fresh produce to sell until Thanksgiving and beyond. Choose vegetables that are cold-tolerant, and remember to add about 14 days to the days to maturity printed in the catalog to account for slower growth as the days get shorter. Here are our picks for sweet, crisp, fall and winter vegetables.

• Beets
• Broccoli - Arcadia and Marathon
• Cabbage - Alcosa, Gonzales, and Farao
• Carrots - Napoli
• Cauliflower - Cassius and Amazing
• Greens - Sylvetta arugula, Hon Tsai Tai, Kyona Mizuna, Yukina Savoy, Pac Choi, Mache, Cress, Claytonia, Mustard Greens
• Kale and Collards
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce and Greens mix
• Micro Mix
• Radishes
• Spinach - Space and Regiment
• Swiss chard
• Turnips

Winter markets and value-added products

Although 88% of U.S. farmers markets are open less than six months a year, there is a definite trend toward stretching the market season in fall or holding special holiday markets. In addition, many communities have craft markets where farmers can sell value-added products. Many growers create a line of value-added products that they can sell after the main produce season is over. If you haven't specifically grown crops with value-added products in mind, this is a good time to survey your markets for potential niches. You might also find that you already have the materials for products you can sell this fall, as a way of testing the water. Here are a few ideas.

Herbs: Dried herbs can be used in many products including herbal vinegars, herb rubs for meat and fish, soup mixes, and dip mixes. Mixed bunches of dried herbs are even easier. The best herbs for drying: marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, and thyme. For best results, cut the herbs when the foliage is dry but not wilted. Hang them upside down in small bunches in a warm, dry place with good air circulation or a fan on them. Once they are thoroughly dry, store them in an opaque container with silica gel dessicant until you need them.

Peppers: As the frost date approaches, pay particular attention to your peppers. Once nighttime temperatures drop below 60F/16C, peppers will stop flowering and setting fruit. Cut off any small peppers that you think won't mature before frost. This will help the remaining larger peppers to ripen. Peppers take about three weeks to go from green ripe to red/orange ripe, but once a pepper is 50% colored, it will continue to color after harvest. Holding partially colored peppers at 68-77F/20-25C with high humidity is most effective.

Small, thin-walled peppers can be made into ristras, swags, and wreaths and sold for culinary and decorative uses. They have the greatest impact when the foliage is removed so the peppers are in full view. To defoliate pepper branches, stand the stem ends in water like cut flowers, and store them in complete darkness at 68F/20C for three days. After that, remove from the water and shake the stems. The leaves, but not the fruits, will fall off.

To learn more about making pepper wreaths and swags, see this article on the Growing for Market website.

Dried botanicals: Fall and winter decorating is a favorite pastime for many people, but if they live in a city, they probably don't have access to the raw materials for nature crafts. Your farm may be a cornucopia of botanicals that you can sell at fall and winter markets. Take a walk around your fields, meadows, and hedgerows and see what you can find to sell at a "crafters' corner" of your market stand. Popular crafting materials include bittersweet and other berries; seed heads of sunflowers, Echinacea, and rudbeckias; broom corn, millet, and native grasses; overgrown okra pods (for Santa ornaments); dried flowers including carthamus, celosia, craspedia, gomphrena, statice, strawflowers; hydrangea heads; corn shocks and husks; small pumpkins that can be used as vases; gourds and ornamental squash; pine cones, sweet gum, and other ornamental seed pods.

A penny saved ...

Don't forget to stock up for your own table. You'll find all the details in the book How to Store Your Garden Produce. If frost threatens suddenly, go through your fields and glean whatever odds and ends you can find. Almost everything can be frozen and used in soup later. Most veggies should be blanched (scalded briefly in hot water) before freezing. Here's a concise publication from New Mexico State University about how long to blanche. Some veggies don't even require blanching, but can be frozen raw. Here are a few examples.

Roma tomatoes: Wash, dry, place in plastic bags and put them in the freezer. When you want to use them, run warm water over them and the skins will slip right off.

Cherry tomatoes: Freeze them whole; they will rupture when thawed, but will add great fresh flavor to cooked dishes.

