by Eric Sideman, PhDMOFGA’s Organic Crop Specialist Emeritus Introduction Similar to any organic crop production, producing strawberries organically entails a system approach to the whole farm. Many of the practices are the same in organic and conventional strawberry systems, but the fundamental approach to soil husbandry and pest management may be quite different. Successful organic
Raspberry plants are abundantly productive and take only a small amount of work in the home garden. English photo Calendula is easy to grow, produces sunny bouquets and is used in medicinal salves and other skin-care products. English photo Pots of basil set on a deck are readily available for snipping. English photo By Joyce
By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. I always have fresh cream at home from mid-June until mid-August. Berries are good with milk or yogurt, or plain, but they are best with cream. And the best berry? The one that is in season! For people who do not farm or garden, that season can be hard to determine,
Strawberry runners transplanted in August. Roberta Bailey photo A thick patch of strawberry plants at the end of the second summer, ready to be tilled under as weeds are encroaching. Roberta Bailey photo By Roberta Bailey We all want to grow strawberries. Who can resist the allure of a basket brimming with fat, red, juicy
An order of strawberries that was 10-times what the author ordered populated the neighborhood and family gardens – even container gardens – with the luscious plants. Photo by Joyce White. By Joyce White From the time I was 10, the first sunny days of summer vacation would find me walking purposefully past placid Holsteins munching
Strawberries growing in a matted row system. MOFGA file photo. David Handley, UMaine Extension small fruit and vegetable specialist, and David Pike, who grows strawberries in Farmington, Maine, talked about this crop at MOFGA’s November 2011 Farmer to Farmer Conference. Handley noted that aside from wild blueberries, strawberries are the most popular berry grown in
Toki Oshima drawing Strawberry Plugs & Varieties By Sue Smith-Heavenrich If you get to the Common Ground Fair this year, look for the strawberry alley crops. Last fall, Jack Kertesz put in a few beds of strawberries between young apple trees in MOFGA’s demonstration orchard. He thinks that growing strawberries between newly planted trees might provide
John Fuchs plants Tristar strawberries in a raised bed in northern Vermont. Photo by Deirdre Fuchs, copyright 2001. By John Fuchs New England growers rarely have an advantage over southern and western growers, but strawberries offer a delicious example of a crop that is better suited to the cool, moist climate and acidic soils of
Botanically Confusing, Culinarily Perfect By Roberta Bailey © 2005. For information about reproducing this article, please contact the author. Did you know that the seed-like structures on a strawberry are really a type of fruit called achenes (a small, dry, hard, one-seeded, indehiscent fruit), and that what most of us think of as the fruit
Maine strawberry growers typically use the matted row system to grow their crop. Photo by Eric Sideman. by Eric Sideman, Ph.D. As with any crop, producing strawberries organically entails a systems approach to the whole farm rather than just substituting approved organic materials for synthetic materials. Of course, many practices are the same in organic
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