Dealing with extreme heat in the hoophouse

growing
ne ws & ide a s for lo c al fo od producers
FOR
Volume 21 / Number 7
August 2012
M A R K ET
Dealing with extreme
heat in the hoophouse
By Lynn Byczynski
Irrigation advice / 7
Harvesting efficiently / 9
Planting garlic / 16
Revitalizing an old market / 21
Most vegetables set fruit at maximum temperatures of 90°F or less, so
this summer’s sweltering temperatures in much of the U.S. have been
a challenge. High tunnel production
has been especially difficult, as temperatures can routinely go over 100°F
on a sunny day.
When the air outside is within a
plant’s critical temperature range,
hoophouse ventilation may be sufficient to keep crops from heat damage.
But when the outside temperature itself is too hot, shading is the only way
to cool down the hoophouse. Shading
is also helpful for reducing sun scald
on sensitive plants such as peppers
and tomatoes, and it may also be used
to extend the season for cool-loving
crops such as lettuce and to get fall
crops started in summer.
The two options for shading are
liquids that can be sprayed or brushed
on the poly hoophouse covering; and
shade fabrics that can be placed on
the outside or inside the tunnel. The
cost of shading ranges from free to
more than $500 for a 20x96 tunnel.
But there is no certain way to predict
whether the cost will be justified.
“Cooling a greenhouse where you
have live plants transpiring is a fairly
complicated thing,” said Dr. Daniel
Willits, a biological and agricultural
engineer at North Carolina State
University. He did research on greenhouse cooling for several decades and
is widely viewed as the expert on the
subject. However, he shut down his
program four years ago because of a
lack of funding — an unfortunate circumstance, given the record-breaking
temperatures of recent years.
In this article, we’ll describe the
shade options, their costs, and what’s
known about the benefits and pitfalls
of each method. On page 5, you’ll
find a chart of critical temperatures
for high tunnel crops, which may help
you decide whether you should spend
money on shading your hoophouses.
At the free end of the cost range is
mud. Josh Volk of Slow Hand Farm
in Oregon says that at one farm in
the Willamette Valley, the crew goes
down to the river and makes up a
slurry of mud and then tosses it onto
the outside of the poly covering with
yogurt cups. At Singletary Farm
Goods, also in the Willamette Valley,
the mud mix is applied with a largebore water gun. “Of course, it doesn’t
rain here in Oregon in the summer, so
you don’t really have to reapply,” Josh
said. “The winter rain cleans it off.”
Mud is not an option in places
where it does rain in the summer. A
cheap alternative is white latex paint,
which should be diluted one part
paint to 10 parts water and applied
with a sprayer or long-handled roller.
It will not come off, though, so should
be used ONLY when the poly is due
for replacement for fall crops.
Higher on the expense ladder are
continued on page 4
LET TER FROM
Wild Onion Farm
LYNN BYCZYNSKI
A tough summer for many
The map at right pretty much summarizes the kind of
summer many of us are having. It is the drought map as of
July 14 — every shade of yellow indicates drought, with
orange indicating extreme drought.
But that’s only part of the story. Extreme heat has been
burning up the middle part of the country. I happen to be
in the officially designated “hot spot” of Kansas. For at
least three weeks, we have had temperatures in the upper
90s to as high as 108. Plenty of other places are hotter than
normal, too.
Among all the natural disasters that affect farms,
drought requires the most engagement of the brain. We
have to constantly make decisions about what to save and
what to let go, what is worth the expense of water, drip
irrigation, and labor, and what won’t produce adequate
returns. On this farm, we are saving the tomatoes, which
had set before the heat arrived and are actually doing very
well. But we had to let go of the sweet potatoes, which
were late getting in the ground anyway and didn’t stand
a chance. Things are bad enough that we are having to
decide which landscape plants to save; the oak trees my
daughter and I planted as acorns 12 years ago are getting water, but the lilacs are fending for themselves. It’s a
heartbreaking business.
To all of you in the same situation this summer, I extend my sympathy and heartfelt wishes for a long, cool
rain in the near future.
Growing for Market is published 10 times
per year by Fairplain Publications, Inc.
ISSN 1060-9296
www.growitalian.com
785-748-0959
Volume 21
Number 7,
August 2012
(To Canada, add $15 postage; other countries, add
$30 postage. All orders in U.S. dollars.)
© 2012 Fairplain
Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
No portion of this magazine may be
copied in any manner for
use other than
by the subscriber
without permission from
the publisher.
Electronic edition:
$30 for 1 year subscription
Full Access:
$89 for 1-year subscription plus
access to archives
Full Access Plus:
$99 for access to archives and
print editions for one year
Editor/Publisher
Lynn Byczynski
Display Advertising: 2010 rate sheet
available at www.growingformarket.com
or phone 800-307-8949.
Associate Editor
Daniel Nagengast
*URZVRPHWKLQJGLIIHUHQWWKLVIDOO*URZ,WDOLDQ
9DOHULDQD PDFKH SLFWXUHG DERYH LV D VDODG JUHHQ
SRSXODUZLWKFKHIVWKDWGRHVZHOOLQWKHZLQWHUKLJKWXQQHO
2WKHU PRQH\PDNLQJ FURSV IRU IDOO LQFOXGH $UXJXOD
%HHWV &KDUG &XWWLQJ &KLFRU\ &LPD GL 5DSD %URFFROL
5DDE &XWWLQJ (QGLYH 0LVWLFDQ]D 0HVFOXQ 5DGLVKHV
DQG6SLQDFK2UGHUQRZIRUEHVWVHOHFWLRQ
2
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
Print edition by mail:
$36 for 1 year / $64 for 2 years
Circulation Manager
Jozie Schimke
Office manager
Jessica Pierson
Contributing Editors
Erin Benzakein
Pam Dawling
Josh Volk
Classified Advertising:
Send with payment before the 7th of the
month. 50 cents per word for subscribers;
$1 for non-subscribers.
See our web site for available back issues and
market farming books.
Contact us:
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.growingformarket.com
Toll-free phone: 800-307-8949
Fax: 785-748-0609
Mail: GFM, PO Box 3747, Lawrence, KS 66046
Essay contest deadline is Aug. 11
The Farmers Market Coalition, in collaboration with Growing for Market and American Farmland Trust, is seeking essays about the value of farmers markets, written by
agricultural producers. The winning essay writer will receive a cash prize of $1,000
and have their essay published in Growing for Market. Five honorable mentions will be
awarded; winners will receive a one-year print subscription to Growing for Market.
We are looking for concise, imaginative, striking essays that reflect agricultural producers’ perspectives about the people, products, or partnerships that make selling at
farmers markets valuable. Submissions should be no longer than 1,200 words, and should
include at least one quote from a fellow farmer, customer, market manager, or community partner. In addition, essays should weave in at least three pieces of measurable data; for
example, the number of acres in production, number of crops/varieties, income earned
at farmers markets, number of employees and/or family members supported by farmers market sales, number of regular customers, or number of pounds donated to social
service agencies. Each entry should include a photograph of the submitter (or another
representative from their business) at their market, accompanied by a one sentence caption. See the Inspiration Award home page for all submission criteria.
To be eligible for the award, essays must be submitted through the FMC website submission form by 5 p.m. on August 11, and follow all the essay guidelines. Farmers Market
Coalition staff and Board of Directors, American Farmland Trust staff, and Growing for
Market editorial staff will make up the panel of judges and will announce the winning
$1,000 entry in early September.
Please see the Inspiration Award website for submission criteria and to submit your
essay. http://farmersmarketcoalition.org/inspiration-award
for sale
THE VALLEY OAK WHEEL HOE for Ecological Farming Wipe out weeds without harming the environment! 5REHUVRQ)DUP
f
f
f
f
f
f
f
f
&KDWKDP&RXQW\1&
JHQWO\UROOLQJDFUHVZLWKSRQG
&RQYHQLHQWWRQXPHURXVRUJDQLFPDUNHWV
+D\SURGXFLQJIHVFXHSDVWXUHV
EHGEDWKKRPHFRQVWUXFWHGLQ
*UHHQKRXVHSURGXFHKDQGOLQJEXLOGLQJ
3URGXFHEXLOGLQJKDVZDONLQFRROHUIXOOEDWK
&RQWDFW%HQ:ROIHEURNHU
ZZZZROIHVUHFRP
No herbicides or fossil fuels ‚ Faster & easier than hand hoeing VL]HVIURP´WR´ Rugged steel -­ built to last WATCH THE WHEEL HOE IN ACTION NOW: www.valleyoaktool.com
0HQWLRQWKLVDGIRUD)5((6SHHG\6KDUS
WRROVKDUSHQHUZLWKSXUFKDVH
P.O. Box 301 ‚ Chico, CA 95927
530-­342-­6188 ‚ 8am-­6pm Pacific GDYLG#YDOOH\RDNWRROFRP
GROWING
FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
*URZLQJIRU0DUNHW
SDJH´[´
'HFHPEHU
3
Shade cloth
continued from page 1
shading compounds made specifically for greenhouses.
