JSS Advantage Newsletter -- April 2012: Pumpkins, Winter Squash, Ornamentals for Fall Harvests

Autumn can be a profitable season for local growers, but it requires a lot of planning far in advance to get a good crop mix in sufficient volume. Many of the best fall crops -- think pumpkins, gourds, and winter squash -- take more than 100 days to mature. That means spring is the time to analyze potential markets, schedule plantings, and order seeds. In this issue of the JSS Advantage, we'll suggest crops that will keep you selling at least until Thanksgiving.

Edible Ornamentals: A Big Trend for Fresh Market Growers

Bliss

It used to be that you couldn't sell a pumpkin after October 31 because virtually all consumer interest focused on Halloween. That certainly has been changing in recent years, thanks to pumpkin varieties that are great for cooking and decorating. Chefs and other foodies have embraced pumpkins as a delicious winter ingredient. Magazine editors feature recipes for pumpkin soups, stews, roasts, and seeds. Even some beer drinkers are pumpkin fans, thanks to the many microbreweries that make a special autumn ale with fresh or roasted pumpkin puree.
So if you do grow pumpkins, think outside the Halloween box. Grow several kinds of pumpkins and be prepared to promote them with recipes, nutrition information, and decorating ideas.

Pumpkins are basically divided into three categories: Jack-o'-Lanterns, pie, and specialty/ornamental. There's lots of crossover among the categories, though; many varieties in all three categories are great for eating, and all pumpkins are good looking enough to be used as ornamentals.
In choosing Jack-o'-Lantern varieties, consider your markets first. What size do your customers want? If you sell at a farmers market, they may not want big pumpkins because of the difficulty of transporting them to their cars. If you have a roadside stand, bigger may be better because they are more visible from the road. If you have a U-Pick and cater to school groups, you need small pumpkins (under 10 lb.) so children can carry them. If you offer painted pumpkins, you may prefer smooth-skinned, rather than ribbed, pumpkins. If you hope to wholesale pumpkins, consult with your prospective buyers early to learn their preferences.

Johnny's Jack-o'-Lantern Lineup

Jack-o'-Lantern Lineup

Johnny's comparative table of Jack-o'-Lantern varieties spells out these important differences and more to help you choose the best varieties for your markets.
Specialty pumpkins offer opportunities to sell beyond Halloween. Johnny's selection includes pumpkins of many hues, shapes, and characteristics. Offer several types to encourage multiple purchases. Show some hollowed out and used as containers for Thanksgiving table arrangements. Cut open the most preferred varieties for eating to show their bright flesh. Johnny's specialty pumpkin comparative table will help you sort through the many colorful options.
As for pie pumpkins, they will sell themselves if you provide exciting recipes. A stuffed pumpkin makes a spectacular side dish or vegetarian alternative to turkey at Thanksgiving. Black bean and pumpkin stew is great served with cornbread or in tortillas. Creamy pumpkin soup is an easy and elegant addition to an autumn meal. And don't forget the roasted pumpkin seed recipes! Johnny's has two varieties that have either hulless (Kakai) or semi-hulless (Baby Bear) seeds for the best pepitas. Download small/pie pumpkin comparison chart for more information on these varieties.
The comparative charts also are helpful in calculating how much to plant. Pumpkins vary widely in their yield and space requirements; Jack-o'-Lanterns need anywhere from 18 to 36 sq.ft. per plant and average yield can be 1-3 fruits per plant. Some specialty pumpkins may produce only 2-3 fruits per plant whereas others may average 10.
If you are serious about growing pumpkins for market, we recommend the Pumpkin Production Guide, a thorough book about all aspects of the crop, including varieties, economics, insects and diseases, cultural requirements, and marketing.

Winter Squash is Becoming a Culinary Favorite

Jester

Winter squash are closely related to pumpkins (many are the same species, in fact) and are grown for their eating qualities. Their star is also rising in the culinary world, and people are getting familiar enough with them to have preferences. So it makes sense to grow several different kinds. They can be broadly divided into the acorns, delicatas, butternuts and buttercups, kabochas, and hubbards. All have sweet flesh that improves in flavor with a few weeks to a few months of storage.
Storage life of winter squash varies. In general, butternut and buttercup types last the longest when properly stored, up to 6 months. Hubbard and kabocha types will hold for 4 to 6 months. Delicata and dumpling squash will hold 3 to 5 months. Acorns have the shortest storage life, at about 2 months, so should be sold first.

Pair Pumpkins with Ornamentals to Increase your Average Sale

Speckled Swan

If you are going to be selling pumpkins, you can increase your average sale by offering other fall ornamentals. Gourds are a natural companion to pumpkins, offering autumnal colors and interesting shapes. They range from small-fruited gourds for a tabletop display to giant gourds that can sit on a porch with the pumpkins. Bottle and birdhouse gourds are also popular in fall, especially among crafters.
Consider drying flowers to sell in bunches or bouquets. If you grow cut flowers in summer, harvest some extras every week and hang them to dry in a hot barn or shed. By autumn, you'll have a great inventory of dried flowers. These flowers are useful as fresh flowers in summer and are super easy to dry by hanging upside down: amaranths, Bells of Ireland, bupleurum, celosia, carthamus, craspedia, eucalyptus, gomphrena, larkspur, nigella, salvia, statice, and strawflower.
Some grasses and grains can also be dried and saved for fall sales: ornamental corn, broom corn, eragrostis, rye, and wheat.
Sunflowers are eye-catching additions to a fall market display, and they are easy to schedule. They are frost-tender, though, so you will have to either grow them before frost or grow them in a hoophouse. The best varieties for fall blooms are day-length neutral: ProCut series, which take 50-60 days to bloom; the Sunrich series, 60-70 days; and Sunbright Supreme, 60-70 days.