Herbs: Wash and chop them (individually or in your favorite combinations), then put them in ice cube trays. Fill the trays with water, freeze, and then transfer the herbed ice cubes to airtight storage containers.

Peppers: Wash and either freeze whole or cut and remove seeds and stems; chop and freeze in airtight containers.

Onions/green onions/leeks: Chop, double wrap, and freeze.

Product Spotlight, September 2010

Bright Lights Swiss chard

Bright Lights:
This chard was an
All-America Selections
winner in 1998.

Bright Lights Swiss chard is one of the most beautiful vegetables, as useful in the flower border or patio container as in the field and hoophouse. The colorful stems, in shades of pink, gold, orange, purple, red, and white, are made more vibrant by cool temperatures. The lightly savoyed leaves are succulent and sweet. Baby leaves, ready to harvest just five weeks after seeding, add color and substance to salad mixes.

Plant Bright Lights seed outside or in a hoophouse two months before the frost date. Plant 1/2" deep and keep the soil moist. If you want to grow full-size leaves, thin to 4-6" between plants, in rows 18-24" apart. Leaves can be harvested from the outside of the plant as soon as they are big enough; new leaves will grow from the center. For salad mix, direct seed in a 2-4" band about 1" apart. Cut the leaves when they are 4-5" tall.
For ornamental use, start the seeds inside and transplant the colors you want. Bright Lights looks great in a mixed flower and vegetable container; try it with pansies and nasturtiums for a colorful, cold-tolerant fall accent.

Bright Lights is moderately frost tolerant and will produce into December in the North if protected with row cover on Quick Hoops™. In the South or Pacific Northwest, it can be harvested all winter. Overwintered chard will send up a seed stalk in spring that signals it's time for the remaining leaves to be harvested and a new crop to be started from seed. Spring-started chard can be planted out early and, because it is also heat tolerant, will produce tender leaves longer than spinach.

Swiss chard is highly nutritious, loaded with Vitamins A, C, and iron. It can be chopped and eaten raw or lightly steamed and used in any recipe that calls for spinach. For a special treat, saute sliced garlic in butter or olive oil and add chopped chard leaves and stems. Cook for 2 minutes, until the chard is wilted and hot.

Jerusalem artichoke

Stampede Jerusalem Artichoke

Jerusalem artichoke or sunchoke is a tall, attractive sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus) native to North America. It has been grown for centuries as a food plant; several Indian tribes grew it before European settlement.  In 1605 Champlain took the tubers back to France where it was soon widely grown for human and livestock food.

Johnny's variety, Stampede, is extra-early, maturing more than a month ahead of native varieties. Our large, white tubers are grown organically here at Johnny's research farm and are shipped in October for fall planting.

Jerusalem artichoke is perennial in Zones 3-8. A word of warning: it is a robust, spreading plant that can take over, so plant it in a place where it can be contained and permanent.

Stampede flowers in July, and by August the tubers are ready to be dug. However, they can be left in the ground and dug only as needed. The tubers' carbohydrates are in the form of inulin rather than starch, making them good for diabetics and dieters. After storage, either in the refrigerator or left in the ground, the inulin is converted to fructose and the tuber develops a much sweeter flavor. They can be sliced thin and eaten raw or steamed. The flavor is similar to water chestnut, but sweeter and nuttier. Jerusalem artichokes are high in potassium and iron.

Fall broccoli

Arcadia, Bay Meadows, and Marathon are especially cold-tolerant varieties, so they are good choices for planting in September to mature in November.

Arcadia is a tall, vigorous plant with a medium stem and heavy, medium green heads with a frosted appearance. 63 days to maturity.

Bay Meadows

Bay Meadows is a new variety that is getting good reviews from around the country. It was bred for cool spring and cool fall weather, but it also has done well in summer in spite of heat and some drought stress. The heads are extremely attractive and uniform, blue-green and well-domed. 60 days to maturity.

Marathon is a medium-tall plant with high domed, heavy, blue-green heads. This variety is widely planted in California for winter harvest, and has been successful in the Northeast for fall harvest. 67 days to maturity.