The most commonly available is Kool-Ray, which should
be diluted about 1 part to 8 parts water. One gallon of the
concentrate costs about $35 and covers a 20x96 greenhouse. Another compound called Varishade is applied
to the inner side of the hoophouse covering. White when
dry, it becomes transparent when wet from condensation,
which often occurs in winter when it’s cooler outside than
inside the greenhouse. The cost is $60 a gallon, which covers 3200 square feet.
Mark Miller of G&M Ag Supply (www.gmagsupply.
com) says that shading compounds don’t sell as well as
shade cloth, probably because shade cloth is much easier to
use and lasts for years. Most shade cloth is designed to be
installed on the outside of the greenhouse or hoophouse.
The density of shade cloth is expressed as the percentage
of light blocked; for example, 30% shade cloth allows 70%
light transmission.
The most popular type of shade cloth is knitted polyethylene, which can be cut to any size and won’t unravel.
Quoting G&M Ag Supply’s catalog prices, black 60%
shade cloth runs about 16.5 cents per square foot. Green
knitted 60% shade costs 18.5 cents. Woven shade cloth is
heavier and lasts longer, but needs to be taped to prevent
unraveling.
A hoophouse at Happy Quail Farm in California is covered
with traditional black shade cloth on the right and Aluminet
on the lef t. Photo by the Center for Urban Education for Sustainable Agriculture ( CUESA) .
Willits found that although shade cloth reduces light
transmission to the percentage stated, it does not reduce
heat load an equivalent amount. In fact, in some of his
research he found that shade cloth of 30% or less didn’t
reduce the temperature in the greenhouse at all. Higher
percentages do reduce temperatures somewhat, but create
low light conditions that can cause other problems.
He speculated that the dark colors of the shade cloth
reduce its efficiency because the fabric absorbs heat and
radiates it into the greenhouse. He experimented with
Johnnyseeds.com
1-877-564-6697
An employee-owned company
Join Johnny’s Community of Growers
Belonging to a community of growers gives you the opportunity to learn from
others and share your experiences to help us and your fellow growers improve.
Connect with experts and growers for advice and product information
Share your stories, knowledge, farm photos, and news
Learn about the latest growing tips and Johnny’s promotions
Connect, Share, Learn
4
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
misting the shade cloth, with the result that wet fabric was more effective
at reducing the temperature inside
because evaporative cooling reduced
the temperature of the fabric itself.
The most expensive option is reflective shade cloth, Aluminet being
the most common brand. It costs 25
cents a square foot from G&M. Because it reflects light, it does not absorb heat the way black shade cloth
does. It can be installed outside or
inside the hoophouse. Inside, it can
be used as a retractable curtain that
can be used to retain heat in the house
when it’s cold outside as well as for
shading when it’s hot.
Effect of high temps
Temperatures beyond the critical
maximum can cause various kinds of
physiological problems in vegetables.
Tomatoes — the most researched
crops — produce the largest yields of
highest quality fruits when day temperatures are in the range of 80° to
85°F and when night temperatures
Vegetable
Transplants
Specializing in ALL vegetable
transplants for farms, market
JDUGHQVDQG&6$·V
Certified Organic
We welcome all orders - 1 tray to
1,000 trays.
No order too large or too small.
Onion plants
Sweet potato slips
Critical temperatures for select high tunnel crops
Crop
Tomato
Pepper
Eggplant
Cucurbits
Leafy greens
Strawberry
Raspberry
Growth State
Transplantharvest
Transplantflowering
Floweringharvest
Transplantharvest
Transplantharvest
Seedingharvest
Fall planting
Spring harvest
Fall harvest
Optimum
Temp. °F
70-75
Maximum
Temp. °F
85
70-80
85
70-80
90
70-85
95
75-85
90
60-65
75
55-70
65-75
60-75
75
75
80
Adapted from High Tunnel Temperature Management by Lewis Jett, West Virginia University,
http://www.hightunnels.org/PDF/JETT_High_Tunnel_Temp_Mgt.pdf
remain above 62°F, but below 72°F.
According to the Florida Greenhouse Vegetable Production Handbook: “Excessively high temperatures
can lead to poor fruit color (orange
instead of deep red). High localized
fruit temperatures (sun scald or sun
burn) from excessive radiant energy
on fruits can lead to yellow areas that
never turn red. This symptom is referred to as “solar yellows.” Unmarketable fruits result. On some cultivars that have the “green-shoulder”
genetic background, excessive fruit
temperature seems to enhance the
green-shoulder expression. These
fruits often will not develop uniform
red color and the shoulders often be-
come rough and cracked. High temperatures (above 90°F) also result in
poor pollination and reduced fruit
set.”
With cucumbers, fruit production
and quality are reduced at temperatures above 95°F. Peppers are tolerant of temperatures above 100°F, but
such extremes during bloom can reduce pollination, fruit set, and yield.
Resources
Florida Greenhouse Production
Handbook, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/
topic_book_florida_greenhouse_v3
Bell Pepper Production in California, http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/
pdf/7217.pdf
*URZLQJWUDQVSODQWV\HDUURXQG
Alternative Refrigeration
.HHS\RXUSURGXFHFRRODQGIUHVKIRUOHVV
Deep Grass Nursery
302-398-4413
E-mail: [email protected]
www.deepgrassnursery.com
New patent-pending technology cools your walk-in or insulated room to
35 degrees with just a Window Air Conditioner
tPGUIFVQGSPOUDPTUPGBDPPMFSDPNQSFTTPS
t4BWFVQUPJOFMFDUSJDBMPQFSBUJOHDPTUTcompared to same size cooler
Order now and try CoolBot for a 30-Day * RISK-FREE TRIAL *
‡ZZZVWRUHLWFROGFRP
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
5
A new book to teach you — or help you
teach others — about farm equipment
Review by Lynn Byczynski
When it comes to the mechanical
end of farming, growers fall into two
categories. In the first are people who
grew up with farm equipment or have
spent a lot of time around it, and are
thoroughly comfortable using it. In
the second category are the people
who don’t know as much as they need
to about buying, using and maintaining tools and machinery.
Small Farm Equipment, a new
book by Massachusetts farmer Jon
Magee, is written for both groups
of growers. I consider it to be one of
the best books I have ever seen about
farm equipment, and I recommend it
for every farm’s bookshelf.
For growers who don’t know as
much as they need to, this book is a
huge help. It’s clear, simple, and to the
point. It assumes you know nothing
about farm equipment and starts with
the very basics in the chapter entitled
Concepts: Mechanical Elements and
Terminology. Here is where you learn
the difference between a two-stroke
and a four-stroke engine, get some
understanding of the pros and cons
of diesel versus gas engines vs electric motors, and how each is generally used on the farm. The author describes the precise elements of a PTO
and defines, with illustrations, roller
chains, V-belts, sprockets, zerks, and
plenty of other terms for the parts of
machinery.
This basic approach to farm
equipment can be useful for experienced operators as well as novices.
People who are extremely knowledgeable about a topic often have a hard
time breaking it down into its simplest elements. That makes it difficult
to teach to those with no knowledge.
If the PTO on your tractor is an essential part of your work, you may
never think to teach new employees
(as Jon does in his book) that it is “a
splined driveshaft which transmits
power from a vehicle’s engine to auxiliary implements...usually at the rear,
where most implements are attached.”
Basic concepts and terms are
only the beginning of this book. It
also pays close attention to safety,
maintenance, and troubleshooting in
general. Separate chapters cover the
most commonly used types of equipment in detail. Walk-behind tractors,
string trimmers, tractors, and irrigation pumps (see excerpt on next page)
are some of the tools that are covered
in the specific. Appendices cover
safety instruction and supplies; working with fasteners and threaded fittings; keeping maintenance logs; and
further resources.
Jon says that he was motivated to
write this guide because of his own
experience learning to farm. He has
worked at several farms, most recently at Atlas Farm in western Massachusetts since 2009. He founded
The Farmers Library as a technical
AeroCoir
Wholesale Cocopeat Supplier
205,&HUWL¿HG3URGXFWV
‡ $HUR&RLU$HUDWLRQ%OHQG²DPL[RIPPFRFRFKLSVDQGFRFRSHDW
‡ (DV\H[SDQGLQJFRLUZLWKORZ(&DQGS+RI²
‡ NJEDOH\LHOGVDSSUR[LPDWHO\OLWHUVRUFXELFIHHW
‡ 6XVWDLQDEOHJURZLQJPHGLDIRUKLJKTXDOLW\VHHGOLQJVDQG¿QLVKFURSV
‡ %HWWHUZDWHUKROGLQJFDSDFLW\DQG&(&WKDQSHDW
7225'(5&217$&7686$1$1'(5621DW
VXVDQ#DHURFRLUFRPWDG#DHURFRLUFRP
www.aerocoir.com
6
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
resource for small farmers, and this
book is expected to be the first in a
series. Feedback and project proposals are welcome at www.thefarmerslibrary.com.