Learn How to Support Your Local Farms with CSA's- and Motor Oil!

Find out how Johnny's customer Peacemeal Farm joined forces with Maine's rapidly growing Community Supported Agriculture community. Today, more than 160 farms are a part of the CSA community in Maine and together they sell more than 6,500 shares to consumers.

Read this entire article on CSA's, "Supporting Local Farms Starts in Early Spring," in the Bangor Daily News.


Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, RI is recycling used oil to help grow its vegetables.

“We’ve spent a lot of money on a used-oil boiler that we’re heating a greenhouse with,” said Skip Paul, who owns the farm along with his wife, Liz Peckham. “If people bring us their used motor oil or used fryolator oil, we’re paying them back in tomatoes.”

Ms. Peckham said the special boiler accepts three different types of oil: drain oil, vegetable oil and No. 2 motor oil.  

Find out more at EastBayRI.com now.

What's New at the Farm? Fields Need Some TLC

Sometimes I sit here and thoughts flow so easily that writing this column isn’t a challenge. Today isn’t one of those days. Last week was 81°F and signs of spring were everywhere; today it’s 34°F and snowing and all the little signs we saw are hiding out of sight now. Now 81°F in March isn’t the norm but it was nice for a few days; getting rid of the snow banks, and seeing all the signs of spring after a long winter. It was definitely an odd winter, for sure.

As we get closer to spring, we are in the final stages of planning where all the different crops are going to be planted. While we added some more acreage this year, there are a couple of projects that need to happen before we start using some of this land. One field I rented consists of 12 acres that was last turned under in the 60’s. It was planted to dry beans back when there was a strong market for them. The next 45 years the field was hayfield, managed for grass production by several local dairy farmers.

To say the soil is run down is an understatement. The grass, what there is of it, seldom reaches more than a foot tall. Part of that is due to poor fertility. The other part is the fact the field hasn’t been seeded down in many years and annual blue grass is the predominate grass in the field now. Annual blue grass seldom grows very tall and isn’t good for a whole lot. We used to call it June grass because if you didn’t harvest it in June it would go by and be of no food value. Annual blue grass is a good indicator plant of poor soil in pastures.

Good, productive hay fields managed for grass production need to be reseeded every few years. The nature of harvesting the hay whilst the grass plant is trying to set seed defeats the natural reproduction of the grasses. Therefore, the preferred grasses eventually disappear and are replaced by grasses that don’t need care and attention in order to thrive.

Anyway, I plan on applying a liberal amount of compost and plowing the whole field down. After plowing, lime will be spread to increase the pH of the soil. Then we’ll seed it with buckwheat to help break down the sod. After one crop of buckwheat, we’ll seed oats and clover and maintain that for the rest of the growing season. This tillage will give us an idea of how many rocks are out there. Next spring we’ll start all over again.

The other field has had drain tile installed in it to help us get on it earlier in the season. Our planting plans for this field includes tomato and pepper seed productions, the pumpkin and gourd trials, and some extra crops to see how they do. A liberal application of compost, turned under, will help bring up the organic matter content of the soil. A limited amount of drip irrigation will be used if it becomes dry enough to warrant it. Next year we’ll put a more diversified selection of crops there.

I continue to look for land suitable for growing vegetables in central Maine. Many dairy farmers are using all the available land locally so finding suitable land becomes more of a challenge. People often call Johnny’s with land they would like to see in crops; I look at each plot carefully and have rented many parcels over the years. Many of the fields have changed hands since I first rented them, so only I know the reasoning behind their names. Jack’s field is now owned by Dave, the Higgins field isn’t owned by the Higgins’ anymore and the Hall field is now owned by the Westin’s. The big, new field is still the big, new field. The Movie Palace (store and pizza place) is long gone but the name of that field endures.

The days of large farm acreages going up for rent or sale are pretty much limited now. Many, many farms have been broken up into smaller parcels as interest in farming waned over the years. Houses have been built in many spots where there were pastures and fields before. Lots of acreage has been planted in trees or trees have grown in from the fence rows creating small patches of woods here and there. Good land is a finite resource; do what you can to preserve it.
Until next week, Brian

What's New at the Farm? Spring Arrives in Force

Is spring really here?

The 22nd of March and it's 81 degrees in the shade; and it's been warm all week! I've been out in the yard and around the farm in shirt sleeves. The birds are coming back in droves, grass is showing green in the fields and the Coltsfoot is staring to bloom.

Early or just seems it? Early, I think. Last year the Coltsfoot was blossoming in earnest on the 20th of April. Ice out on the farm pond was yesterday the 22nd tying with 2008 and 2006.

With this warmer than usual weather, there's a few things I need to do sooner than later. It's possible that the swallows will be back shortly and will want their bird houses cleaned out in prep for new nests this year. Here's a bird house down by the pond that has stood the test of time for at least 10 or 12 years:

Yes, it's leaning quite badly but the birds don't seem to mind. It's nothing special just a pine bird house I turned out in my workshop during some cold winter evenings. The front is hinged to access for easy cleaning:

There’s the remnants of last year’s nest. Once that is removed I’ll close the front door, tighten up some nails and it’ll be ready for another season. I may even straighten  up the cedar post it's on.
Here’s a design I started using about 5 years ago:

 

This one has a bottom door that swings open for cleaning. I saw the first swallow just a few minutes ago when I was out taking these pics.

