“Where did you buy those mini-tunnel arches?” was the main response to last month”s post about overwintering crops in mini-tunnels, Well, we bought some 10ft long E.M.T. conduit from a local hardware store and then bent the arches ourselves. It’s a pretty simple process that you can easily do on your farm. Come, let’s see … More Bend Your Own Mini-Tunnel Arches
We ran out of time to build caterpillar tunnels in Novemeber.
So we built mini tunnels to overwinter crops instead! … More Mini Tunnels To Get Seed Crops Through The Winter
Lettuce is the other seeed crop that took me years to learn how to clean well (radishes being the first). The basics are like other dry seeded crops (thresh, screen and winnow ad nauseam) but to do a good job I’ve had to pay a lot of attention to the threshing and final screening. (If … More Cleaning Lettuce Seed
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about our challenges producing lettuce seed in a humid climate. By growing lettuce for seed under plastic tunnels, we can protect the plants and seed from the summer rains. We start off by … Planting Lettuce Outside We transplanted lettuce to the field in early May – Merlot … More Growing Lettuce For Seed Under Tunnels
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
Here’s another quick update before we get back to seed crop planning. Whether it’s wet, dry, hot or cold; the one thing that doesn’t change on our farm is the wind. In mid April, on one of windiest days this spring, I was seeding in the greenhouse. Reid came by as he secured things around … More Spring Winds and Field Tunnels
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