If you’ve ever been hindered or
embarrassed by your lack of knowledge of common mechanical concepts
— or if you can’t believe someone
wouldn’t know the basics — this book
is for you.
Small Farm Equipment by
Jon Magee, 6x9, 118 pages, spiral bound. Available for $15 ($12
for subscribers) plus $5 shipping
from Growing for Market, PO
Box 3747, Lawrence KS 66046;
1-800-307-8949. Order online at
www.growingformarket.com. To
get the subscriber discount, use
the words print and member in the
Member Login fields in the top
right column on the home page.
G&M Ag Supply
Company LLC
Your Source For:
‡)URVW)DEULF
‡5RZ&RYHUV
‡0XOFK)LOPV
‡3OXJ7UD\V
‡)ODWV3RWV
‡3RO\)LOP
‡*UHHQKRXVH6WUXFWXUHV
‡*UHHQKRXVH6XSSOLHV
‡(URVLRQFRQWURO
1-800-901-0096
:&RXQWU\/DQH
3D\VRQ$=
JPDJVXSSO\#QSJFDEOHFRP
ZZZJPDJVXSSO\FRP
Excerpt from Small Farm Equipment: Irrigation pumps
Pumps consist of two main parts:
the pump impeller (which pushes the
water), and the motor which drives
the impeller. Small irrigation pumps
can be gas or diesel, electric, or PTOdriven. Electric and PTO-driven
pumps will seem to require less
time troubleshooting—mostly because electric motors are wonderfully
low-maintenance, and PTO-driven
pumps are as reliable as the tractors
which run them. All the same, the advice here is still worth reading: there
are plenty of subtleties to the workings of pumps beyond their motors.
For gas- and diesel-powered small
pumps, the motor usually takes half
or more of all the maintenance time.
Part of this is due to the nature of
pumps—they sit off on river banks,
away from the shop and out of view,
mostly stationary, where farm personnel rarely go except to start the
pumps, not to maintain them. Strategies must be developed, then, to
make it easier and more convenient
to service the pump. For this reason,
keeping engine oil and a grease gun
(if appropriate to your pump) near
the pump station or in an irrigation
vehicle will make maintenance much
more likely to happen.
Be aware that if you are going to
keep engine oil, fuel, or grease out
in the field, it’s required to be sealed
from the elements and prevented
from dripping or spilling onto the
ground or into water. A tightly sealed
plastic container, lashed in place
above the flood line, will do the job.
An alternative is sending out your irrigation operator with a designated
tool bag containing all the items he or
she might need.
Take advantage of rainy periods
when irrigation is less in-demand
and bring your pumps in for service.
Pumps are often forced to do without
regular maintenance during the season because of the inconvenience of
fetching the pumps back to the farm.
Anything you can do to make it easier
to transport pumps, then, will make
good maintenance more likely to happen. Mount pumps on a trailer, or
mount wheels onto the pump’s frame;
keep a suction hose and other appropriate fittings at each pump station,
so that they don’t need to be moved as
often as the pumps; build better vehicle access to pump stations; use an
all-terrain dolly or your tractor’s hydraulic loader to carry small pumps
with less effort; make fuel tanks easily detachable with quick-disconnect
fuel lines. Beyond the problem of
transport, the sum total of regular
maintenance activities only takes
about half an hour on small pumps,
so it’s not out-of-the-question even
during busy periods.
The impeller is the business end
of the pump. In most small irrigation
pumps, the impeller works by centrifugal force—a rotating disk flings the
water out from the center and on out
of the pump housing. The impeller is
water-cooled, so a pump that has run
dry or lost prime and runs too long
without any water in the housing will
overheat and damage itself.
Pumps pull water up from their
source through a suction hose. A suction hose requires a very tight seal at
all seams to function properly. Also,
for the quality of the water that is
pumped, the suction hose strainer
end must be away from the stream/
pond bed and still far enough below
the surface to avoid sucking in air. For
this reason, the strainer end is often
fitted with a combination of weights
and floats.
Priming a pump means filling the
suction hose with water, all the way up
to meet the impeller. A pump must be
continued on the next page
# $!"$&%$
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
7
Irrigation pumps
continued from page 7
primed in order to push water. Some
pumps are self-priming, including
most small pumps. This means that,
if they are started with their housing
full of water already, they will be able
to create enough suction in an empty, air-filled suction hose to eventually draw the water up to the impeller and start pumping. Self-priming
pumps usually need high throttle to
prime themselves, but they should be
throttled down once they start pushing water—too much pressure while
filling the lines can break fittings (the
water hammer* effect). Other pumps
need to be primed manually, usually
by a hand-operated primer pump. In
either case, water can only be drawn
up a certain height by suction. Even
before that physical limit, there is
a practical limit where a pump will
have difficulty priming or maintaining prime. Place pumps as close as is
reasonable to water level while still
maintaining solid, level footing.
[*Water hammer refers to the pres-
8
sure wave as water (or any fluid) fills
pipes and pushes out air, or abruptly
stops and changes direction. A common example is the shudder that can
come from suddenly closing a household spigot. Farmers must be aware of
the effect and avoid closing irrigation
valves suddenly or filling irrigation
lines too quickly. The force of the water can blow out drip fittings, dislodge
pipes from each other, or split hoses
and clamps.]
If your water source is prone to
rapid fluctuations in water level, be
alert and ready to fetch your pump at
any time. Keep fuel cans secured far
away from any potential flood level.
Tie ropes, straps, or chains from your
pump and suction hose to sturdy trees
as insurance against losing equipment
to sudden flooding or a deteriorating
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
stream bank.
Some pumps come equipped with
protective circuits designed to shut
off the pump in event of a problem.
The primary anticipated problem is
a blowout in the water line, resulting
in a rapid pressure loss as the water
floods the area around the rupture.
The circuit operates as a pressuresensitive switch, then—if line pressure goes down, it will cut off the
pump. These switches, when working
properly, need to be reset before each
irrigation. Some pumps have sensors on their oil level or engine temperature, but if you do not see explicit
mention of a protective circuit in the
manual, you might assume that your
pump has none. Whether you have
protective circuits or not, your maintenance routine should be the same,
since you should never rely on the
switches alone to protect your equipment—it has been my experience that
on the farm they do not often function
as intended. Valuable as these circuits
are, they are one of the first things to
check in event of difficulty operating
a pump.
Affordable Insurance
Strategies
efficient harvesting
for Farmers Marketsfor
and Vendors
Finally! A company that understands the insurance
needs of farmers markets and their vendors.
By Pam Dawling
The National Farmers Market Insurance Program offers
insurance rates starting at $250 for markets and $275
Every year, early infor
thevendors.
season, our crew watches an
old video, Efficient
Harvesting
Techniques, made by CSA
$1,000,000
per occurrence
Works (Food Bank Farm) in Hadley, MA. It’s no lon$2,000,000 aggregate
ger available, sadly (Michael Docter says “We’ve retired
from the film industry to do farming!”). The film has
cult movie status with us, and old hands join in on key
punch lines. It’s packed with good information. It took
me many screenings before I no longer took away a new
tip each time I watched. Much of what we have learned
is from them. According to Vern Grubinger in his book
Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-Up to Market
at Food Bank Farm, “On an average day, 5,000 pounds of
produce is brought in by noon by five people working for
seven hours each. That works out to nearly 145 pounds per
hour per person.”
Aside from learning from Food Bank Farm, we have
also Make
compiled
ourare
own
tips properly
for harvesting
which I
sure you
covered
for less bycrews,
contacting
Campbellgood
Risk Management
describe below. Another
resource is Roxbury Farm’s
www.campbellriskmanagement.com
detailed Harvest
Manual; see page 20 for more informa800-730-7475 ext 203
tion.
Affordable Insurance
for Farmers Markets and Vendors
Finally! A company that understands the insurance needs of farmers markets and their vendors. The National Farmers Market Insurance Program offers
insurance rates starting at $250 for markets and $275
for vendors.
$1,000,000 per occurrence
$2,000,000 aggregate
Make sure you are covered properly for less by contacting
Campbell Risk Management
www.campbellriskmanagement.com
800-­730-­7475 ext 203
Planning
The seed for smooth, efficient harvesting is sown before the season starts, when you plan your field layout and
review your equipment. It’s good to have the giant winter
squash, pumpkins and watermelons near a road, or at least
a path wide enough for a garden cart, if not a truck. Plant
long rows with access gaps every hundred feet (thirty meters) or so, to reduce the distance you need to carry heavy
loads.
Our mixed system of beds and row crops means that
small plantings of delicate crops are always located where
we will pass by them often. (Permaculturists call this
close-at-hand area Zone 1). It is poor planning to have
your lettuce at the bottom of a long field, “over the horizon” from the top of the row.