In the barnyard Ziggy is taking center stage, much like his wild counterparts:

 

And a handsome boy he is! Lots of guinea hens in the picture as well. You know what I always say about guineas – you can’t have too many.

And back to the farm, here’s a few shots of the first signs of spring. Here is new growth on overwintering onions:

Here’s spinach that overwintered in a caterpillar tunnel:

And finally here’s a shot of the farm activity this time of year. The tractors and equipment is being readied for use in the background and the grass is greening daily:

Even though it feels like planting season it’s not. It is a good time to clean out the flower beds and get things ready for the planting season, for before you know it it will be upon us and we’d better be ready.

Until next week, Brian

Product spotlight: Grow Lettuce From Spring to Fall

Two Star

Vulcan

Green Forest

Lettuce is easy to grow year-round if you choose the right varieties for each season. In early spring and winter, when soil is cold and light levels are low, disease resistance is important. For summer and fall production, heat tolerance and resistance to tipburn are considerations. If you are growing head lettuce, the varieties you plant now should grow quickly enough to make full size heads before your weather gets hot. Here are our recommendations:

• Two Star (#451G) is an Organic green leaf lettuce with good tolerance to bolting and tipburn. Great flavor makes this the standard variety for green, full size heads. Also available pelleted. 51 days to maturity.
• Vulcan (#464) is a red leaf lettuce that offers earliness, color, size, and a crisp and mild flavor. Also available pelleted. 52 days to maturity.
• Green Forest (#2196) is our most attractive green romaine, and this one is moderately heat tolerant as well as resistant to sclerotinia and corky root. Also available pelleted. Best for spring and fall. 56 days to maturity.
• Nancy (#438G) is an Organic green butterhead/Boston type for spring and fall. The leaves are thick and crisp, so the head is sturdy and holds well. Good disease resistance. Also available pelleted. 52 days to maturity.
• Skyphos (#23) has the best heat tolerance and is one of the surest heading of all the red butterheads. Also available pelleted. 47 days to maturity.

Tools

Harvest and Seedling Cart

Our new Harvest and Seedling Cart (#7021) is a marvel of design for the market garden. This extremely light and maneuverable cart can carry up to 300 lbs. It accommodates seven seedling trays or five bulb crates or thirteen 5-gal. buckets.

The wheel base adjusts from 28" to 42" so it can straddle beds with 24" of clearance, and the handle is offset so you can push it from the path without straining your back.

Use it to transport plants, supplies, and harvested produce. An optional shade canopy (#7022) is also available. Made in Maine.

Video: The Beauty of Pollination

We wouldn't be much of a seed business were it not for all of the beneficial insects, birds, and mammals (yes, mammals) out there to take on the bulk of the pollination workload. Here's a great video we found on YouTube that takes pollination to an art form. Enjoy!

"The Beauty of Pollination"

The Beauty of Pollination

If you're interested in attracting some of these critters to your gardens, we offer some great flower mixes designed to do just that.

• Bee Feed Mix: Provides bees with forage throughout the growing season.
  
• Johnny's Butterfly and Hummingbird Mix: Attract butterflies and hummers to your garden.
  
• Beneficial Insect Attractant Mix: Attracts a wide array of insects that prey upon garden pests.

Further Resources

View all Johnny's seed varieties that Attract Beneficial Insects »

To learn more, visit our Grower's Library for articles on Attracting & Putting Beneficial Insects to Work »

What's New at the Farm? Spring Makes Early Appearance

This should be easy this week. It’s 64 degrees and sunny just outside my office window.

This is what the farm looked like on Monday this week.

Snow on the Retreat

The snowstorm we had 10 days ago is but a fleeting memory and perhaps now we can concentrate on spring. The pond is still covered with ice but if this weather continues it won’t be there for long.

Little signs of spring are around if you look for them. I saw a muskrat over the past weekend sitting on the edge of the ice. He was either eating some food or trimming his nails. I didn’t get close enough to tell. Little sprigs of green grass have sprung around the eastern end of the greenhouse and have already been picked by the geese. Eagles are everywhere now. I see them on my way to work in the morning. They are invading flooded streams and rivers, looking for winter-killed critters and ducks.
Some of the spring bulbs are pushing their way up now. I’ve seen some shoots pushing the mud and snow out of the way to reach the sunlight.

You have to admit, although it’s been a warm, strange winter, we’ll all be glad when it’s over. The fields look much like they did in November and I am anxious to see them plowed under. Plowing is one of my favorite jobs in the spring. Turning under all that surface residue from the past growing season and turning up fresh soil for the coming growing season – well, it’s just starting with a clean plate. And as I work down the field I watch as crop residue gets turned under to enrich the soil in the never ending nutrient cycling that happens year in year out.

While it’s tempting to get out on the ground now, with the warm temps, don’t rush it. I saw Monday this week, where a local farmer had attempted to spread manure and all he really accomplished was leaving some pretty nasty ruts in his hayfield. Too bad because it will be hard to erase these ruts without turning this into a bigger job than it needed to be.  Spring fever I guess.

Around the home place, the hens are laying furiously and the ducks, geese and turkeys are starting now as well. Here are a few additions to the home flock:

Baby Chicks, 10 days old

The guineas haven’t started laying yet, but I’ll be watching for them too, so I can get some incubating. And the peafowl too, I would expect them to start laying eggs once the weather warms up some more.  For now I’ll be happy setting another 41 chicken eggs in my incubator. 

