Guide to Grower Fact Sheets.docx.docx

Grower Information Sheet
El Almácigo
Date: 1/22/2012
Farm Name: Drumlin Community Farm Cooperative
Address: 2475 Lalor Rd., Fitchburg, WI
Contact Info: 608-446-1614
Farm Website: drumlinfarmcoop.com
About Your Farm
# Years Farming: 7
# Acres: 5
# Shares/Members: 51 members in 2012
El Almácigo: Low Cost, High Volume starts for transplanting from your Greenhouse, or
Hoophouse:
As a multi-cultural cooperative, Drumlin grows five acres of organic produce using an
integration of methods common in the organic farming community both here in Wisconsin, and
in Mexico. For germinating and propagating our many starts in the greenhouse, we combine
using plastic trays and soil mixes with a more cost-effective and simple method used in Mexico,
known as the almácigo.
An almácigo is a small area of rich soil prepared in the ground for starting small plants that will
be later transplanted into the field. Below we will explain how to use this method here in
Wisconsin for a low-cost alternative to common greenhouse methods familiar to most organic
farmers in the U.S.
At Drumlin, use one small heated greenhouse and one small unheated hoop-house to grow starts.
We grow colder weather tolerant starts in our hoop house, such as broccoli, collards, kale,
cabbage, and lettuce.
In our warmer greenhouse, we plant tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos,
eggplant, okra, and keep some plastic trays full of advanced tomatoes, peppers, watermelons and
melons, basil, and other herbs.
Preparation of Beds:
In our hoop house, and the section of our greenhouse used for in-ground planting beds, we line
each side of the house with 4-foot by 30-foot beds, having a walkway in the middle. The beds
are lined with untreated wood or cut logs, and separated with wood between varieties. In
addition, we plant some crops in 8-foot by 4-foot plywood and 2X4 boxes, that can be moved
outside for “hardening off” or put in the bed of a pick-up to transport.
Unheated hoop house, used for starting cold weather tolerant starts in the ground
Soil mix varies from an on-farm mix of top-soil, compost, sand or peat, to a purchased mix that
has been sterilized to kill weed seeds. If you use the on-farm mix, soil can be sterilized in an
oven, or used unsterilized. When using unsterilized soil mixes, be prepared to weed your beds,
and to give your seeds a head start by pre-germinating them in a warm towel, so that they have a
head start on the weed seeds. Also, we often water our beds for a week or so before planting so
that most seeds germinate and are then killed with a hoe before planting any seeds. If using
sterile soil, it is best to bury landscaping fabric about 4 to 6 inches deep in your greenhouse, line
the edges of the fabric with a wood structure, and then fill the beds with soil. This will prevent
any unwanted mixing of soil, or weed seeds germinating from deep below the soil. Whichever
method you use, make sure your soil is sifted to remove large lumps, and set aside a few 5-gallon
buckets worth of finely-sifted soil to cover your seeds with. Sifting soil can be done by fastening
to a wooden frame, a metal screen, with ¼ inch to half inch sized holes depending on how finely
you want to sift the soil.
Soil prep: mixing compost, top soil, and peat moss to plant in 8X4 foot deep planting boxes.
Planting and germinating the seeds:
Once your beds are prepared, and then thoroughly soaked, it is time to plant and cover your
seeds. At this time, it helps to organize the planting to arrange like plants with like plants.
Plants that germinate at higher temperatures such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, or melons,
should be next to each other in the beds. Plants that germinate at lower temps, such as collards,
kale, or lettuce, should be next to each other. Also, if you arrange them in order of when they
will be transplanted in the field, it will allow you to have more space available in your
greenhouse or hoop house as they are transplanted in April and May. At Drumlin, we often save
seeds and buy more seeds than we need, so that we don’t worry about every seed making it into
the field at transplanting time. To organize your starts, we plant most seeds in rows, about two
inches apart, or more for Tomatoes, and other larger plants. These rows are usually about 4 feet
long, running the short way of the bed, and parallel each other all the way down the bed. Making
a half-inch deep furrow with a small stick for planting the seeds into, will mark these rows.
