Johnny's Attends the Great Lakes Expo in Grand Rapids, MI

Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Ken Fine, recently attended the Great Lakes Expo, held in Grand Rapids, MI, on Tuesday–Thursday, December 4–6, 2012.

The Expo featured over 70 informative education program sessions over the 3-day event, addressing topics such as greenhouse production and marketing information; organic production, other topics of special interest to growers; a Farmers' Market; and 380 exhibitors. According to the Expo website, over 4000 people from 42 states and 6 Canadian provinces registered for their 2011 event.

Over the course of the event, Ken was able to connect with growers from all sizes of operations and levels of experience. More than 80 people from Michigan stopped by Johnny’s booth, as well as numerous other customers from across the Midwest. Ken spoke about our new-for-2013 products, including the new 'Salanova' Lettuce Line and the Johnny's-bred, AAS Winner, 'Jasper' Cherry Tomato.

Here are a few photos of Johnny’s booth, below, as well as additional images from the conference.

A look at Johnny's booth

 

Johnny's booth, all set up

 

The conference center

 

Great Lakes Expo

 

A look at the trade show exhibitors

Learn more about the Great Lakes Expo at their website, and check out the 2012 Expo photo slideshow >>

Pepper Starting at Johnny’s Selected Seeds
— How We Do It —

Here is the basic process we follow when starting peppers here at Johnny’s …

In early April, once we have determined which varieties we want to grow and how many plants of each, we assemble the seeds, 20-row flats, and Johnny’s Germination Mix that we will need to start the growing process. We place masking tape on one edge of the 20-row flat, so we can keep track of the varieties we have sown. We fill the rows three-quarters full with the germination mix, tamp it down slightly, and seed our rows with 20–30 seeds per row. The flats are covered with more germination mix and watered lightly. A leak-proof tray is then set on top, to ensure that the flat retains moisture during germination, and the flat is placed in a warm (85°F/29°C), dark place.

As soon as the first few pepper seeds germinate, we take the trays out and place them on heat mats, with the temperature set to 75°F/24°C. Once the plants reach the stage where you can see the first true leaves, we “bump up” the seedlings to the 50-cell flats in which they are going to spend their most active growing time. Here in Albion, Maine, the length of time the seedlings will spend in the 50-cell flats is usually about 6 weeks, or until they are ready to be transplanted.
 

Our peppers are planted on IRT (infrared-transmitting plastic) mulch, with two rows per bed and plants 18” apart in staggered rows. The plastic mulch should be at least 32” across, which allows for the two rows to be planted away from the edges of the poly, where they may receive unwanted root pruning from mechanical cultivation. We fertilize the ground and lay the poly on slightly raised beds about a week prior to transplanting.

Depending on current weather conditions, we may install wire hoops and floating row covers immediately after transplanting, to add warmth and decrease transplant shock. These row covers are removed when nighttime temperatures reach an acceptable degree. 

During the main growing season, the pepper beds are mechanically cultivated regularly to limit weed competition. The planting holes are also checked for weeds, and hand weeded as necessary.

Depending on weather, a regular drip irrigation regimen will be established, in order to prevent any major fluctuations in soil moisture.

And that about sums it up for the pepper-starting routine we follow, here at Johnny’s.

— Brian Milliken,  Albion, Maine, 01/09/2013

To learn more about starting peppers, read:

§  Key Points to Growing Successful Pepper Transplants

§  JSS Pepper Selection

What's New at the Farm — Before the Ground Freezes Up

Pumpkin and Squash Seed Harvesting

The week before Thanksgiving finds the farm still buzzing with activity. Trying to get everything wrapped up before the ground freezes keeps us busy in the not-so-pleasant weather of November. Much of our time this week has also been directed toward the cucurbit (pumpkins and squash) seed-harvest.

A local farmer here in mid-Maine grows several squash and pumpkin varieties for us; here’s a shot of bins full of fruit being delivered to us prior to processing.

The fruits are loaded onto a hay elevator and dumped into our vine crop harvester. where they are crushed to release their seeds. Here’s a shot of the end of the vine harvester where the pulp comes out.