Fall sunflowers
Sunflowers are a quick crop and their bright colors make them popular in fall decorating up until Thanksgiving. The bicolors are especially autumnal. They don't mind cool weather but will be killed by a heavy frost, so plant them in a hoophouse if frost is likely before maturity. For the most uniform flowers, start the seeds inside and transplant the plugs as soon as the root ball holds together. If you have grasshoppers, cover with row cover until the plants are several weeks old.

The key to success with fall sunflowers is to choose day-neutral varieties that won't be affected by the declining day length of autumn. We recommend:

Pro Cut Series, which is available in six colors, including Pro Cut Red/Lemon Bicolor, with red rings around the center of the flower. Pro Cut Orange is the most familiar color, with gold petals surrounding a dark brown center. Pro Cut sunflowers bloom 50-60 days from seeding. They are single-stem and pollenless.


Sunbright Supreme is another popular sunflower with gold petals and a brown center. It blooms in 60 days under the short days of autumn. It is a single-stem, pollenless variety.

Row cover
Johnny's has a good selection of spunbonded polypropylene row covers to keep your crops thriving as the weather gets colder. All allow rainwater to pass and keep insects out. In choosing row covers, remember that there is a tradeoff between frost protection and light transmission. If you want to keep plants growing, choose the lightest weight (the best light transmission) that will still provide the frost protection you need. For overwintering crops, where fall growth is less important, choose a heavier weight for more frost protection. Support hoops are recommended for all of these heavier row covers:

• Agribon+ AG-19 provides frost protection down to 28˚F/-2C with 85% light transmission.
• Agribon+ AG-30 has frost protection to 26˚F/-3C with 70% light transmission.
• Agribon+ AG-50 protects to 24˚F/-4 with 50% light transmission.
• Agribon+ AG-70 protects to 24˚F/-4 with 30% light transmission. Its heavier weight makes it the most durable of the Agribon row covers.
• Typar Xavan is a more durable spunbonded polypropylene fabric that provides frost protection down to 26˚F/-3C with 70% light transmission. It will last 3-4 seasons or more. Used for overwintering crops such as strawberries and spinach. Because of its weight, it should be held above the crop on support hoops.

Market Sign Contest Winners!

In July we asked for photo submissions featuring your farmer's market or roadside stand displays. We choose four of the most creative, persuasive, helpful, and fun display photos to win a $25 gift certificate.

Here are our winners:
Swauk Prairie Produce in Cle Alum, WA


"We have a lot of people asking 'What’s Star Power?' We tell them that Star is my horse and we only use organic material in our garden. The sign really helps get people to our space and talking about gardening and our veggies" said Bill Barschaw, Swauk Prairie Produce.


"The small cards telling about each vegetable helps sell the produce because it gives us a chance to talk (sell) that particular vegetable" said Bill Barschaw.

Visit the Swauk Prairie Produce website

Eco Outdoors in New Smyrna Beach, FL
Eco Outdoors sell trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs, and starter vegetable plants.



"Everyone loves Peanut! Peanut is a fixture at the New Smyrna Beach Farmers Market!" said Elizabeth A. Nevadomski, Eco Outdoors.

Hawk Valley Garden in Spencer, IA
Bruce and Sue Loring own and operate Hawk Valley Garden with their children in northwest Iowa. They have 15 acres of pumpkins, squash, gourds, broom corn and many other fall produce items.



"We started making pumpkin towers 3 years ago to get some good vertical height in our displays. They are fun and the customers love them." "The taller stacks including the one I painted 'welcome' on was a favorite and we sold many jack o'lanterns so customers could go home and do the same thing on their front yards or personal displays," said Sue Loring, Hawk Valley Garden.

Visit the Hawk Valley Garden MySpace page

Parker Produce in Winterport, ME
Parker Produce is a small, family-owned, organic farm that serves communities in central Maine.



Visit the Parker Produce website or blog

Interested in finding out more about how to market your produce and how to create displays with purpose check out the July JSS Advantage here.