Seeds can be sprinkled generously in these furrows. For most Brassicas, we plant 3-4 seeds
every inch. For Tomatoes and Peppers, about one to two every inch. For Onions, we skip the
rows all together and sprinkle the onion seed generously around the bed, at a rate of around 3000
seeds for a 4ftX8ft. bed.
Beds Planted and covered with plastic, awaiting germination.
After planting your seeds, you will need to cover them with finely-sifted, moist soil, and then
cover with old greenhouse plastic, or some equivalent, until they germinate. The plastic
covering should be held in place with weights or stakes, only removed if additional watering is
needed before germination. The plastic helps hold moisture in and protects the seeds and the
beds from critters. Often, we do not need to water the beds again until after the seeds germinate.
Also, using clear greenhouse plastic helps keep the soil warmer and will allow you to leave it on
a day or two after the first sees germinate, to allow for the others to germinate, without the first
ones turning into fragile, lanky starts.
Care for Plants, after germination, until transplanting:
Once your seeds germinate, and turn into seedlings, you will need to care for them by watering,
and protecting them from critters, and hard frosts. Aside from the occasional weeding, or
thinning, your plants will require little attention other than watering until transplanting. They do
not require “potting up,” saving time and money. Seedlings growing in the ground or in deep
planting boxes have deeper roots and deeper, wetter soil to draw water and nutrients from,
allowing them to be watered more heavily and less often than starts in plastic trays. They also
give you as a farmer more flexibility in when they need to be transplanted in the field, surviving
for a longer time, if needed, in the ground, than a plant in a tray.
Drumlin members Greg and Rick, next to our 8X4 foot beds of Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Peppers,
and Onions (front to back), in April of 2010
To protect your plants on cold nights, we often water them with warm water, and cover them
with plastic, placed over row cover hoops, allowing the plant to survive in warm soil, inside the
plastic, at lower temperatures than trays on tables can survive. In our unheated hoop house, we
are able to protect our starts on cold nights in April, even when temperatures inside the hoop
house drop below freezing. Protecting your plants from critters such as rabbits and groundhogs
is also essential, especially for the tasty brassica varieties. At Drumlin, we have lined the hoop
house with three feet of wire fencing, to make sure no rodents get in.
Transplanting in the Field:
Now your starts are ready for transplanting to the field. If you have drip tape, it is already
wetting small areas, along your straight rows, in intervals of one or two feet. If you do not have
drip tape, you have already marked rows and watered them, or you are at the field with your
work crew just after a heavy rain. Now, it is time to remove the plants from the almácigo. The
first step is to wet the ground heavily. Next, you will want to loosen the soil with a digging fork,
or dig up the section of the bed with a flat shovel, moving the shovel at least 3-4 inches below
the soil surface. For crops such as lettuce, that will fall apart if you are not gentle, removing an
entire section of the bed with a shovel is preferred. For crops like onions or tomatoes, one can
usually pull them out of wet, loosened soil, without damaging the plant. Either way, you will
want to only remove enough plants that you will finish planting in the next hour or two, no more.
Remove plants from the bed, leaving little dirt on the roots, and place all the plants in a plastic
tray or some other moveable box, placing them upright. These trays are to be taken to the field
for hand transplanting. Some farmers are familiar with transplanting onions by hand, with a
bunch in the left hand, pushing the onion into moist soil with your thumb on the roots, and then
quickly covering the hole that your thumb makes with a brush of loose soil. This is the same
method we use to transplant not only onions, but tomatoes, peppers, collards, and kale, for more
delicate crops like lettuce, we tend to leave a chunk of dirt on the roots, and transplant a little
more carefully. Bare root transplanting is much quicker than transplanting starts from trays by
hand. In fact, three people can transplant an acre of tomatoes in just a few hours! If you are well
set up for transplanting with a tractor, this method may not appeal to you, but at Drumlin we
transplant a few acres by hand, and it saves us a lot of time. Once you are finished with bare root
transplanting, make sure to water more frequently in the first two weeks of growth, if it is a dry
spring.
Collard greens recently planted in rows using the Bare Root planting method.