Plant tall but closely spaced crops (corn, broccoli) in
pairs of rows so that one person can pick two rows for the
same amount of travel distance. This works best for crops
where each plant offers up only one piece for harvest at a
time. With peppers, tomatoes, beans and the like, we find
it more efficient to pick just one row at a time, or else the
picker “loses their place” and has to scan over the plant
again when switching from one row to another.
Don’t put time into harvesting more of a crop than
you need — aim to have the right amount coming in each
week.
Organization
Before you set out to the field, make a picking list and
gather the containers and knives you will need. Watch the
weather forecast — harvest more or sooner if a big rain is
coming, and preemptively pick crops that should not be
handled when the leaves are wet.
Plan who will pick each crop. It is often more efficient
to have regular crew members specialize in certain crops.
This can give job satisfaction from the sense of competency, and routines can help trained workers know what
to expect and so take initiative appropriately. On the other
hand, cross-training is important, so pairing up a newbie
with an experienced person makes the crew more resilient.
Explain the signs of maturity: have people gently squeeze
eggplant of different sizes, for instance. I recently learned
from the High Mowing catalog that cabbage is fully mature when the biggest leaf on the head (not the loose outer
leaves) curls back on itself. I had struggled for years to explain exactly how I was determining maturity — paleness
of the center, firmness, size? I couldn’t clearly say how I
knew! The curling back leaf is a simple sign, easy to explain.
continued on the next page
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
9
Harvest
continued from page 9
We generally divide our harvest
into three categories: daily, three
times a week and twice a week. How
often you need to harvest each crop
will depend on its shelf life as well as
your markets. Daily harvests include
salads, okra, cucumbers, zucchini
and summer squash, and also topping
up supplies of potatoes and sweet potatoes from storage, according to the
season. In cooler climates than ours
it is probably not necessary to harvest okra or “zukes and cukes” daily.
Other growers recommend daily harvesting of corn, but we find no problem with over-maturing when we pick
every other day.
For the every-other-day crops we
have developed an ingenious phonetic
system. On Monday, Wednesday
and Friday we harvest crops beginning with a k/c/g sound; on Tuesday,
Thursday and Saturday we harvest b
and p crops. This works almost perfectly, with just a few crops we force
into place: eggPlant not eGGplant!
sPinach, senPosai! This system works
well for us, and adds some amusement. It also ensures we harvest some
cooking greens each day: kale, collards, cabbage some days, broccoli,
pak choy, spinach on the other days.
Beans take over from peas as the
spring heats up. Corn gets picked on
the days we don’t pick labor-intensive
beans.
The twice-a-week crops include
some with a reasonable shelf life, like
peppers, and those that are at the end
of their season when production has
dropped off. At some times of year
we have once-a-week harvests, such
as winter squash in September and
October. Blue flags mark which bed
of spinach, kale or lettuce to pick
next. We always pick a whole bed, to
save confusion. We move the flag after harvesting, in a clockwise rotation
(bird’s eye view, not earthworm’s!)
round the area of raised beds. Spinach and kale are fall, winter and early
spring crops here. We harvest by the
leaf, and aim to give each bed a week
between pickings to regrow.
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, garlic
and onions mature all at once and
need to be bulk harvested as the major task for the day (or several days)
after the regular harvesting is done.
Sequence
Temperature considerations are a
major factor in deciding the order to
harvest crops in. All leafy greens and
corn benefit from cooling as soon as
possible after picking. Pick these before the day heats up, and when the
cart or truck has just enough room
left, so that a trip to the cooler follows
loading of the most perishable crops.
Other crops, including cucurbits
(cucumber, squash, melons), tomatoes and beans, need to wait until any
dew has dried from the leaves before
working with them, to minimize the
Pr ofe ss io na l D ri p I r r i gat io n S u pp l ie s
Use less water and increase your yields
Visit DripWorks for
ClearSpanTM High Tunnels
.com
Distributor for
T-Tape
Call DripWorks for:
Conserve Water
Less weeds
Save time and money
Go to:
dripworks.com
for complete drip irrigation systems
10
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
•
•
•
•
FREE Catalog
Fast, Friendly Service
Commercial Pricing
Best Selection of:
Timers & Controllers, T-Tape,
Fertilizer Injectors, Emitter Tubing
800.522.3747
• Pond Liners & Pond Care
everliner.com
spread of disease. In the summer we
find our enthusiasm to harvest early
(and finish early before it gets too hot)
has to be tempered by the dew point.
On dewy mornings we’ll often start
with what we call “the aerobic segment” of the shift — any physically
taxing work like shoveling, spreading
compost or hoeing rather than harvesting.
Avoid harvesting in midday during extremely hot periods. Roots and
fruits can be harvested in the afternoon and stored overnight for the
next day’s sales.
In winter, nitrate accumulation in
leafy vegetables is a health issue, and
a reason to delay harvest of greens until the sun has been up for at least four
hours.
Management
Every day, one of our most experienced people acts as crew honcho. The honcho makes the pick list,
matches people with crops to pick,
and then tries to ensure a smooth,
happy and efficient harvest. She or he
shows the workers good techniques,
sets the pace, creates a pleasant atmosphere, and appreciates the workers.
The honcho keeps an eye on who
has picked where, when the cart is
full, and if more buckets are needed.
They make sure no one leaves tools
or buckets of produce behind (yes, it
has happened). They also make the
decision on whether a plot is worth
returning to next time, or is finished,
and pass this message on to the other
honchos.
It is important to recognize that
teaching is part of the job, and will
help provide the world with more
farmers. The honcho trains pickers
as needed and, importantly, watches
to see if any worker needs remedial
training. This is easiest when working alongside or across the row. Often
I find it best to fine-tune my instructions, once people learn the basics,
rather than giving a deluge of detail at
the beginning. Some useful phrases if
things go wrong are: “Oh dear, that’s
not what I meant” or “I see I didn’t
explain that clearly enough.”
Get people to start as far from the
road as possible, so when the bucket is
full they’ll be nearer the road. When
picking long rows, we mark the place
we started or left off, for example to
take a full bucket to the cart. The Sign
of the Crossed Beans (two beans laid
across one another on the ground)
is one of our favorites, or a big ripe
strawberry in the path, depending on
the crop. If for some reason we can’t
finish one of the big harvests (tomatoes for instance) on a particular day,
the next time we pick them we start at
the opposite end of the patch, hoping
we can pick it all, but using a fail-safe
system in case it is again too much.
Keep yields up by sowing often
enough — how many times do you
want to pick the same bean plants?
It depends on the cost of labor and
how much land you have. Pick newer plantings before older ones of the
same crop to reduce the spread of disease. If you have enough after picking the younger sowing, you can stop
picking the old planting and till it in.
On Saturdays we harvest some
crops smaller than usual to avoid
Monday Monsters: zucchini and
summer squash, of course, and also
okra (we take Sundays off). If some
labor-intensive crops (peas, beans, tomatoes, herbs) are getting away from
you, you could consider allowing or
encouraging U-pick for them, or calling in the Society of St. Andrew, a
volunteer group who glean to feed the
hungry.
Sales
Weekly scouting will help you to
plan when the harvest of each planting will start and end. Records from
previous years can provide expected
start and end dates — keep these
dates in a convenient place where you
don’t have to search for them.
Tools of the trade
We use Garden Way-type carts,
sometimes a pickup truck, and lots
of five-gallon buckets. Customize
your buckets — we have some with
holes drilled in the bottom. We keep
these and the undrilled ones separate,
so we can easily find buckets to hold
water or to drain washed produce
in, as needed. Train your crew not
to pour from a full wash bucket into
a holey one (greens with grit sauce),
but to lift the produce out of the gritty
water and put it in the holey bucket.
We also have small “berry buckets”
we have made from cut-down plastic one-gallon jugs, with rope loop
handles. Long roped ones go round
the neck to free up both hands for
picking blueberries or cherry tomatoes. Short handled ones go over the
wrist or are moved along the ground,
for strawberries, snap peas and snow
peas. Some crops do better in shallow or ventilated crates rather than in
deep airless buckets. We use sheets of
plastic Bubble Wrap as cushions in
the crates we use for slicing tomatoes.
Open-topped backpacks are another
idea for a harvest container. They
are more ergonomic than carrying a
heavy bucket on one side.
continued on the next page
Company
/0-""/,0.0'-$+/(/0+)*/0-"0+-%0-+!$/0$)&(0+-%/,&
/"/,/*'/&0..)+.+/0
)*0-!,0.,/.
-,0",//0,-'!,/0'-*(.'(
$/,)'.*
./
-(-,0-/+&0..)+.+/
-%0.)*(/*.*'/
)0/,"-,$.*'/
# # #0-,
%).,(0.+/&0-
##
0-!*(0-.00!)*(/,00#
%%%&%).,( &.+/&'-$
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
11
Harvest
continued from page 11
Small tools are easily lost, so find
some kind of portable container to
take to the field. The Universal Container, the five-gallon bucket, is often
the answer. We have made a pouch for
our pruners with the exact number of
pockets for the number of pairs, making it less likely we will walk away
leaving tools on the ground. Although
special harvest knives can be bought,
and we have some of those, we get
most of our knives at yard sales and
thrift stores. Great value for the money! Serrated bread knives can be excellent tools for cutting cabbage and
kohlrabi. We use pruners to harvest
okra, eggplant and winter squash,
and scissors for spinach leaves.
