Join Johnny's Over the 2013 Common Ground Fair Weekend

Join us at our booth at the MOFGA Fairgrounds,
or at our Retail Store in Winslow

Learn more about the Common Ground Country Fair at the MOFGA website >>>

The Advantages of Cover Crops

By Lynn Byczynski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Growing Edible Flowers

Johnny's will be Participating in Bejo Seed's August Open House and Demonstration Trials

This August, Johnny's will again be a part of the Bejo Seed's Open House. Stop by our booth and say hello!

Members of our Research Department
at the 2012 Bejo Seeds Open House

At our booth, you'll have a chance to:

• See our demonstration plots of Sunflowers, Squash, Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, Eggplants, and Peppers.
• Learn how to use the latest tools at the equipment demonstrations, including a demonstration of our Quick Cut Greens Harvester.
• Meet Johnny's Commercial Territory Sales Reps as well as Product Technicians from our Research Farm in Albion, Maine.

 

We will be on hand at the Johnny's booth throughout the Open House to answer your questions and discuss all your tools and supplies needs.

Bejo will also be providing refreshments as well as a light lunch for attendees on Tuesday, August 27.

Event Details

When: Tuesday-Wednesday, August 27-28, 2013 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Where: 4188 Pre Emption Rd., Geneva, NY 14456
Please RSVP at: (315) 789-4155
Website: www.bejoseeds.com


Herbs to Plant Now for a Fall Harvest

Looking to complement your harvest of fall vegetables this year? Herbs can be a great addition to your market offerings. Herbs like Parsley, Sage, and Leaf Fennel are perfect companions to your selection of winter squash and onions.

Below is a list of suggested Herbs that you can plant now to harvest this fall:
Parsley
Leaf Fennel
Sage
Oregano
Thyme
Root Parsley
 Herbs are a great way for your customers to season their roasted winter vegetables. They can also be sold fresh for immediate use, or easily dried and stored to be used at a later date. 



Name those Herbs!

 

Leave a comment below this Blog post, and name the two Herbs featured in the photo above.

One randomly selected person who comments correctly will win a packet of seeds of each of the Herbs featured in the picture.

Combating Spotted Wing Drosophila and Late Blight

In recent weeks, Spotted Wing Drosophila and Late Blight have been popping up on growing operations throughout the Northeast. Below are some tips for preventing these issues from becoming a serious problem this year.

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) occurs each year in many areas of the United States and the world. There are steps that you can take in order to reduce late blight recurrence this growing season.

• Pull up and throw away or burn any volunteer potato plants — these sprout from tubers that may have gone unseen in the soil last fall during clean up and/or in the compost pile.
• Plant certified disease-free potato seed pieces — do not use seed pieces saved from last season.
• Follow recommended crop spacing and soil fertility, maximize greenhouse and hoophouse air circulation, reduce insect pressures.
• Cull any and all tomato or potato plants if they display late blight symptoms by throwing away or burning plant debris.
• Treat plants with a preventative copper spray. We recommend item #9778, Champ® WG Copper Fungicide (OG)
• Treat plants with hydrogen dioxide for prevention and treatment of late blight infections. We recommend item #9719, Oxidate® (OG).

According to the Vermont Veg & Berry Newsletter, late blight has been confirmed in Franklin County, MA on tomato plants on July 11th, and in Erie County, NY on tomato plants July 10th, and on potato plants July 9th. Previous reports in FL, WV, LA, TN, MD, KY, VA, NC, and WI have been confirmed as P. infestans strains US-23 and US-7. You can track disease progress at USA BLIGHT.

View our informative videos on Identifying Late Blight and Controlling Late Blight at Johnnyseeds.com.

Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii). According to MOFGA’s Pest Report of July 11, 2013, compiled by Eric Sideman, PhD, MOFGA’s Organic Crop Specialist, “The spotted wing drosophila (SWD) has been found in Maine this week, and was found in southern New England a week or two ago.” Here are some need-to-know facts about SWD, per MOFGA’s Pest Report:

• This fruit fly is a new pest in our region; it is a common pest in parts of Asia.
• The tiny fly looks like a typical fruit fly, but the males have a spot on each wing that you can barely see with the naked eye.
• Common fruit flies that we see here only go after overripe and rotting fruit. The SWD is a much greater problem because it can attack sound fruit and has been very damaging to raspberries, blueberries, and other late summer soft fruit.
• Two years ago was the first year in which it was seen in large numbers in Northern New England.
• In as few as 8 days it goes from eggs to new adults laying more eggs, so populations can explode quickly.