While coming into work last weekend to check our greenhouse, I saw a young woman raking her lawn. Here’s one activity that can be done now without causing any damage to the ground. In fact it’s better early to get it done before the blackflies arrive. I guess I’m one of those odd people who like to rake. Raking up those dead leaves and sticks from the trees and getting the grass growing – that’s a sure sign of spring.  And working out in the sunshine on a 60 degree day in March – well, it doesn’t get much better than this.  And don’t forget the rake either: a steel leaf rake with a good wooden handle and a rubber grip; something I can out some pressure on to dig up the road sand and chunks of asphalt. 
At the farm, we’re wrapping up ordering supplies for the 2012 growing season. In the next few weeks we’ll start planting in the greenhouses and finalizing our plans for this season. Looks like a busy one again – fine by me. We’ve got lots of fields and crops to plant and take care of so it’ll be busy but an exciting kind of busy.

Until next week, I think I’ll go do some raking.
Brian

Product spotlight: Multi-Seeded Flower Pellets

New Fuseables™ Perfect for Mixed Containers

Blueberry Lime Jam

Key Lime Parfait

Under the Sun

Fuseables™ are a new product for growing uniform, compatible flowers for mixed containers. Two or three varieties are combined in a single pellet to ensure the proper color mix. Blueberry Lime Jam (#1755P) is a mix of purple and lime green petunias; Key Lime Parfait (#3848P) combines red, lime green, and white petunias; and Under the Sun (#1756P) includes Versa Crimson Gold and Versa Lime sun-tolerant coleus. The pellets are made only to hold the different varieties together and are not sturdy enough for mechanical seeding.
For summer sales, try these New Guinea Impatiens that grow well in partial sun. Divine Mix Improved (#1407) consists of eight long-blooming colors. The mix is perfect for window boxes, hanging baskets, and mixed containers. The orange is especially impressive, as it has bronze foliage that really stands out in the mix.

JSS Advantage Newsletter -- March 2012: Lettuce for All Markets and All Seasons

Lettuce for all markets and all seasons

Here are some facts about lettuce that may surprise you: It is the most valuable vegetable crop in the United States, with sales of $2.2 billion in 2010. (Fresh tomatoes were a distant second at $1.4 billion.) Lettuce alone accounts for 19% of all fresh vegetable sales in the U.S. Iceberg lettuce is still the dominant type, accounting for 53% of total lettuce sales, but its popularity has been dropping. Meanwhile other types of head lettuces and salad mixes have been steadily increasing in popularity.
Those statistics from USDA's Economic Research Service are derived from wholesale production of lettuce, 98% of which occurs in California and Arizona. Although they aren't directly relevant to local market farms, they do show the importance of lettuce to the American consumer: People want lettuce and they want it year-round.
If you have been treating lettuce as a minor crop, perhaps it's time to take another look at the possibilities for increasing production and profits. You may be able to extend your season, expand into new distribution channels, and increase market demand with new types of presentation.
Johnny's has the resources to help you take your lettuce offerings to the next level. We've taken the guesswork out of growing lettuce by identifying the best varieties for each type of product head lettuce, salad mix, and microgreens. We also have the tools you need to make lettuce production efficient and profitable.

Full Size and Mini Head

Markets for head lettuce are numerous. Farmers markets, CSAs, restaurants, and supermarkets are all potential buyers for head lettuce. Johnny's research team has devised a head lettuce planting program to help you choose appropriate varieties for each season. We have decades of experience trialing lettuce varieties to identify characteristics such as heat and cold tolerance, disease resistance, and growth rate. Taking those factors into consideration, we recommend specific varieties for growing in spring, summer, and fall. The lettuce program encompasses all types and colors of head lettuce so you can cater to specific markets and trends. We suggest the best varieties of each major type of head lettuce.
An emerging trend in lettuce sales are combination packs of mini head lettuces. They are often sold in supermarkets in clamshells and to restaurants in mixed boxes. Direct market customers also will be interested in these single serving heads. Johnny's offers mini head varieties that produce fully formed but compact heads. Most are ready for harvest in about 45 days, 10-12 days faster than full head lettuce. Claremont (green) and Breen OG (red) are mini head romaines; Dancine (green) and Australe (red) are mini butterheads; Bambi and Winter Density are green mini bibs; Rhazes is an organic red mini bibb; and Baby Oakleaf is an organic green mini oakleaf.

Pelleted seed

Many full size and mini head varieties are available as pelleted seed. Johnny's offers more than 30 varieties with NOP-compliant pelleting.

Baby Leaf

Salad mix continues to be an important crop for many growers, despite being ubiquitous in supermarkets now. There's still no way a bagged salad mix can compare with the vitality and flavor of just-harvested baby leaf mix. Johnny's offers varieties specifically recommended for fast production in dense plantings.
Many experienced growers prefer to create their own signature mixes of colors and textures. They plant individual lettuce varieties, adjusting planting schedules based on experience, to allow for uniform harvest. Separate plantings allow for custom blending to meet customer preferences as well as reducing the likelihood of a total crop failure if one variety is more susceptible to disease. Johnny's offers 16 organic varieties and 7 nonorganic varieties of lettuces recommended for baby leaf production.
For growers who want a simple approach to salad mix, Johnny's has four pre-mixed lettuce mixes that we have designed to provide beautiful blends of colors, shapes, and textures. Our Encore Lettuce Mix is an all-organic option; Five Star Greenhouse Mix consists of varieties with downy mildew resistance for indoor production; Allstar Gourmet Lettuce Mix is our custom blend of varieties chosen for the best color even in low light conditions; Wildfire Lettuce Mix has a high percentage of red lettuces.