We have size cards to hang from
the okra-harvesting pruners to eliminate questions about whether an okra
is large enough. To protect arms
against spiny crops like okra, CSA
Works suggests cheap crew socks
with the toes cut out.
Some kind of barn, packing shed
or staging area makes a useful headquarters for communication, especially if supplied with a chalkboard,
bulletin board, and perhaps a standup desk, and, hmm, maybe cell
phones? For ideas on the layout of
packing sheds see Healthy Farmers,
Healthy Profits, bse.wisc.edu/hfhp/
tipsheets_pdf/shed4web.pdf .
As the day draws to a close, you
might need a pond, river or outdoor
solar shower, followed by some shade
trees and a hammock.
Harvesting whole heads
For leafy greens, we have three
main ways of harvesting: heads, leafby-leaf, and “buzz-cutting.” We cut
whole heads of mature crops such as
cabbage, lettuce, heading oriental
greens (napa Chinese cabbage, pak
choy, Maruba Santoh, Yukina Savoy,
tatsoi), and older spinach. We bend
the head to one side, cut through the
stem, trim off a few outer leaves if
FormTex Plastics
Plastic Packaging Solutions for the Produce Industry
Complete line of stock and custom produce clamshells and trays
XStock clamshells and corrugated trays
that are really in stock
XComplete line of recyclable products
XAll our products are made from food-safe
recycled materials
X1 case or a truckload
XUnrivaled new product design and
prototyping capabilities
XCredit cards accepted
For more information, please call David Grice
at extension 120 or email d.grice@formtex.
com.
FormTex Plastics Corporation
6817 Wynnwood Lane Houston, Texas 77008
713 864-7300 800 669-5634 Fax 713 864-7396
Website: www.FormTex.com
Email: [email protected]
12
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
needed, and put the heads in a bucket
or crate. With crops that tend to become bitter in warm weather, such
as lettuce and broccoli, we require
the harvester to break off a piece and
taste test for bitterness, rejecting culls
in the field. In late spring and early
summer, we cut celery bunches about
an inch (2.5 cm) above the ground,
which allows secondary bunches to
develop later. Crops that wilt quickly
are set like a bunch of flowers in the
bucket, initially held on its side, making it easy to add an inch (2.5 cm) of
water when the bucket is full. We do
this with celery, chard, Russian kale,
turnip greens, mustard greens and
also leeks.
Harvesting leaf-by-leaf
For many leafy crops, we extend
the harvest period by harvesting leafby-leaf. For adolescent lettuce, arugula and young spinach plants, we
cut individual leaves or several leaves
in one snip, using the all-metal handforged Chinese scissors from Lee Valley. At the same time, we snip off old
yellowed leaves. I like to cut the leaf
stems near the main stem, allowing
the new leaves to spread for maximum
sunlight and preventing a “cage effect” from near-vertical stalks. With
bigger leaves, such as chard, collards,
kale, senposai and adolescent oriental
greens (Yukina Savoy, Tokyo Bekana,
Maruba Santoh), we snap leaves off.
To avoid over-picking, we tell harvesters to count the leaves from the
center outwards and leave “eight for
later” — the eight youngest leaves in
the center of the plant.
Buzz-cutting
A quicker variation on cutting a
few leaves at a time is what we call
“buzz cutting” — giving the plant a
crew cut. When the plants are growing fast or we’re short on time, we do
this with mizuna, spinach, lettuce
mix and arugula. Simply gather the
leaves of the plant into a bunch and,
using scissors or a sharp knife, cut
above the growing point, so the plant
can continue growing. During the winter, we often cut
our hoophouse mizuna and tatsoi on one side of the plant
only, leaving the remaining leaves to make the most of the
limited light available.
— it may be invisible at the time, but cause trouble later. Onions dropped a foot or more suffer interior bruising. Don’t cram too much into one container: this causes
bruising too, and reduces air circulation.
Roots and alliums
Fruits and pods
How you harvest roots and alliums depends on your
equipment and the scale of your farm. For example, with
carrots, you can mow or tear off the tops, then undercut
with machinery, then lift. Or you can use the tops to help
get the carrots out of ground, as we do, loosening them
with a digging fork, then trim. When we harvest carrots for immediate use, we snap the tops off right at the
junction of the foliage and the root. When we harvest for
storage, we trim with scissors to leave a small length of
greens. We don’t do bunched carrots. If you do, you’ll
know to band them and wash, keeping the greens in good
condition. For tiny roots, like radishes and baby turnips,
we harvest directly into a small bucket of water, after
trimming tops and tails. This way the roots wash themselves during harvesting and very little cleaning needs to
happen afterwards.
We plant our early scallions in bunches, which makes
for quicker transplanting and easier harvesting: we loosen
the soil, pull up the bunches, band them, trim the roots
off, trim the tops with scissors, wash, then stand the scallions in small buckets with water.
It is important to avoid bruising of alliums and fruits
374#$7/2(57#$=2>(87&'(?*",&'(@22-'A22/(BC,'"(5'0(5*+,&'(!7D'0(3'//*4'(E0*&#-(37+=-F*77"/'"-(!:#/'(5*--#7$(87&'((@&2--C(E,7<2/'
!"#$%&'($)*%+))$
!"#"$%&'(()*%+%,('-*
./'%01(%.'(*1%2"'3(0%&'/4('
G&7-:=74%()7&'$0*&7((!#&0(@7"0'$():#42"#'-((H&*-:(H*//'"(.7%(3'//*4((@2&0'$(?*"-&7$'((I*"D#D2"(?7"-&'C((@#7$/(5'0()'&'"C((@"'7/@"''$
!"#$%&'()"#$%&'()"*+,&'()"'--((.*/"'01'2*-(3'//*4'((5'0(6"-7(87&'((9*"2"7(."74:'(;#<-,22$7(;*-/7"0
When picking peas, beans, tomatoes and peppers, we
encourage harvesters to use two hands, and use their eyes
to look ahead. Because we deliver our peas and beans directly to a kitchen, we trim the pods as we pick. Once we
have gathered a handful of pods, we break off the stem
end caps before dropping the pods in a bucket. While we
are doing this trimming, we look back to see if any have
been missed. We pick and discard over-mature pods.
We pick our cucumbers by encircling the cucumber
with the hand and pushing against the stem with the
thumb. This helps reduce scratches (to the cucumber, not
to the harvester, unfortunately!) For zucchini and summer squash we use knives, being careful not to accidentally cut other parts of the plant. We harvest cantaloupes
at “full slip,” when the melon leaves the vine after a little
nudge. The degree of “nudge” varies a bit, depending on
the person harvesting. Some people separate ripe watermelon from the vine with their bare hands, but I prefer
using pruners or scissors.
Corn is another crop we trim in the field, because we
deliver within the half-hour direct to the cooler in our
continued on the next page
Q`dd\idXe_`^_klee\cj
NRCS approved
56/#/786"#%9'/:%;<:'/=(<()0%./'%>)$%%?@%."'<('*
!()$%./'%AB'%.'((%9"0"#/7
!"#$%&'($)*%+))$
CDAD%?/E%FGHIJ%C18#/<"01J%AK%ILMLH
GQFD%IRID%QHST
AB'%(6/#/786"#%"::'/"61%0/%:#")0%-'(($8)7%7()('"0(*
!"#$%&'%(!)%*&+!(*+,('%&-&+*.(/*%&$)&$!(0'%(0*%1$%!
41/%$/)N0%B*(%61(<86"#%:'/0(60")0*%")$%O('08#8P('*D
,(-'*".%+))$%/(01%&'23)("*-%40-)23)(%5'(1
444D48#$7"'$()*(($D6/<
One of the strongest and best tunnels in the
industry. Bows are 2-3/8” diameters, 14
gauge, sidewalls are 2-3/8” 13 gauge, and
the purlins are 1.315” 14 gauge all galvanized Allied Gator Shield brand tubing. Tunnels can be equipped with either roll-up
sides or a drop-down curtain.
Order yours today. Call 573-378-2655 or
write to:
Morgan County Seeds LLC
18761 Kelsay Rd, Barnett, MO 65011
www.morgancountyseeds.com
;71+7(;*-/7"0(!#&0(5'0(87&'(@"''$(J'&D'/(."74:'((?#$%(?'/#2&'(;#K(;*-/7"0(H&*-:'0(H*//'"()2-
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
Q`dd\idXe_`^_klee\cj
13
Harvest
continued from page 13
kitchen. We shuck the corn, throwing
the husks back on the ground right
there in the patch. This has several
advantages, the chief one being the
immediate feedback for the harvester
on whether the ear has reached full
maturity. It also saves cooler space
and keeps the soil nutrients removed
from the plot to a minimum. Our
field trimming produces “kitchen
ready” crops, saves time later, and
reduces the number of times the crop
is handled. Obviously, this technique
won’t work for most growers, but it
is an example of tailoring harvesting
techniques to fit the uniqueness of the
market.