Video, photos from Wednesday's Twilight crop walk

On Wednesday evening, we held the second of three scheduled public twilight crop walks at Johnny's Research Farm in Albion, Maine.

Crop walks are a lot of fun for both us and customers. We had about 20 guests on Wednesday. There was food (local bread, cheese, cookies, and melons from our trials. We had a T-shirt and hat raffle. And, of course, we had some exhibitions: We demonstrated a cool, new, labor-saving tool -- the paper-pot transplanter. We held a grafted greenhouse tomato tasting. We also looked at kale, pepper, melon, and flower trials.

If you weren't able to attend, here are a few highlights:

Johnny's product technician Steve talks peppers with a couple of guests.

A beautiful late summer bouquet.

Tasting grafted greenhouse tomatoes.

Steve discusses Johnny's pepper trials.

The next crop walk is slated for October 20 from 3 to 5:30 p.m. The focus will be on storage crops and season extension methods. If you can't make it to the public crop walks, the farm is also open for self-guided tours.

What's new at the Farm? 8/18/10

The middle of August already! Summer is moving way too fast, although everyone is about tired of the hot and humid conditions of the past few weeks. The birds have all fledged and fall is approaching fast. The weather feels like September even though it's only the middle of August. The harvest is fast approaching; seems there's little time between crop maintenance and harvesting now. Tomatoes will be coming right up as will the Swiss chard for seed and cucurbits afterwards. Cucumbers are towards the end of the summer like fall weather and Sweet Annie is after that; last in fact.

We're planting a fall summer squash trial in one of our hoop houses. You heard right; fall summer squash. Because much of the summer squash and zucchini that's available in the fall is old and tasteless, why not harvest some that's young and bursting with flavor like we do in the summer? Well, it's worth a try anyways. I like summer squash and would eat it all spring, summer and fall if it were available.

Fall spinach will get seeded this week and fall lettuce will get transplanted shortly. Our summer lettuce trial bolted quickly but grown in the coolness of the fall it will be crisp and we'll have a longer harvest window.

The onion trial is looking pretty poor right now. This year we transplanted all the onions and this worked great for producing a good stand. Thrips are the biggest problems with onions. Scouting for thrips usually starts around the middle of June because by the time you see their damage it's usually too late to cure the damage and get any sort of regrowth. Thrips are tiny and hide in between the leaves of onions so you really have to look for them to find them. A spray of Pyganic or Entrust or another insecticide two to three times during the season will kill them off. It is important that the spray penetrate the sections between the leaves because that's where thrips typically hide. Rotation is important on farms to avoid thrips as they overwinter in the soil and on plant debris. Next year we'll move the onions to a different field.

Most everyone has sweet corn now so it'll be a good time to freeze some. Most every year we freeze 20 quarts or so to enjoy during the winter months; a far cry from that frozen stuff they call corn in the supermarket. We blanch it in the turkey fryer and use our electric knife to cut it off the ears, then vacuum seal it and we're done. 20 quarts shouldn't take us more than a couple of hours to do. We should do some green beans while we're at it. This fall we'll do Brussels sprouts and we'll be done for the season.

Next week I'm taking my annual vacation before the harvesting starts. Peggy is taking the same week so we can do some things together. Going to the coast ranks right up there as we haven't been this year. I've only been to camp once this summer and that was to bush hog; guess I'll spend a day or two down there as well. I suppose I should think about getting my wood in, but I'd rather be fishing so that will take precedence now. The first cold morning and I'll be getting my wood in anyways.

Until next month, Brian.

Melonhead

This morning's breakfast was on Johnny's.

Free produce is one of the fringe benefits of working here. During harvests at Johnny's Research Farm, we are often notified by the farm crew when things are "up for grabs". I scored this Snow Leopard Honeydew melon during our Wednesday morning cropwalk, a weekly event for Johnny's employees to learn about the progress of our many product trials. It's educational, helps us pass on first-hand knowledge to customers, and is often the highlight of our workweek. Steve, our melons expert, tossed me the Snow Leopard at the end of his 10-minute talk on melons. I finally cut into it Friday morning. Delicious!