If you’re battling Spotted Wing Drosophila, you may want to explore our effective Organic Controls for combating this issue. Specifically, Entrust® SC (OG) is extremely effective against Spotted Wing Drosophila. You can learn more about Entrust® SC (OG) on Johnnyseeds.com here »

Our Recap of the 24th Annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference

Johnny’s Selected Seeds Maine-based Territory Representative, Ken Fine, attended the 24th Annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference held recently in La Crosse, Wisconsin (February 22–24, 2013). This was Ken’s 12^th year attending the show as an exhibitor! Johnny’s was pleased to serve as a sponsor of the tradeshow, as well.

Johnny’s double-sized booth was located on the corner of the third row of exhibitors, near the entrance to the educational sessions and lunch room. Some of the items we displayed this year at the booth were our 60-lb. JSS 'Polar Bear' Pumpkin with an informational poster board, a video of our new Quick-Cut Greens Harvester in action, and various informative materials about our new Salanova® Lettuce Collections.

This year we also brought our Quick-Cut Greens Harvester, along with live pea shoots and wheat grass, so Ken could demonstrate how efficient and easy to use the tool is to tradeshow attendees.

 

According to the MOSES website, over 3300 people attended the conference.

Participants came from all over the U.S. and overseas — the 'most adventurous' award goes to the person who came all the way from Nigeria! It was great to see the complete range of ages at the conference — if it takes a village to get things done, the organic farming community is well on its way to creating a brighter future.

Some additional highlights from the conference:

• Keynote Speakers: Filmmakers Jeremy Seifert and Joshua Kunau, and organic farming pioneer Carmen Fernholz. Fernholz, who has been farming organically for over 40 years, shared his view of the ideal food system, one which includes engaged and informed eaters.

• Charlie Johnson of Madison, South Dakota, was honored as the 2013 MOSES Organic Farmer of the Year. The Johnson family farm has organic roots dating back to the 1970s, well before the organic farming movement had gained serious traction.

Have a look at some of Ken's photos from the Conference, below. Whether or not you, too, attended the conference or you simply wish to share your thoughts, we'd enjoy hearing from you in the Comments section below. Or, visit us on our our Facebook page anytime!

 

The Set-up Process of the Booth Begins

 

A Look at the Booth

 

Attendees Begin Exploring the Booth

 

Folks Filling out the Raffle Tickets

 

An overview of the Conference

 

Another Look at the Tradeshow Floor

 

Johnny's Attends the 2013 NOFA VT Winter Conference

Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep for Vermont, Chris Hillier, recently attended the NOFA Vt Winter Conference held in Burlington, VT at the University of Vermont, on February 15–17, 2013.

This year’s Winter Conference featured more than 70 diverse workshops, intensive seminars, TED-inspired talks by food system innovators, a second annual seed swap, a collective art project with local artist Bonnie Acker, and much more.

According to the conference website:

Whether you’re a gardener, homesteader, commercial farmer, researcher, forager, chef or consumer, you are certain to find something at the Winter Conference to enrich your skills, inspire your goals, and deepen your understanding of resilient food and farm systems.

Growers from all over New England attended the three-day Winter Conference.

Chris spoke to conference attendees about our new-for-2013 products, including the new 'Salanova' Lettuce line and the Johnny's-bred, AAS Winner 'Jasper,' as well as the Quick-Cut Greens Harvester. At the Johnny’s booth, we also featured live Salanova product, grown by a Johnny’s customer in the Southeast and shipped to Vermont, for conference-goers to see the product first-hand. Along with the product, Chris displayed our Salanova brochure, as well as informative product sheets on some of our newest products and existing customer favorites.

Conference attendees who stopped by the Johnny’s booth were able to sign up for our free raffle, where one grower won a $100 gift certificate to Johnny’s. Congrats, Enrique Peredo of Two Guys Blooms in Hinesburg, VT.