Micro Greens

Micro greens, the seedlings of herbs, and vegetables, are a super-quick crop with year-round income potential. Johnny's has selected both fast growing (ready in 10-15 days) and slow growing (ready in 16-25 days) varieties in a wide range of colors, textures, and flavors to meet your needs. Many are certified-organic seeds. Choose individual varieties to make your own custom mix, or purchase a conveniently pre-mixed blend of seeds in either a Mild Micro Mix or Spicy Micro Mix.
Also harvested at a very young age, sprouts and shoots make a great addition to your mix. High seed and labor costs for micro greens demand that you get a good price for the finished product. We recommend you seek out markets, usually high-end restaurants, before you commit to micro greens in a big way.

Be Quick, Be Efficient; Increase your lettuce revenue with the right tools

Lettuce has a relatively short shelf life, so the key to profitability is to grow just what you can sell, to start seeds at appropriate times for transplant, and to schedule multiple successions. Johnny's precision seeders are tools designed for both greenhouse and field application. They range from the single-row Glaser seeder, which is suitable for lettuce head production if seeding in the field, to the Four-Row and Six-Row Seeders for making dense plantings of baby leaf lettuce both in the greenhouse or field. We have a wide selection of growing and planting tools and supplies. And check out our new harvest and seedling cart to get your flats of plants out to the field and your harvested lettuce back to the packing shed.
Harvesting salad mix is fast with Johnny's exclusive Greens Harvester, the manual version of a band saw harvester. A scalloped knife blade cleanly slices the leaves, and a cloth basket catches them. A single worker can harvest up to 100 lb. per hour. To complete the salad mix workflow, Johnny's offers three salad spinners for washing baby leaf lettuce.

Johnny's Donates 29-acre Benton Field to Maine Farmland Trust

Erica Buswell of Maine Farmland Trust signs a conservation easement document on Tuesday as Johnny’s Selected Seeds Founder and Chairman Rob Johnston, Jr. looks on at Johnny’s Research Farm in Albion, Maine. Also pictured from left to right in the back row: Brian Milliken, Johnny’s Farm Manager, William Bell, Maine Farmland Trust Board President, and John Piotti, Maine Farmland Trust Executive Director.

Johnny's recently donated a 29-acre agricultural conservation easement that is used for plant breeding and seed production to the Maine Farmland Trust.

The easement agreement was signed Feb. 28 at a “Farmland Forever” closing ceremony at Johnny’s Research Farm in Albion, ME. The land being protected is known as the Benton Field. With its southern exposure and rich soil, the Benton Field is ideal for growing vegetables.

“It’s one of our best,” said Johnny’s Founder and Chairman Rob Johnston, Jr.
"We believe in statutory farmland protection. Good land ought not be subject to non-farm development.”

Read story about the conservation easement in the Waterville Morning Sentinel.

What's New at the Farm? Greenhouse Photos

As the days are getting longer my thoughts turn to the impending spring season. Seems it was warm all winter but now winter is trying to make one last stand before it’s all over. The greenhouse is all green and warm; a great place to spend a cold, dreary winter day.

The greenhouse now has all the trellises installed; it’s a very busy looking landscape.

Before we know it we’ll be starting seedlings:

But for now, it's still winter.

It won’t soon look like this; it’ll be spring sooner than later. The birds will be returning and the snow and ice will be retreating. Soon the first dandelions will be blossoming against the south sides of buildings and we’ll wonder where winter went.

We’ll finish ordering the bulk of the supplies this week; the big stuff anyways.  We’ve ordered the row covers, plastic mulch, potting soils and fertilizers, the soil amendments and the planting flats. We’ve inventoried the other crop growing aids we’ll need and will order those shortly. We’ll do as much work as we can before the season gets under way.

I’m off next week. I will try to get a few things done before spring arrives. Although with the impending snowstorm, I may put a couple of things off a while. I do intend to put together a couple of raised beds; one for early greens and one for something else. And I’ve got some errands to do around town so will get those done.

Enjoy the snow; it won’t be here long.
Brian

Johnny's Attends the 2012 MOSES Organic Farming Conference

Last Thursday Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Ken Fine, headed to La Crosse, Wisconsin for the 23rd Annual Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Farming Conference.

This conference is the largest organic farming conference in the U.S, with over 65 informative workshops, 160 exhibitors, locally-sourced organic food, live entertainment and educational keynote speakers.

Ken spent three days at the conference connecting with Johnny's customers, talking about our New for 2012 products, demonstrating some of our smaller hand tools and was even interviewed by WEAU 13, the local TV news station in Western Wisconsin.

See photos from the MOSES conference below, along with a video recap of some of the participating exhibitors, posted on the MOSES website. To see additional videos, head to their website here.

 

Eliot Coleman's Organic Farm, Winter Growing Subject of New York Times Story

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a great story -- "Living Off the Land In Maine, Even in Winter" -- about Four Seasons Farm here in Maine.

New York Times photo

Barbara Damrosch harvests Tatsoi at Four Seasons Farm in Harborside, ME. See story in the NY Times.