Food safety concerns
As we all know, it is important
to avoid bacterial contamination.
Wounds and abrasions can lead the
crop to pick up new bacteria from
the environment. Crops can be punctured by the sharp edges of contain-
ers as well as the more obvious knives
and fingernails.
At the washing station, crops may
be washed by spraying down on a
mesh table, or by dunking in troughs
or buckets of clean water. Not all
crops require washing: for some, such
as basil and zucchini, it is a poor idea,
as quality suffers.
Draining is important. Some crops
can drain on a mesh table or in a holey
bucket, suspended mesh bag or laundry basket. On a field trip with local
growers, I learned a method of filling
a laundry basket with salad crops,
hanging it from a tree, and twirling it
round to spin out the water. No electricity! Barrel root washers and salad
spinners have the draining stage built
in.
After washing — or perhaps before — comes cooling (washing itself
can also act to cool the crop). Make
full use of all possibilities, such as
damp burlap, high-percentage shade
cloth, or the shade of trees, buildings,
or a truck. In the shed, setting buckets or crates of produce on a concrete
Affordable protection
3 Season, 4 Season, Single Bay, and Multi-Bay
866-HAYGROVE
haygrove.com tunnelbuzz.com
14
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
floor will keep them cooler than on tables, especially if the floor is splashed
with water periodically.
Pam Dawling is the garden manager at Twin Oaks Community in
Louisa County, Virginia. The gardens
supply all the fresh produce for the
community’s 100 residents. Her book,
Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few
Acres, will be published in February
2013. www.newsociety.com/Books/S/
Sustainable-Market-Farming.
MOVING?
Please send us your new address before
you move. The Postal Service will NOT
forward this periodical, so try to let us
know your new address before we mail
your issue the last week of the month.
You can phone us at 800-307-8949; email
[email protected]; or send
the change of address postcard to GFM,
PO Box 3747, Lawrence KS 66046.
classified advertising
Equipment
1 & 2-ROW POTATO PLANTERS. 1-ROW
POTATO AND SWEET POTATO DIGGERS.
Parts for most small diggers. SEED CUTTERS.
WATER CAGE Plant Protectors 1-888-5221554; www.ussmallfarm.com.
FLAME WEEDERS, 4- and 5-torch walkbehind models, ideal for market gardeners and
&6$VZZZÁDPHZHHGHUVFRP
SEED GARLIC from Still Point Community
Farm, naturally grown, Biodynamic preps
applied. “Music” hardneck, great keeper, great
ÁDYRU(PDLOVWLOOSRLQWIDUP#RSWRQOLQHQHWRU
call 845-789-1062 for info and ordering.
Quality, Naturally Grown German White garlic
for seed and table stock. Large bulbs and
cloves. Order early to ensure your shipment.
Andy’s Specialty Garlic & Produce. 585-7397888 or [email protected]
Supplies and services
Seeds, bulbs, and plants
CERTIFIED ORGANIC GARLIC, seven
varieties, Also, garlic powder and granules
using our own garlic — and nothing more.
Straw Hat Farm is at the base of the Colorado
Rocky Mountains, in Montrose, CO. www.
strawhatfarms.com or 970-240-6163.
GARLIC for planting or your table from
FRASER’S GARLIC FARM in Churchville, NY.
&HUWLÀHG RUJDQLF DQG QDWXUDOO\ JURZQ JDUOLF
will be available for shipment after August 1,
2012. Garlic intended for planting is laboratory
tested for garlic bloat nematode.
Please order early. For information and
ordering, go to our website: www.frasergarlic.
com or call Ed Fraser at (585) 350-8295.
SEED GARLIC - CERTIFIED ORGANIC German White (Porcelain Hardneck). This
garlic and our ground were tested and are
free of garlic bloat nematode. Reserve now as
we sell out early! Call Fred @ 585.346.3829
or email [email protected]. For
more info see our website:
www.HoneyhillOrganicFarm.com/organicgarlic-seed
Greenhouses & supplies
Farmer’s Market Special Organic cotton t-shirts
with your logo — $8.50each/24pc minimum.
Wholesale blank shirts also available. 100%
Made in USA from organic cotton grown on
our farm. www.sosfromtexas.com email go@
sosfromtexas.com 800-245-2339.
WOODCREEK FARM & SUPPLY—Natural
and organic products: Organic seed;
Natural fertilizers; Growing mixes; Animal
supplements; Pest management; Growers
supplies. www.woodcreekfarm.com; Cana,
VA; Phone 276-755-4902.
Marcus Cutter, Broker Associate, buyer’s
DJHQW ZLOO KHOS \RX ÀQG IDUPODQG LQ :HVWHUQ
Wisconsin, [email protected] 715491-9381
CLASSIFIED ADS WORK! And for GFM
subscribers, they’re only 50 cents per
word. ($1 per word otherwise.) Email ads@
growingformarket.com or phone 800-3078949. Ads in the print edition are published
online for free.
Fertilizers
MORGAN COUNTY SEEDS
Top quality seeds at an affordable price
18761 Kelsay Rd., Barnett, MO 65011
Phone 573-378-2655 Fax 573-378-5401
www.morgancountyseeds.com
Free catalog
Norman & Vera Kilmer, owners
'ULSLUULJDWLRQ
9HJHWDEOHKHUEÁRZHUVHHGV
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
15
Get ready for garlic planting
By Josh Volk
In the June/July issue, I wrote
about garlic harvest and curing. Everything is connected, of course, and
the summer work of cultivation and
harvest is tied to the the fall work of
planting. Farm scale, markets, and
equipment affect planting techniques
from one farm to the next. In this article, I’ll tell you how farms of several
different sizes get their garlic in the
ground.
On my own very small farm, I
grow 900 cloves of garlic on beds that
are 66” on center, four rows 12” apart.
I grow Siberian, which is a hardneck,
and an unnamed red softneck. I simply use an SHW row-making hoe
(with a narrow pointed side) to open
four furrows in the bed and then I
press the cloves, root side down, into
the bottom of the furrow every 4” before filling the furrow back in. This
is tight spacing but I will take the opportunity in spring to harvest half of
the crop as green and fresh garlic by
thinning every other plant using a
sharpened steel transplanting trowel.
The other growers I talked to for
this article grow many varieties of
garlic both for market and to sell for
seed. Chet Byler at Straw Hat Farm
in Montrose, Colorado, hand plants
on very tight 6” rows that he marks
with a tool he made from Earthway
press wheels, a bit of all thread rod,
and pipe nipples for spacers. Chet is
planting 70,000 cloves in a season.
His row marker can also be used for
other crops and, with different sized
nipples, he can change the spacing
depending on the crop. In line, he is
also planting at roughly 6”, following
the faint marks left by the ribs on the
wheels.
On a slightly smaller scale, Avram
Drucker of Garlicana in Southern
Oregon uses a dibbling plate to set his
spacing. His dibbler marks multiple
rows as well as several in-line plants
all at once, although he is switching
to a design that friends of his use on
their farm in New Mexico, which
only marks one row across the bed
at a time. The one-row tool is much
lighter and easier to use.
Fred Forsburg of Honeyhill Farm
and Ed Fraser of Fraser’s Garlic
Farm, both in New York State, have
grown several acres of garlic for seed,
direct markets, and wholesale marcontinued on the next page
Planting sof tneck garlic in Oc tober with the ERME bulb planter at Fraser ’s Garlic Farm in New York: Ed Fraser stands on the
toolbar monitoring the planting while Dick Maher drives the Massey Ferguson 35 trac tor, its wheels ex tended to the maximum
width to straddle t wo rows.
16
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
kets for many years. They prefer much wider spacings,
planting just two rows on similar width beds, with 30” or
38” spacing between the rows to suit their particular cultivating tractors and implements. Fred plants about 40,000
cloves and Ed plants about 150,000 cloves in a season.
Fred got a SARE grant to develop a planting platform that
he is continuing to refine, but is very simple in its design.
Search SARE for project FNE11-717 for more information
on Fred’s project. The basic concept is that the workers
and their containers of seed sit on the platform and plant
through holes in the platform of the trailer. The tractor
that is pulling the trailer is also opening furrows making
it easy to plant deeply and in a straight line. The furrows
are then filled in with a hiller on the Platform’s toolbar or
second pass of the cultivating tractor. The tractor’s hydrostatic transmission allows it to move about 4” a second.