Below are a some photos of Chris’s trip, Johnny's booth, and some other great sights at the conference. If you, too, attended, please feel free to drop us a line, share your thoughts in the Comments section, below, or visit our Facebook page anytime!

Harvest New England Ag Marketing Conference & Trade Show

Johnny’s (Maine-based) Massachusetts Sales Reps, Ken Fine and Liz MacKinnon, recently attended the 2013 Harvest New England Ag Marketing Conference & Trade Show. Held Wednesday, February 27–Thursday, February 28, 2013 at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, Ken and Liz made the 4-hour drive from Johnny’s offices in Winslow, Maine.

While exhibiting over the course of two days, Ken and Liz spoke with growers from all across New England, including Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, as well as with customers from the New York region.

 

 

At the Johnny’s booth, we enjoyed giving a lot of Jang Clean Seeder and Quick-Cut Greens Harvester tool demonstrations for interested attendees. People love seeing these tools in action!

 

 

The focus of the conference zeroed in on the subject of marketing. Senior VP of Marketing at Cabot Creamery, Roberta MacDonald, was featured as the Conference Keynote Speaker. According to the conference website, “[I]f you're a grower, value-added producer, new farmer, farm store manager, farmer’s market manager, ag service provider, or just interested in agriculture, this is the agricultural conference for you!” The Conference offered over 25 workshops on marketing, social media, agritourism, financing, and much more.

 

You can learn more about the conference at their website, and also view the full conference agenda and list of attendees at http://www.harvestnewengland.org.

Here are a couple of our photos from the conference, below:

 

 

Johnny's Time Spent at the NOFA NY Winter Conference and the PASA Farming for the Future Conference

Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Kristen Dubord, recently attended the NOFA NY Winter Conference, held in Saratoga Springs, NY, January 25–27, 2013 as well as the PASA Farming for the Future Conference in State College, PA February 6-9, 2013.

NOFA NY Winter Conference

The conference offered a great selection of workshops on topics such as sustainable farming, soil health, grain production, and many others. Each morning, tradeshow attendees could additionally participate in a yoga session! The Keynote Address, which you can read here on the NOFA-NY website, was given by Scott Chaskey of Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, NY. You can also view conference programs for 2004-2013.

While at the Johnny’s booth, tradeshow attendees could demo our Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder, grab a free Johnny’s bumper sticker, take a new catalog, enter our raffle, ask Kristen any number of growing questions, discuss concerns, and learn about our new selection of products. Congratulations to our raffle ticket winner, Jacob Diaz of Slow Roots Farm in Kingston, NY. You can learn more about Slow Roots Farm at their website.

While at the conference, we found the most popular informational sheets we offered concerned our Planting Programs. You can learn more about these programs, such as What a Planting Program Is, What the Key Elements Are to Implementing a Successful Program, and Why to Use a Planting Program at Johnnyseeds.com, as well as which varieties are best to plant (and harvest) when.

We give out Johnny's bumper stickers at our booth

A look at the Johnny's booth, all set up

The conference program

 You can learn more about the NOFA NY organization, as well as their Winter Conference, at their website and official Facebook page.

 
PASA Farming for the Future Conference

According to the PASA website, this year’s conference hosted an audience of  “around 2000 people from 30 states. Attendees included over 950 farmers, and 219 scholarship recipients.” If interested, you can also check back at the PASA website to hear audio files from the conference, from Organic Voices.

The conference offered three full days of educational workshops, opportunities to explore the exhibitors’ booths, social events, and more. On Friday evening at the conference, there was a movie viewing of three films, as well as a social hour featuring “snacks and drinks that [were] regionally sourced.”  

Once the Johnny’s booth was set up, we featured poster boards with information on the Quick-Cut Greens Harvester and our 'Lunchbox' Series of Snack Peppers. We also featured several information sheets on new and best-selling products such as our 'Jasper' tomato, specialty pumpkins, butternut squash, and our organic pepper lineup.

If you, too, attended either of these conferences, we'd love to hear from you in follow-up. Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section, below — or visit with us on Facebook anytime!

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