The story, written by gardening columnist Anne Raver, is about the organic farm owned by gardening book authors Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. The article details many of their winter growing techniques, season extension ideas, and managing a small commercial growing operation. It is accompanied by an online photo slideshow with a dozen shots from the farm.

Johnny's exclusively carries many of the tools that Eliot helped develop and design, including Broadforks, the Long-Handled Wire Weeder, the Bed Preparation Rake Row Markers, the Hand Tiller, and the Tilther.

These books, written by Eliot and Barbara, are also available on our website.

• "The Winter Harvest Handbook" by Eliot Coleman
• "The New Organic Grower" by Eliot Coleman
• "Four Season Harvest" by Eliot Coleman
• "The Gardening Primer" by Barbara Damrosch

We also carry the DVD -- "Year-Round Vegetable Production with Eliot Coleman"

What's New at the Farm? Random thoughts on weeds, rats, and birds

I think for this week, I’ll toss some random thoughts out there; things that we all need to think about but nothing I can write a whole column on.

Weed Seed Movement:  Weed seed does not moves on its own, but rather we move it with our actions. Fifteen years ago here at the farm, we had a small plot of Galinsoga. Now we have it in every field on this farm and at some of the isolations fields. Galinsoga is a bad weed; if you don’t have it, don’t get it. If you do have it you know what a challenge it is to handle. Preventing weed seed movement is as simple as cleaning your tools and shoes between gardening sessions. Washing equipment between fields helps here on the farm; a lot of weed seed can hide in a small amount of soil

If you have a landscaping service rototill your garden make sure they wash their equipment prior to tilling your plot. There’s no need to bring your neighbors’ weed seed into your garden. If you have a weed issue in part of your garden, make sure it doesn’t get established in the other parts of your garden. Be vigilant about killing and removing any weeds going to seed; especially in the late summer /fall season. Many weeds grow well undisturbed in the fall months, after gardening interest has waned. Chickweed is a good example of this. Keep an eye on cover crops to make sure that weeds don’t grow in their understory. If you see weeds growing there, mow or otherwise kill off the crop and reseed. 

Rats: If you have domestic animals, you will have rats. Fact. Everyone who has domestic animals knows this and accepts it. There are other circumstances that ensure you’ll have them too. One is birdfeeders. Birdfeeders concentrate bird activity in one area of the yard, thereby attracting all kinds of unwanted critters, including rats. Birds are notoriously wasteful and throw seed everywhere. All this seed on the ground is a surefire way to attract rats. I’ve seen full-grown rats chasing squirrels away so they can feed on the smorgasbord of seed at a bird feeding station. Compost piles and greenhouses are also attractions for rats; food, shelter and warmth will give rats a good place to spend the winter.

Solution for rats? Well, it varies. Deny them a place that’s warm, a food source and a place to hide out and that will go a long way towards reducing their numbers. Have the compost pile away from buildings – out in the open where they’ll have to be exposed in order to search for food. Birds of prey will take their toll on them as they move about.  Foxes, weasels and pine martins will also eat them if given the opportunity.  The placement of bird feeders out in the open, or at least not in an area that will provide them lots of cover i.e. low growing bushes will help to discourage them from hanging around. I’ve seen owls watching the feeders at home and talking mice but not taking the songbirds from around the feeders. Of course the birds don’t hang around much when there’s an owl perched above them either.

I had rats in the garage last year. My garage is between the bird feeders and the compost pile and has the chicken houses on the north side of the yard. I dislike poisoning them but I dislike them even more. I resorted to poison to get rid of them and then placed drops of peppermint oil around the garage in several locations. Coincidence or not, I haven’t seen a rat in the garage this year.  And the garage smells good too.

Birds: I like birds; all kinds of them. Whether they are songbirds, birds of prey or ducks and geese I enjoy them all. The winter is a perfect time to do some maintenance of the birdhouses that adorn both Johnny’s farm and my place at home.  At the farm, we have approximately 30 birdhouses around the fields and woods. Most of these houses are occupied with swallows, but we do have a Bluebird pair down on the hill. At the house we have about 12 birdhouses around the yard and garden. I must admit I’m not as disciplined at home about the birdhouses as I am at Johnny’s but my heart is in the right place. I have designed a birdhouse that works well for swallows and can be taken down each year, repaired and stored for the winter before being put back out in the weather for new nests to be built in.

We have had over the years hundreds of successful nests here at the farm, mostly swallows. I like their aerial maneuvers and graceful flights. They are certainly busy feeding their young ones until they fledge. Fledging is the most dangerous time for the young ones, but it’s immensely rewarding watching them take off for the first time too. This time of year, I walk through the fields stopping at each birdhouse to clean and inspect it. I bring some tools and a spare house or two and make repairs and observations as to anything that needs fixing before the birds’ arrival in the spring. Spring comes earlier than you might think so it’s best to not put this maintenance off too late.

This is a good time to look around at birdhouses and perhaps build or buy a couple. Sometimes it’ll take a year or two to get the birds interested in a new house. Sometimes they’ll move in as soon as they come back.  There are a lot of craftsmen out there who make really nice houses, although the birds aren’t usually all that fussy. As long as they feel safe and secure they’ll probably nest in it. A good birdhouse should last 10 to 20 years if properly taken care of.