 At this point the seed has been extracted from the fruits and is being deposited underneath the rotating drum. What comes out the back are the fruit rinds. These are collected and made into compost, to be reapplied to feed another crop.

Once the seed depth has built up, we take the seed out of the collector on the vine seed harvester, for processing it in the coner.

This machine has rubber paddles inside, which, when injected with large amounts of water, gently wash the pulp from the seeds.

As you can see, it’s a wet job, with water going in every direction!

Here’s the business end of the coner and the washed seeds coming out.

The seed mixture is comprised of seeds, pulp, and a few rind pieces. All the seed is collected, whether it be good, plump seed or flat seed that isn’t good. It is all placed on our paddle dryer and dried down to where it can safely be stored whilst waiting for seed cleaning to begin.

Here’s the seed being agitated and dried. 

Once the seed is dried it goes into our controlled atmosphere storage.

After being cleaned on one or more of our seed cleaning machines, it gets a final inspection on a “Bean Table.” A bean table is a small table fitted out with a belt that carries seeds (originally beans; hence the name) along in front of a person, to be visually inspected. The small boxes on either side are for holding broken, dirty, or otherwise subprime seeds that are being taken out. The good seeds drop into a bucket and, when the batch is done, are sewn up and put back into seed storage.

And that wraps that up — well, 20-something varieties — and we’re done harvesting.

Aside from that, we’re trying to pull all the plastic from the fields that we can, before freeze-up. There may be warmer weather for pulling it in the spring, but that would be leaving one more job undone for the spring, and we’ve got enough to do that time of year. It’s nice to get it all pulled up before we’re done for the season — sort of a closing task to the season.

There are a lot of other projects we can do around the farm before winter, but I’m sure we won’t get to them all. There are a few trees that need to be taken down, and some limbs to be trimmed off. Getting as much equipment gone through and stored under cover is always a challenge. And we’re getting our hoophouses planted for our overwintering crops — we’ll have fresh succulent greens in March.

Spring is closer than we think!

Until next time,

—Brian
11/16/2012 — Albion, Maine

Johnny's Attends Tradeshows in New Hampshire & Maine

Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Chris Hillier, recently attended UNH's North Country Fruit & Vegetable Seminar & Trade Show, held in Whitefield, New Hampshire, on October 30th, and MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer Conference in Northport, Maine, from November 9th to 11th.

The North Country Fruit & Vegetable Seminar was held at the Mountain View Grand on the day Hurricane Sandy began to roll into New England. Due to the storm, unfortunately, some of the promotional materials we'd sent via UPS to the conference never made it there! Nevertheless, Chris Hillier was able to set up Johnny's booth with a selection of crops on display, as well as various useful informational handouts. Below are photos of our booth and some other shots from Chris of the conference.

A look at our booth – set up and ready to go!

Our pumpkins labeled and on display

Another look at our specialty pumpkins

Katsko Zintchenko, a home gardener from NH, won Johnny's door prize!

A view of the conference room, where the workshops took place

Workshops at the conference covered such topics as using cover crops to manage weeds, how to distinguish beneficial from harmful insects on your crops, and a discussion on growing crops in high tunnels. 

The following week, Chris headed to MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer Conference in Northport, Maine, November 9th-11th. Along with Chris, a member of our Contact Center, Dave, a Canadian Sales Team member, Randy, and Steve and Kelly from the Johnny's Research Farm also attended the conference from Johnny's.

Our-Farmer-to-Farmer booth, all set up

Chris was able to bring a preview of Johnny's 2013 catalog to this event, which allowed customers at the show to see what we would be offering as of November 15th. Attendees also got to check out the brand new product images that were displayed on the backdrop of her tradeshow booth, and grab handouts on new items, as well as new growing tips and charts that will be debuting in the new catalog and at JohnnySeeds.com on November 15th.
 

Learn more about MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer Conference at MOFGA.org >>

Johnny's Is Sponsoring & Attending MOFGA's 2012 Farmer-to-Farmer Conference

Hope to See You There!