Snow Leopard was a new variety for us last year. It has beautiful pale yellow skin contrasted by green splotches that look almost painted on. Some fruit finish growing with full-on vertical stripes. They grow to an average of 2 lb. The taste is incredibly sweet. A squirt of lime juice really makes this one dance on your taste buds. We sampled an earlier honeydew -- Honey Pearl -- last week. Also fantastic.

While we're talking melons, I thought I'd share a few shots of my own melon patch. My garden is located in Hallowell, Maine -- about 25 miles south of Johnny's Research Farm in Albion. This season, I'm growing 2 Johnny's watermelon varieties -- New Orchid and Sunshine.

New Orchid, an orange-fleshed watermelon, is doing pretty well. The Sunshine, not so much. I'm also growing cantaloupe. Some of the vines in these photos are from the cantaloupe which is intermingling with the watermelons. It doesn't take long for a melon patch to get out of control. As long as this situation doesn't affect the taste of my New Orchid -- the best tasting watermelon I've ever had -- I'll be happy.

New Orchid hanging on a home-made wire trellis. It's about 2 lb. now, but they can grow up to 7-9 lb.

Close-up of New Orchid's beautiful skin. Can't wait to taste what's inside!

I started both varieties inside in mid-April. I planted the seedlings at the beginning of June and covered the soil with black plastic mulch. It's been a good melon growing season here in Maine. Melons love the heat, and we've had plenty this summer. Steve, our melons expert, says we're a week or two ahead of where we'd normally be this time of year.

Grow baby, grow! That's my beloved New Orchid.

My melons are definitely a little smaller than I'd like. Although I have good southern exposure, my gardens don't get as much early morning and late afternoon sun as the crops might like because I have big trees on the east and west sides of my property. Time to break out the chainsaw?

Melon patch. The black plastic mulch heats up the soil; stops weeds; locks in moisture and nutrients; conserves water; and helps lead to a better crop.

I stuck a leftover Sunshine seedling in an empty patch of soil where an early Kale crop was. Clearly, it's not as happy as the melons grown on black plastic mulch.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Crop walk video: Sunflower and Aster trials

This week's morning crop walk focuses on a couple of our flower trials -- Sunflowers and Asters.



See Johnny's Sunflower and Aster selections.

What's New At The Farm? 8/11/10

Welcome to the dog days of summer.

The crops are growing fast and furious now, as are the weeds. The insects are letting up but this weather doesn't help with the disease situation. No Late blight here yet but it's wise to be ever vigilant keeping an eye out for it. Lots of early blight and septoria out there now but both can be controlled with copper fungicides.

Now is a good time to think about harvesting for seed. We have one tomato (a cherry) that's ripening fast. I think it will be ready for harvesting about the time I want to take my late summer vacation; the end of August. We've got lots of barrels and bucket clean and waiting for when the harvesting begins.

I've got some efficiency projects I want to work on this fall which includes projects to speed up and do a better job at seed cleaning. The way we clean squash and pumpkin seed now is pretty labor intensive; we typically have six to eight people working on one seed cleaning project. I'd like to get this down to three or at the most four; too many people and it can easily become a dangerous situation. There's lots of machinery involved and our seed processing location quickly becomes muddy because of the large amounts of water we use, so improvements in quality and quantity are the goal here. While this one involves cleaning squash and pumpkin seed another one involves picking cherry tomatoes and still another one involves picking up plastic mulch by machine.

When we grow cherry tomatoes for seed we have to pick literally thousands and thousands of cherry tomatoes. In a typical 5 gallon bucket there can be up to 500 tomatoes. With some varieties you can fill a bucket without moving it. 500 fruit per bucket and a hundred buckets to pick and you see where I'm going with this. We've tried different methods of picking large amounts of fruits quickly but have yet to find the perfect method. This is the most expensive part of raising tomatoes for seed.