At Eatwell Farm in California, a similar trailer has
shanks for marking rows mounted on the sled itself. It also
would be easy to mount sweeps behind to fill the furrow
as it is planted. Using the tractor to plant speeds things up
and, perhaps more significantly, is far more ergonomic, relieving the normal back pain from bending over and dragging a bucket of seed garlic.
The sled/trailer type planting aid allows the cloves to
be carefully placed with the root plate down, which most
growers find important for well-shaped garlic heads, es-
pecially with hardneck varieties. Ed also uses a two row
ERME bulb planter for tightly spaced softneck garlic that
he sells as green and fresh garlic. For that garlic, he doesn’t
mind if the cloves are planted on their side, or even occasionally upside down. Ed uses Fred’s platform for some of
his planting.
“I also ride on an old New Idea transplanter depending
on availability of labor and if I am planting a single row on
the 38” spacing,” Ed said. “Just another option for people.
There are many farmers now experimenting with planting
into plastic mulch on a raised or flat bed. The results have
been very good and I may try some of that this year.”
I visited a larger farm here in Oregon a number of years
ago that had developed its own garlic planter. It was also
a trailer-type arrangement, but it had platforms for two
people to stand on with a kind of sorting tray for each of
them. They would then slide garlic seed to a slot in the side
of the tray where it would fall onto a small conveyor. The
conveyor had marks to space the garlic and the conveyor
then dropped the seed down a tube and into a furrow that
was opened by a shoe, and then closed behind. The spacing was quite tight in the row, but there were also only two
rows on a fairly wide bed, which gave good air flow in the
canopy and space for the roots to spread.
All of these planters are similar to potato planting setcontinued on the next page
Jiffy Hitch Systems Inc.
Makers of
Living Media
for Organic
Growers
The safest, easiest, quickest hitch on the market. Connect and disconnect any implement without leaving your tractor seat.
“Jiffy Hitches save time and make a farm safer. We have Jiffy Hitches on 27 implements at Angelic Or-­
ganics, and on 5 tractors. We can swap 3 pt imple-­
ments in two or three minutes. We are no longer endangering our employees’ safety in hooking up equipment now that we use Jiffy Hitches.” — John Peterson, owner
802-223-6049
Montpelier, Vermont
vermontcompost.com
we speak organic
For more information on making your farm safer, call 800-­786-­2829 or visit www.jiffyhitchsystems.com
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
17
The planting plat form at Honeyhill Farm : Sue Forsburg drives the Tuf f-bilt trac tor, an Allis Chalmers G look-alike made in Alabama, while Carol Williams and Kira White plant garlic cloves. The plat form is low enough that workers can push the cloves
into the soil, taking care to place them right side up, which is critical for hardneck garlic. Above right, Fred Forsburg (in the turquoise shir t) shows the frame of the plat form during a f ield day at his farm.
Ed Fraser f ills the hoppers of the ERME bulb planter with
garlic cloves at lef t. The drive wheel turns a wheel located inside the hopper (not seen in pic ture) . That wheel has springloaded cups which pick up and hold onto the cloves and then
drops them into a chute to the soil below. The shoe can be set
so that you plant on the sur face or as much as 6” deep into
the soil. He prefers to plant garlic on the sur face. The packer
wheels f irm the soil around the clove.
Af ter the cloves are planted, Ed use a Farmall Super A trac tor
to hill, above. The hilling discs, mounted on the rear of the
trac tor, are throwing about 6” to 8” of soil over the furrow.
18
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
ups, and the simpler ones could easily do double duty,
with minor modifications, for row spacing, furrow depth
and in-row spacing.
Popping seed
Separating garlic bulbs into cloves is known as “popping” garlic. All of the growers I talked to pop seed by
hand. Some like to use butter knives or plastic scrapers
to help get between tight cloves. I’ve always had success
with just my hands, but it does help to have good finger
strength. Ed described to me a device a friend has that
is basically a cone which the top of the garlic is pressed
against to split apart the entire head at once. Generally,
while popping the cloves they are also being sized. Large
cloves are used for full-size garlic bulbs and small cloves
for green garlic, which is pulled early and used like chives
or green onions.
Several pests and diseases can be spread by seed garlic.
In New York there have been serious problems with garlic
bloat nematode, which came in from Canada on table garlic that was then likely used for seed stock, which has continued to spread the problem around. In Colorado, Chet
had heard of the problem but had not seen it there, and was
sending samples of seed to be tested. In the Northwest,
Avram is more concerned with bulb mites and fusarium.
For those problems he soaks his seed in 10% bleach for 10
minutes and then deactivates the bleach by rinsing the
seed in a bucket of hot water. He also mentions hot water
or rubbing alcohol are alternative treatments. He dries the
seed completely before planting. Ed Fraser cautions that
any hot water treatment should be done in a controlled
manner because garlic seed can be killed by water above
about 120°F. In any case, he says, there are many disease
problems plaguing the industry at present.
“We are seeing infestations of wheat curl mites, fusarium bulb rot, white rot, botrytus and a few others. People
should be purchasing seed stock from a source that has
laboratory testing done. This would really help to curtail
the spread of some of these diseases. We regularly test
what we grow and what we handle that is sold to the public. It makes for a much happier customer.”
Cultivation
The planting method has some impact on the tools
used for cultivation as does the choice to mulch or not
mulch. Mulching is common practice on many farms,
especially when garlic is grown on a smaller scale. I’ve
worked on several farms that used leaves for mulching, as
the leaf collection season corresponds well to garlic planting season. Leaves are an excellent weed suppressant that
don’t harbor weed seeds. Friends at Persephone Farm in
Lebanon, Oregon, told me that for many years they were
able to get weed-free straw in big round bales that they
were able to simply roll out in the field to cover the plant-
ing, a relatively low labor way to spread mulch without a
tractor. If the straw has any quantity of seed remaining, or
has significant weed seeds, it can create a weed problem in
the field. Once the mulch is down it is impossible to use
tractors or even hoes to cultivate out weeds so it’s important that the mulch is weed-seed-free and that a thick layer
is applied.
Because of the cost and labor involved with mulch,
many farmers, myself included, choose to leave the soil
bare, allowing cultivation with flame and steel through the
garlic growing season. Fred Forsburg uses the standard
corn cultivating implements on his Allis Chalmers CA to
cultivate his two-row garlic. He has also used vinegar to
kill weeds and his SARE report on that method is available on his website -honeyhillorganicfarm.com.
Ed Fraser varies his cultivation regimen depending on
the weather and access to the fields with equipment. He
uses some steel, but also vinegar, as well as flame to control weeds in the garlic. He uses flame even when the garlic
is up to a foot tall. Carrying a large tank of propane on the
tractor but walking with a hand wand from Flame Engineering next to the tractor, he is able to point the flame at
the side of the plant, killing weeds in a 6” wide band next
to the plant and in the row. He passes down each side of
each rows, typically in early April, and sometimes making a second pass later in the season depending on weed
pressure and his ability to get into the field with hilling
disks or knives. The flame does a little damage to the outside leaves, but the hard cuticle of the garlic and the wellprotected growing tip shield the plant from any significant
damage from the flame.
Similarly, for years I flamed my garlic plantings when
they were 1-4” out of the ground and winter weeds were
still small. I mostly gave up flaming in favor of cultivating with a Lely tine weeder, which in light soils can be
used until garlic is at least 6-8” tall. Cultivation with the
tines also helps open up the rain-compacted soil here in
the Northwest when we have a window of dry weather.
A drawback to not mulching is exposing significant soil
surface area to winter weather as the garlic canopy doesn’t
really fill in until April.
On a hand scale, I use a four-tine cultivator with an effect similar to the tine weeder. The cultivator loosens soil
that is too wet to get a hoe through. I also use a Heron hoe
from Holdridge Enterprises which was actually developed
with garlic in mind. The stainless blade that cuts with
both forward and backward motions is much less prone to
clogging in our wet springs and stays usably sharp with no
real maintenance. With a few well-timed cultivations in
late fall and mid winter I can keep the garlic nearly weed
free. Chet, with his tight spacing, uses another favorite
tool of mine, the 4” colinear hoe from Johnny’s Selected
Seeds.
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
19
Roxbury Farm manuals available online
By Lynn Byczynski
One of the most admired CSA farms in the U.S. has
made its manuals and planting plans available for free
download from its website.
Roxbury Farm in Kinderhook, New York, is a community supported, biodynamic farm that grows vegetables,
herbs and grass-fed pork, beef and lamb for more than
1,000 shareholders. Its 300 acres of land are permanently
protected as farmland by a conservation easement. The
farm is operated by Jean-Paul Courtens and Jody Bolluyt.
Among the documents that are available are a seeding
and planting plan for 100 CSA shares; greenhouse seeding schedules; a planting manual; a harvest manual; advice about buying equipment; and a soil fertility manual.
Together, these documents represent some of the most
valuable planning tools we have ever seen here at Growing
for Market, and they are all available for free.