This Friday, November 9th, 2012, Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Chris Hillier, will be attending MOFGA's annual Farmer-to-Farmer Conference. This year's conference — which Johnny's is sponsoring as well — is being held at beautiful Point Lookout in Northport, Maine from Friday through Sunday.

According to MOFGA, the Farmer-to-Farmer Conference...

• Is based on the idea that farmers learn best from their peers and other practitioners.

• Features prominent and accessible university faculty, extension educators, and other agricultural professionals.
  

• Features a unique 3-hour workshop session format, in which one half is dedicated to talks by both agricultural service professionals and farmers, and the other to a round table discussion intended to solicit and capitalize on the accumulated knowledge of all the farmers in attendance.

Chris, a regular at the conference for several years, is looking forward to its open format to connect with Maine growers, hear how their growing season went, and learn what they will need for a successful 2013 season.

This year, Johnny's will be raffling off a $100 Gift Certificate at our booth, providing a preview of our 2013 Catalog, and answering your growing questions. Be sure to look for us there, and stop by to say hello!

Get all the Conference Details today.

A look at the venue – Point Lookout in Northport, ME

Find out more at http://www.visitpointlookout.com/

Johnny's 2012 Common Ground Fair Raffle Winners Announced

2012 Common Ground Country Fair — Raffle Winners

Johnny's Selected Seeds is pleased to announce the following raffle ticket winners from the 2012 Common Ground Fair:

• Janis Albright of South Portland, Maine won a $100 Gift Certificate
• Karelyn Closson of Portland, Maine won a $100 Gift Certificate
• Alan Schultz of Worthington, Massachusetts won a $100 Gift Certificate

• Johanna Davis and Adam Nordell of Songbird Farm won the High Tunnel raffle. Songbird Farm is a certified organic vegetable and grain farm situated on six acres of fertile bottomland along the Sandy River in Starks, Maine. 

Johanna Davis and Adam Nordell of Songbird Farm

Johnny's 2012 Fryeburg Fair Raffle Winner Announced

2012 Fryeburg Fair — Raffle Winner

Johnny's Selected Seeds is pleased to announce and congratulate the winner of our 2012 Fryeburg Fair Raffle:

Mikaela Ebitz of Bangor, Maine won a $100 Gift Certificate

Johnny's Demo Plot at the 2012 Fryeburg Fair

Johnny's Selected Seeds — 2012 Fryeburg Fair

Jordan Gardens' 2012 Fall Pumpkin Festival

Great Pumpkins !

Owner Wayne Lobley, together with family, friends, and the Jordan Gardens staff in Machias, Maine hosted the Annual Pumpkin Festival on September 15th, 2012, and Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Representative, Joy Frost, was on hand at the event as a judge again this year.

The three Pumpkin Growing Contest categories were 'Smallest,' 'Largest,' and 'Best Decorated Pumpkin.' Those eligible to enter the contest were children 12 years and younger (at the time of planting) and living in Washington County, Maine. Johnny's Selected Seeds donated all the pumpkin seeds used to grow entries for the event, and Jordan Gardens provided the planting instructions in April.

This year’s Annual Pumpkin Festival offered hay rides, a donut-eating contest, a pumpkin patch, a maze in Jordan Gardens' hay field, and many more activities and games, such as pumpkin bowling and floral arranging.

Below are some photos of the many great pumpkins grown this year...

The Pumpkin Voted 'Most Creative' by the Judges

A Look at Some of the Great Entries This Year

The Check-in Booth at the Event

Another Line-up of Great Contest Entries

Some of the 'Best Decorated' Pumpkins

The Winner of the 'Smallest Pumpkin' Category

Winners of the 'Largest Pumpkin' Category
(pumpkin weighing in at 90 lb.)

'Best All-Around Pumpkin' Winner

The Crowd — Awaiting the Judges' Declaration of Winners

Learn more about Jordan Gardens >>

Check out Johnny's wide selection of superior pumpkins >>

What's New at the Farm

Harvesting Tomatoes for Seed

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

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

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

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

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

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

 The next morning it looks like this.

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

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

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

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

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

—Brian
09/17/2012—Albion, Maine