There are a lot of ways that lettuce can turn into jelly. A long list of fuzzy moldy slimy diseases. And they can strike seemingly overnight. One morning you have a bed of tall romaine lettuce looking perfect for harvest. And the next day … not so perfect ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? I’m going … More Keeping Your Lettuce From Turning Into Jelly
Here’s the Farmer Book of Nightmares. Also published as Diseases and Pests of Vegetable Crops in Canada by The Canadian Phytopathological Society. 500+ pages of suspense and vegetable gore. This book is broken down by a series of crops/crop families and their diseases + pests. Each disease/pest section explains its symptoms, disease cycle/life history, and … More Farmer Book Club: The Farmer Book Of Nightmares
We’ve been quite successful getting plants covered in pods with 2 chickpeas per pod. But when it comes to harvesting and threshing these chickpeas. I’ve been pretty frustrated! … More Trying to harvest high quality chickpeas in a humid climate.
A lot of things try to chomp, munch, consume, and destroy our crops. Before you can figure out what to do, it’s good to know what the problem is! My favorite reference on the subject is Diseases and Pests of Vegetable Crops in Canada, which is available as a print book. But it is also … More Identifying Diseases & Pests
Almost 10 years ago, NOFA released a series of handbooks on organic principles and practices. These were compact affordable books written by experienced farmers that gave solid introductions to poultry production, seed saving, crop rotation and more. I devoured these books. NOFA-NY recently published a book that follows in the previous handbook series’s steps: Breeding … More Book Review: Breeding Organic Vegetables
Seed quality was one of the big topics at USC Canada’s Train the Seed Trainer sessions. All the participants had a lot to say on the topic. And though we had many conflicting opinions on other seed issues, we had consensus making a list of seed quality concerns. I’ve taken that list and broken it … More What Is Seed Quality?
On Jan 19-21, 2012, I attended the 6th Organic Seed Growers Conference in organized by the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA). The event started off with a one-day tour of the Skagit Vally seed region and then two days of conferences in Port Towsnend, WA. If you missed the event, you can download the conference proceedings … More My trip to the OSA Organic Seed Growers Conference
The following story took place last summer. These are some red iceberg lettuces I was growing for seed. Everything looked great. The rows in the front have had their outer leaves removed to increase ventilation. The rows in the back still have their outer leaves. Do you see the holes in the lettuce patch? Over … More Slimy Jungle – A Seed Lettuce Tale of Sorrow and Woe
Last week, I received a few e-mails about growing radish seed. Here are a few radishy answers for those questions. Also, I have been pruning lettuce leaves to increase ventilation. Radish Seed These radishes have begun to bloom. These are grown 2 rows/bed with 18″ in-row spacing. They seem to be smaller plants than some … More Radishes Blooming and Pruning Lettuce
It’s been dry. With less than an inch of rain in weeks and weeks, and record high temperatures, our plants look wilted. Whereas we systematically irrigate germinating vegetable crops and leafy greens, I usually rely on the not so uncommon spring rains for our seed crops to get established. However, this year as I was … More Irrigating with Sprinklers and Drip Tape