“It is like CSA; the vegetables are for free if you support
the farm; the manuals are for free if the outcome is a stronger community and more sharing of information amongst
small farmers,” Jean-Paul said. “What is important to
understand is that they were written for our apprentices
to have an insight into how our operation works, what is
expected of them, etc. It was never my intention to create
a manual that would cover all bases for all kind of different
operations. It is just another way to improve communication on our farm. Other farmers in the CRAFT program
(http://craftfarmapprentice.com) asked if I was willing to
share them. So, I put them online. I encourage people to
create their own standards and to create a manual for their
farm.”
With Jean-Paul’s caveats in mind, we suggest that his
manuals provide an excellent example of the types of information you should be compiling about your own farming systems. In addition, they are a good starting place for
beginners who are trying to put together a business plan
but have no idea of potential yields and labor requirements. The Harvest Manual, for instance, has details for
53 kinds of vegetables. For each, it lists yield, value, hours
to pick and wash, tools needed, readiness indicators, harvest procedures, washing procedures, and packing standards.
The manuals are updated every other year or so to reflect changes in the farm’s practices.
The manuals and other Roxbury Farm documents can
be downloaded at http://www.roxburyfarm.com/files
For LOCAL FRESH PRODUCE Professionals
800-­622-­7333
www.twilleyseed.com
Your seed sources for outstanding flowers and vegetables
For FLORICULTURE
Professionals
888-­645-­2323
20
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
www.geoseed.com
Revitalizing an old market
Grand Rapids, Michigan, updates with a shelter and internet access for vendors
By Lynn Byczynski
Grand Rapids, Michigan, is surrounded by some of the most productive fruit and vegetable farmland in
the United States. To the west of the
city is the largest blueberry production area in Michigan. Muck soils
in the area contribute to Michigan’s
ranking as #2 in the nation for fresh
market carrots and celery. And north
of Grand Rapids, the land is blanketed with orchards of apples, peaches,
cherries, and other tree fruits.
With so much fresh market produce grown in the area, it’s not surprising that Grand Rapids has a long
history of farmers markets. Ninety
years ago, the city had four markets
but over time only one survived: the
Fulton Street Farmers Market.
Although the market has had its
ups and downs over the decades, the
Fulton Street Farmers Market has recently transformed itself into one of
the most successful farmers markets
in the state.
Three aspects of the market’s renaissance stand out as offering lessons to other farmers markets around
the country. The first is a permanent
structure, which opened in May, to
protect shoppers and farmers from
the weather. The second is a set of
policies designed to bring old practices into line with current trends in
farmers marketing. And the third is
technology that is expected to bring
in thousands of dollars of untapped
federal and state food assistance.
Building a shelter
Since 1922, the Fulton Street
Farmers market has occupied a long,
narrow strip of land in a residential
area. It consisted of a single aisle with
vendor spaces on either side of the
aisle, and rows of posts to which tarps
could be attached for shelter. It was
a tight squeeze for shoppers; “You
couldn’t fit two strollers side by side,”
said Tom Dudek, a native of Grand
Rapids and Michigan State Extencontinued on the next page
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
21
Grand Rapids
continued from page 21
sion’s Senior Horticulture and Marketing Educator.
Several years ago, the neighborhood association initiated a fundraising campaign to revitalize the market.
They formed a design team, made up
of 15 people — vendors, neighbors,
Extension, city staff — to evaluate
proposals for a new layout and buildings. The Project for Public Spaces
did a feasibility study and proposed
a design that widened the vendor
space and moved parking to one end
of the lot. The proposal would have
required half the vendors to offload,
then park their trucks. The vendors
objected strenuously and the design
team voted it down.
Ultimately, the design that was
approved was similar to the existing
layout but with a middle aisle twice
the width. The market is covered by
a roof, 14 feet tall to accommodate
the largest box trucks, 650 feet long.
Built-in tables line both sides of the
center aisle. Each vendor space has a
parking space directly behind it. Customer parking is on the other side of
the drive.
In all, the new market has 118 vendor spaces, each 8 feet wide. Some
growers take multiple spaces, and
the average Saturday sees 60 ven-
An unoccupied vendor stall shows the permanent tables that line both sides of the
aisle at the Fulton Street Farmers Market. Having permanent tables in place at market is a huge time and space saver for vendors.
dors. The market is also open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from
May through December, and Saturday only January through April. The
cost per space is $10 on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, $20 on Fridays and $30
on Saturdays. On Sundays, a committee of artists runs an art market in the
space.
The improvements cost $2.8 million, and there is just $200,000 left to
raise. Once those funds are found, the
final phase of the project, including a
building with year-round
indoor stalls and restrooms, will be completed.
Philanthropic foundations provided the greatest amount of support,
followed by some city
funds. The market raised
$25,000 selling engraved
bricks that pave the entrance. Altogether, 700
unique
contributions
have been made. “Everybody feels like ‘this is my
market,’” said Christine
Helms-Maletic, a neigh-
Tom Dudek from Michigan State and market manager
Melissa Harring ton.
22
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
bor who has served as a consultant
on the project. “They feel they have
a stake in it, and that’s the beauty of
the thing.”
New attitudes
“Having a 90-year-old market is
like driving a big freighter. You turn it
slowly,” said market manager Melissa
Harrington.
Case in point: Reselling produce.
Although many in the community
would like to see Fulton Street Farmers Market be a producer-only market, some of the vendors have been
buying at the auction houses and
reselling produce at the market for
generations. So the market has implemented some new rules designed to
encourage more local produce.
Since 2007, new vendors have been
subject to an 80-20 rule that requires
them to grow at least 80% of what they
sell. A special certification program,
“100% Homegrown” is available to
vendors who sell only what they grow.
And all vendors have to put up signs
identifying produce that is bought in.
The market has a “product chal-
Above, the market ’s of f ice at the entrance to the market. The to ken system adver tised on the sign will be eliminated once vendors
begin to accept Elec tronic Benef it Transfer cards. Top right, a vendor displays head let tuce in quar t boxes lined with plastic bags
for easy packaging. At right, J. D ykstra Produce employees prep
strawberries in quar t boxes. Vendors are allowed to resell produce
as long as its origin is clearly marked ; in this case, signs show that
strawberries are from Michigan but peaches are from out of state.
J. D ykstra Produce uses multiple stalls, below, for its bountiful and
orderly display. Notice how the permanent market tables provide a
convenient shelf for signs and for customers to set down bags.
GROWING FOR M ARKET / AUGUST 2012
23
growing
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
TOPEKA, KS
PERMIT NO. 9
for ma rket
P O B o x 3 74 7
L aw r e n c e , K S 6 6 0 4 6
a journal of news and
ideas for local food producers
Grand Rapids
continued from page 23
lenge” rule designed to cut down on
vendors trying to discredit other vendors. A vendor can challenge another
grower’s product by paying $100 to
the market. The market staff then investigates and if the farmer is found to
be violating the locally grown rule, the
person who complained gets the $100
back. If the complaint is unfounded,
the $100 is forfeited. “It’s cut down on
a lot of tattling,” Harrington said.
The market also has embraced
CSA farms by allowing them to use
the Wednesday evening market for
distribution — but they stipulate that
the farmers also have to sell at the
market. This year, five CSA farms are
participating.
Another new policy that took effect just this year is a requirement that
every vendor have $1 million product
and general liability insurance. It’s
available to members of the Michigan
Farmers Marketing Association for
$300 per year.
iPods for all
The market has long accepted
SNAP, the main federal food stamp
program, using a token system
Ever y vendor at the market can receive
a free ipod and card swipe device to accept EBT payments.
whereby market staff could debit a
SNAP card in exchange for tokens
that could be used to purchase food.
A privately funded program, Double
Up Food Bucks, doubles the value of
benefits spent at farmers market. Last
year, the market redeemed $131,000
in SNAP and $107,000 in Double Up
benefits. Although the token system
worked for those programs, it entailed
a lot of bookkeeping and it could not
be used for the federal WIC program,
so those dollars were not being spent
at market.
This year, Fulton Street is piloting an innovative Electronic Benefit
Transfer (EBT) program to increase
access to fresh food for low-income
citizens. The state purchased an iPod
with a card swipe device for every
produce vendor at the market and
the market installed wi-fi so that every vendor can access the internet to
process card payments. Now, each
farmer can accept all benefits, including WIC, and the money is deposited
directly into the farm’s bank account.
“Sales are way up,” said Case
Visser of Visser Farms. “It’s such an
incentive for people to come to the
market.”
Farmers are not required to participate in the EBT program — but all
except one have chosen to do so.
Vendors report annual sales anonymously in order to help the market
make the case for improvements. Last
year, sales totaled $1.75 million, an
average of $13,000 per vendor stall.
This year, with the facility improvements and EBT, market staff projects
sales of $2 million. And so far, the
growth is happening.
“Our opening day (at the new
structure) was a madhouse,” Harrington said. “We had 10,000 people.
The month of May has been as busy
as a normal July or August. One vendor told me he made more last Friday
(June 8) than any Friday last year.”