And my final thought for today:  Spring will be here sooner than we know it and we need to be ready!  Next week is March and winter is about done. I’ve ordered the compost, most of the plastic and row covers, and most all the crop growing aids that we’ll need. I’ve yet to order the cover crop seed. I’ll finalize the planting plan before I decide which cover crops to use this year.  The planting plan designates which crop will be planted where. Where crops go depends on many factors including fertility, soil conditions, rotations and previous crop information. Did a crop do well here or should I move that same crop to another field? Here at Johnny’s we have 10 different field locations and a total of 31 separate fields. Placing all our crops is kind of like a big crossword puzzle. There’s a lot of planning that goes on to make sure all crops perform as well as they can.

Until next week, I think I’ll go do some more planning.
Brian

Johnny's New Organic Online Catalog Released

The Johnny's Selected Seeds 2012 NOP Certified Organic Online Catalog is now live on our website. This new catalog contains 96 pages with more than 350 organic products. Click here to view the catalog.

OG Catalog

USDA releases new Plant Hardiness Zone Map

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a new color coded Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the United States.

Plant Hardiness Zone Map

The USDA has collaborated with Oregon State University to produce an updated Plant Hardiness Zone Map -- the first since 1990. According to the USDA's website, the new map features much greater detail than the old version, in part because the map was created using digital or Geographic Information System (GIS) based data combined with a "sophisticated algorithm".

The USDA's upgraded website is more user friendly and well worth a visit. Improvements include:

• Interactive map with zoom and customized terrain adjustment
• Downloadable Plant Hardiness Zone Maps available in several different sizes and resolutions.
• Hardiness zones searchable by zip code, state, and region.
• GIS data downloads (license necessary)

The latest map shows a slight warming trend compared to the 1990 edition. The USDA reports that the new map is generally a half a zone warmer than the earlier version. The USDA has also defined two new hotter zones that didn't exist on the previous map -- zones 12 and 13.

Read more about the new map on the USDA's Plant Hardiness Zone Map website.

Win $50 Johnny's Coupon by Taking Winter Growing Survey

Do you grow produce in the winter? Are you thinking about ways to extend your growing season? Fill out our Winter Growing Survey. It won't take more than 5 minutes and you can enter a contest to win a $50 Johnny's coupon.

Click here to take survey

What's New at the Farm? Greenhouses

It’s already the middle of February. Where did the winter go?

To say it’s been a strange winter is an understatement. Two big snowstorms (or events as they are called now) in the fall months, and some cold but not a lot and the bulk of winter is behind us. Oh sure, we may get some cold and perhaps some snow but with the days getting longer, spring is closer than we think. The woodpile has shrunk considerably, which is a sure sign of winter’s waning days. Fine by me as spring is my favorite time of year.

Speaking of spring, we are running one of our greenhouses all winter this year so we can grow in the off-season. Here’s a photo taken Monday this week:

Greenhouse at Johnny's Research Farm, Albion, ME

It’s 32.7˚F outside as I write this and it’s 75˚F in the greenhouse. We’ve just recently had the grow lights installed to mimic summer day length. I’ll tell you, walking in at night to turn the lights off and one would think they’re some place tropical. Well, not really tropical, but it is great to be in where it’s warm and well lit with crops being grown. It’ll be months before we see this outside.

This last paragraph brings me to my subject for this week -- the home greenhouse.  I always wanted my own greenhouse. I like growing crops in a greenhouse and we wanted to grow seedlings for our own use so when one came up for sale locally, we bought it. It was a New England series built for the snow loads we often get here. Dimensions were 21 feet wide and 32 feet long – perfect size. It came with a propane furnace with controls, a 36-inch exhaust fan, a new roll of plastic, baseboards and wood framed end walls. Buying it was the easy part! First thing we had to do was move it. Taking it apart and moving it 15 miles took me a weekend. It was easy enough. Turn the nuts to tighten and they snap off easily; I’d planned on replacing them anyways.  I didn’t worry about taking the plastic off as it was 8 years old and I had a brand new roll to put on. The ends came off and were loaded into my truck in one piece; well, you get the idea: taking one down is the easy part.

Once I got all the parts and pieces home, it was time to put it back together. First of all I wanted to make a few minor changes in the structure; namely adding roll up sides, vents that would close automatically and additional purlins or crop support piping. At the time water pipe was cheap so I added the roll up sides, which also meant I needed to add a hip board. I extended the baseboard from eight inches tall to sixteen inches tall.  The structure itself went up fairly quickly, especially since I did most of it myself.
New plastic was installed, and the new aluminum vents were put in the end opposite the fan end.  The propane furnace was installed (a word of caution here – heating any greenhouse large or small is an expensive proposition) and all was good.

Now what to raise in it and how? Like most greenhouses around, we built benches and grew seedlings. The first couple of years we had 500 or so 6 packs of various seedlings to sell and tried retail. There are a couple of drawbacks with selling retail if you work full time plus. Being around all the time and being cordial all the time.  Everyone needs some space and that’s what my home is for; space to do and be what I want to be. That’s pretty hard if you have people showing up all days and times, poking through everything, criticizing and then not buying anything.

Anyways, to make a long story even longer, we decided retail wasn’t for us. And growing seedlings wasn’t for us either. So we decided to take out the benches and grow vegetables in the greenhouse instead.

We built raised beds; five in all, two 2-foot beds and three 3-foot beds. This configuration allowed us room to work around the beds easily but also made good use of the room we had. The beds were 12 inches tall and we filled them with topsoil with a liberal amount of compost mixed in.  We also had hanging baskets full of flowers and cucumbers. It turned into kind of a cool project. 
We had an area for mixing flats and for planting and transplanting complete with a sink, lawn chairs and a coffee table. A greenhouse in the winter, even without supplemental heat, can easily climb into the nineties during a sunny afternoon, so what better place to hang out on a cold winter day?  During the fall and winter we laid plywood over the beds and used it for storage during the cold winter months.