Pulling plastic mulch is done with a potato digger; by far better than anything else out on the market. The drawback with this is the plastic is still left on the surface of the field s where it has to be picked up by hand. Usually in the fall, and almost always In the mud, but it must be taken out of the field before we can wrap up the growing season and put everything to rest. Not a pleasant job at all; there must be a better way.

Most everyone has sweet corn now; one of my favorite vegetables. We take the silks out then cook it on the grill until it's done. Fresh is best; I like to get mine daily for the best taste. It matters a lot to how the corn is taken care of once picked. I bought some corn that had set out in the sun all day and that's what it tasted like. I couldn't put enough butter and salt on it to get any flavor so I sent the remaining ears to the henhouse. They're not as picky as I am. I got some really fresh corn last night and it was good; much better.

Until next week, enjoy the bounty. Brian

Afternoon crop walk, August 6, 2010

In this week's episode, we take a look at our flower trials -- Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan), Amaranthus, and Sunflowers. Also on the walk, we examine a few vegetables and herbs -- Cauliflower, Kale, Cabbage, Corn, Peppers and Dill.

What's up, Doc? Photos of the carrot harvest!

Pest of the Week: Bottom Rot

The University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Lettuce Bottom Rot (Rhizoctonia solani)

Life Cycle: Bottom rot prefers warm, wet conditions. It overwinters in the soil in decomposing organic matter, persisting mostly as mycelium. Bottom Rot can form very small sclerotia (tight masses of mycelium that can live for longer periods of time than mycelial strands). Bottom Rot in the soil is attracted to a crop when it is transplanted. It is possible that some strains of Rhizoctonia solani prefer certain crops.

Plants affected: A very wide host range to include, but not limited to, lettuce, crucifer (cole) crops, endive, escarole, pepper, eggplant, radish, turnip, cucumber and many other fleshy plants.

Symptoms: Lettuce seedlings are most susceptible at transplant time. The seedlings will show signs of damping off, coupled with brown lesions on stem and leaves, and rotting root systems. Older plants will rot from leaves touching the soil. From there the disease moves into the bottom leaves and crown causing brown lesions to appear. The lesions may appear to be furry brown spots with brown liquid seeping from the leaf tissue. Secondary pathogens can move in causing severe rot throughout the head.

Control: Keep greenhouses, flats, and benches where transplants are grown disinfected and clean throughout the year. Clean tools, hands, and field equipment to avoid spreading the disease. Crop rotation is very important since bottom rot can live in soil organic matter for long periods of time without a crop host. Cotton and alfalfa harbor Bottom Rot so avoid these crops in rotation where this disease is prevalent. Be certain that crop residues that were plowed under are fully decomposed before planting a new crop into the field. Plant lettuce crops in well-drained soil in raised beds. Plant seedling transplants high with about 1/4 in. of the root ball above the soil line. Do not over water the crop. If Bottom Rot is known in fields where planting, utilize erect cultivars of lettuce to avoid leaves touching the soil. Use Oxidate® (#9719) to disinfect greenhouses, benches, and plug flats. Where Bottom Rot is a problem, treat field soils with Actinovate® (#9804 2-oz, #9900 18-oz) in the off-season to build up beneficial bacterium colonies. In small plots and home gardens, Actinovate® can be used as a spray on the plants themselves as a preventative. Read all product labels in full and follow label instructions as specified for that particular product.

Resources:
http://ag.arizona.edu/plp/plpext/diseases/vegetables/lettuce/lettucebr.htm
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r441100811.html
http://www.umassvegetable.org/soil_crop_pest_mgt/crops/BottomRotofLettuce.htm
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/pp728/Rhizoctonia/Rhizoctonia.html

Johnny's in the New York Times; farming soars in Mass.

It's always nice to get some ink, especially from the New York Times. Anne Raver, New York Times gardening columnist, mentioned Johnny's in an article last week -- The Seeds for Surviving a Scorching Summer.  In the story, Raver touts our Hakurei turnip and 3 varieties of beets -- Chioggia, Red Ace and Bull's Blood.

Speaking of newspapers, here's an interesting piece from the Boston Globe on the soaring popularity of farming in Massachusetts:  "Farming surges in state with new crop of devotees".