Pest: Allium Leafminer (Phytomyza gymnostoma) Pest/disease identification and lifecycle, most common damage symptoms and crops affected: Allium, or onion, leafminer (ALM) is an invasive pest of alliums. Adult allium leafminers are small (approximately 3 millimeters) gray/black flies with a distinctive orange/yellow spot on the tops of their heads, and yellow “knees” (Fig. 1). ALM have
In September of 2022, MOFGA visited Orange Circle Farm in Berwick, Maine, to talk about no-till farming with Jeff Benton, the owner, and Becky Deering of Tiny Roots Farm in Litchfield, Maine. In their conversation, Benton and Deering discuss the why and how of no-till farming, a practice that promotes soil health by avoiding conventional
Trends in Land Access for Beginning Farmers Hi all, My name is Bo Dennis, and I am the beginning farmer program specialist at MOFGA. I am also the farmer at Dandy Ram Farm, a flower farm based in Penobscot territory of Monroe, Maine. I participated in the Journeyperson Program through MOFGA 10 years ago, at
By Noah Gleason-Hart When folks envision a healthy forest, they often imagine neat, open, parklike stands with little understory and no dead or declining trees. In truth, at least in the woods, messy is good. A vibrant, functioning forest is a maze of complexity and “messiness.” Dead, diseased and dying trees coexist alongside vigorous, fast-growing
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist At MOFGA’s Farmer to Farmer Conference held in November 2022, Trey Gilbert of Herring Brothers Meats spoke with attendees about the demand for in-state slaughter, why they chose to be USDA- and organic-inspected, and what it has meant for their business. Gone are the days
By Roberta Bailey The word “corn” denotes the staple grain of a region. In countries where wheaten bread is primarily eaten, wheat is their corn. In countries where rye is eaten most often, their corn is rye. In the Americas, our corn, our staple grain is maize. Maize is inextricably intertwined into our daily world.
By Caleb Goossen, Ph.D., MOFGA Crop Specialist Starting seedlings indoors allows you to create a controlled environment that is ideal for germination and early growth. In addition to long-season crops, like Brussels sprouts and artichokes, that require many days to reach maturity, we want to give some crops time to grow as large as possible
By Will Bonsall Photos courtesy of Yaicha Cowell A major reason for preferring pole beans over bush types is to save space. By exploiting your garden’s third dimension, you can harvest much more food from a smaller footprint. Of course, all good things come with a price and in this case it is the extra
By Kirsten Lie-Nielsen It was 2013, and my husband and I had never raised birds of any kind. Ordering chicks seemed like the logical way to progress our little urban homestead in Maine, and at a whim we added two goslings to our hatchery order. The birds arrived, peeping and squeaking, and it immediately became
By Eric Evans, Camden, Maine In most soils, watering is needed during extended droughts (our 1-2 inches of rain for all of June and July in 2022 was not enough!) to support blooming and fruiting. But frequent shallow watering can have little benefit, because it encourages shallow rooting and evaporates rapidly. I aim to provide the equivalent
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