In the 2-foot beds we raised tomatoes, summer squash and cucumbers. The 3-foot beds were primarily salad greens with a few fun projects thrown in like super early potatoes. We had a pretty good setup but like all things we decided to pare down what we grew as we weren’t into selling it and we raised far more than two people could possibly consume. We gave away much produce, and we had a good time raising all these crops but it too soon became a high maintenance project.  Each year we grew less and less until we stopped growing altogether.

So, once we decided not to grow crops or seedlings in there what do we want to do with it? I toyed with selling it, but didn’t really want to. We took out the raised beds and put landscape fabric down to keep the weeds from overtaking. We still used it for curing onions and could put it back into growing crops if we wanted to. Today we use it for storage for our lawn furniture, wood splitter, lawnmower and my boat. There’s also a cord of wood for the kitchen cook stove, scrap wood for the fire pit and my four wheeler and trailer. The issue of being so hot in the greenhouse; too hot to store equipment in, was alleviated by hanging the shade cloth from the frame on the inside of the greenhouse. It now remains cool and dry in there.  So, basically, it’s a storage area now. Looking over the contents of the greenhouse last weekend, I think if I cleaned it out I would make something else out of it now. Most of what’s in there can be stored somewhere else; I only use the greenhouse for storage because it’s already there. So, what can I do with this structure next?

Yep, here it comes: Peafowl housing! First I’ll clean it out and then I’ll run some four foot wire around the bottom of the greenhouse between the baseboard and the hip board. That’ll keep the critters out and the peafowl in. I’ll take the shade cloth down and put it on the outside once the weather starts to warm up. I think I’ll make a spot in one corner that she can have her nest and sit on her eggs, and a couple of roosts; they like to sit on them to preen and talk. The greenhouse should make a really good pen as it’s over 650 square feet and 10 feet tall at the peak. Currently their pen is 10 feet tall but only 140 square feet.  I’ll pull out the landscape fabric and replace it with clean straw. And maybe just for kicks I’ll toss a few guinea hens in with them!

The greenhouse proved to be an interesting project. It all started with the research of what we wanted and what was available, buying, moving, and modifying it. Raising crops and seedlings and finally using it for something completely different than what it was designed for; there are endless possibilities of what to do with a greenhouse.  If you have the want and the opportunity to get a hold of one, do so and you’ll find lots of possibilities too.
Until next week, Brian

A Visit to Intervale Community Farm in Vermont, and Photos From the NOFA-VT Winter Conference

Last week, Johnny's Maine-based Vermont Territory Sales Rep, Chris Hillier, visited Johnny's customer Intervale Community Farm (ICF) in Burlington, Vermont. Organized as a member-owned, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm, ICF has grown to serve over 500 member households annually, growing and distributing produce for nine months of the year.

After the farm visit, Chris headed to the NOFA-VT Winter Conference. The conference was from Friday, February 10- Sunday February 12th at the University of Vermont (UVM).

Workshops at the conference included those from Cornell University researcher Jonathan Comstock who spoke about farming in a changing climate, as well as Deb Neher who works in the Department of Plant Soil and Science at UVM and educated people on soil health.

See photos from Chris's farm visit as well as pictures from the NOFA-VT Conference:

 

Intervale Community Farm (ICF) in Burlington, Vermont

 

 

Our Johnny's booth set up at the conference

 

The Growing Wisdom DVDs on display in our booth

 

Art work displayed throughout the conference by the NOFA-VT staff

Product spotlight: Fruit Plants, Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, and Rhubarb

Fruit plants

This year, why not add fruit to your market garden or home orchard? Johnny's has a good selection of healthy berry and rhubarb plants available only for a limited time.

Sparkle

Prime Jim

Killarney

Strawberry Sparkle is an old-fashioned June-bearing variety renowned for its delicious flavor. It is considered one of the best varieties for jam making and freezing. Plants are vigorous and productive, with medium-size, dark red berries. Strawberry plants are shipped in March through April.

Blackberry Prime Jim is a primocane fruiting variety with large berries. It has a good flavor and sweetness, like other thorny varieties, but it is not as thorny as wild blackberries. Fruits are not recommended for shipping. Summer temperatures above 85˚F can greatly reduce yield. Plants are shipped March through April.

Raspberry Killarney is an early/midseason variety that produces bright red, medium-size fruits that are considered extremely sweet for a raspberry. It was developed in Manitoba and is very cold hardy. One-year-old dormant canes are shipped March through April.

Stevens

Collection

Victoria

Cranberry Stevens is a hybrid from USDA's cranberry breeding program. It has good yields of round to oval fruits that keep well. 4-year-old plants are shipped in 6" pots. Cranberry plants are shipped mid April to mid June for spring planting or early August through September for fall planting.
Blueberries require more than one variety for pollination, so Johnny's Blueberry Collection includes one plant each of Patriot, Northland, and Jersey. The three varieties mature in sequence, providing a long season of tasty blueberries. 18-month-old plants are shipped March through April.
Rhubarb is the earliest fruit plant to produce in spring, and essential for strawberry-rhubarb pie. We have certified-organic plants of Victoria, a sweet and mild variety, available for shipping from late March through April. Victoria also can be grown from seed. Rhubarb should not be harvested the first year and only lightly harvested the second year. If it's in a suitable location, with well-drained soil, it will produce for a decade or more.