Tag: Season Extension

Succession Planting for Continued Yields and Season Extension

By Will Bonsall Succession planting may refer to two or more garden practices. For quick-maturing crops like lettuce or radishes or spinach, one makes frequent small plantings — perhaps one every week or two — to ensure a steady harvest over a longer period. Planting your whole radish crop at once guarantees that you’ll have far

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Is Organic Farming Contributing to a Plastic Apocalypse?

By David McDaniel I am an organic farmer recovering from a heavy reliance on and addiction to the agricultural plastic needed to make my commercial farm competitive, productive and profitable. I got into organic farming for the noble purpose of working in a vocation that would theoretically pay a livable wage while allowing me to

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Planning a Resilient Farm Layout at Evening Song Farm

By Sonja Heyck-Merlin Evening Song Farm, owned by Ryan and Kara Fitzbeauchamp and certified organic by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, offered a virtual farm tour during MOFGA’s 2020 Farmer to Farmer Conference. Located in Cuttingsville, Vermont, 11 miles southeast of Rutland, the 100-acre property is perched at 1,200 feet on a hillside

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Recycle Your Greenhouse Plastic

By David McDaniel Rick Kersbergen, Paul Gallione and Sam MacDonald remove plastic from a greenhouse at Moosehead Trail Farm in Waldo. Thanks to a new program, they’ll be able to recycle the plastic. Photo by David McDaniel. Beginning in the spring of 2020, farmers and gardeners will be able to recycle their waste greenhouse and

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Spinach Downy Mildew

Downy mildew on winter spinach in a high tunnel. Photo by Eric Sideman By Caleb Goossen, Ph.D. Winter-grown greens have increased dramatically in popularity, and subsequently in ubiquity, over the past couple of decades. We are miles beyond the era of my grandmother’s childhood in northern Vermont, where the “hungry period” set in during the end of winter

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An Inexpensive Low Tunnel Season Extender

Photo 1 – Each frame was fitted over a 2-foot-long, half-inch re-rod driven into the ground. Re-rods were covered with half-inch plastic pipe for added rigidity. Longer re-rods would be an improvement, and 3-foot 4-inch sections of half-inch conduit might be even better. Photo 2 – Frames were assembled on the ground, left and right

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Farming the Shoulder Seasons

At the Farmer to Farmer Conference, Eliot Coleman (left) and Patrice Gros talked about growing crops during the shoulder seasons of the main growing season. English photo At MOFGA’s 2016 Farmer to Farmer Conference, Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine, and Patrice Gros of Foundation Farm near Fayetteville, Arkansas, discussed growing and

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Low Energy Food Storage Solutions

Warm air from an attic is blown through this cabinet to dry produce. The drying cabinet setup. Warm air from the basement keeps plants in the coldframe from freezing. A small, well insulated box in the garage stores root crops. By Eric Evans My wife, Laura, and I love to eat the fruit and veggies

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Growing Cold Hardy Figs in Maine

The protection of a hoophouse (and wrapping plants in winter with fabric row cover) offers promise for growing figs in Maine. Photo by Lauren Errickson Ripe figs. Photo by Lauren Errickson By Bill Errickson Farmers in the Northeast struggle with a short growing season, cool temperatures and harsh, unpredictable winters, so it behooves them to

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Second Generation Rolling High Tunnel

The basic 22 x 48 metal frame of my moveable high tunnel. This size allows for sufficient ventilation through end wall vents. The sliding side-wall entrance alleviates the necessity for an end-wall entrance, so the end walls are stronger. By Phil Norris Photos by the author Here in Maine, the short growing season makes some

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