Tag: winter cover crops for gardeners

Conferences, Growing for Market articles and books

What with the pandemic, snowstorms, power and internet outages and related travel limitations, you might be forgiven for thinking I’d faded away or something! Except for my regular weekly blogposts, which I have kept up, come whatever!

This week’s blogpost is a reminder about other aspects of my work. Conferences, magazine articles, and my books. First the conferences. I do have an Events Page, in case you haven’t discovered that yet, and one with videos and podcasts I’m in. I’m also including a list of other Organic virtual conferences

Virginia Association for Biological Farming

2022 Virginia Biological Farming Conference,

January 22-24 (Saturday to Monday)

Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center

 Conference website

Saturday 1/22 will be half-day and full-day pre-conference sessions. The general conference is on Sunday and Monday.

Lodging and Travel

Workshops

The three-day Conference includes: Pre-Conference intensive workshops, 48 concurrent sessions of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions, 50 tradeshow exhibitors, locally sourced farm meals and book sales with author signings. The Conference highlights include a Youth Program, a Silent Auction and networking opportunities including regional meetings and fireside chats, morning yoga for farmers and the Taste of Virginia Expo & Social. 

Update:

I had planned to give a half-day pre-conference intensive on Year-Round Hoophouse Vegetables, and two 90 minute workshops on Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish and Lettuce Year-Round. But then it all looked too risky for me, and I had to cancel. Very sorry.

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February 10-12, 2022 (Wednesday to Saturday 2.30pm)

PASA

Lancaster Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 25 S Queen St, Lancaster, PA

PASA is taking great care to make the in-person conference as covid-safe as possible. See the website. https://web.cvent.com/event/495529cf-5f11-41ed-9a1d-c9e55d151c6a/summary?RefId=home

I am giving three 60 min workshops:

Optimize Your Asian Greens Production Thursday 2/10 9-10 am

Beauty in a tatsoi plant.
Photo Wren Vile

This workshop covers production of Asian greens, outdoors and in the hoop house, for both market and home growers. Learn to grow many types of tasty, nutritious greens easily and quickly for fast returns. This workshop includes tips on selection of over 20 types of Asian greens, the timing of succession planting, crop rotation in the hoop house, pest and disease management, fertility, and weed management throughout the year.

Winter Vegetable Production Methods from the Field to the Hoophouse, Fri 2/11 9-10am

Harvested turnips ready for storage.
Photo Pam Dawling

Grow cold-hardy vegetables in the open and with protection varying from rowcovers to hoop houses (high tunnels). Learn about tables of cold-hardiness, details of crops to keep growing into winter, crops for all-winter harvests, overwintering crops for spring harvests, and winter hoop house crops. We’ll also discuss how to plan harvesting and planting dates, and how to maximize production with succession planting, follow-on cropping, and with stored vegetables.

Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish, Saturday 2/12 11am-12.00 noon

Sweet potatoes on a plate.
Photo Brittany Lewis

At this workshop you will learn how to grow your own sweet potato slips, plant them, grow healthy crops, harvest good yields, and select suitable roots for growing next year’s slips. You will also learn how to cure and store roots for top quality and minimal losses. This workshop will be useful to beginners and experienced growers alike.

Handouts

Booksigning Thursday 2/10 4.30-5.30 pm at the Book Nook

Book sales at the Book Nook

The is also a virtual conference in January and early February.

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MOFFA

Maryland Organic Food and Farm Association (MOFFA)

Virtual Conference February 26, 2022

https://www.marylandorganic.org

I am giving a 45 minute recorded workshop on Cold-Hardy Winter Vegetables.

There will also be a pdf handout.

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Seven Springs Fair

Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania

September 16-18, 2022. Early Bird discounts are available already!

Hours

Friday Sept 16: 12:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday Sept 17: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday Sept 18: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Location

Seven Springs Mountain Resort
777 Waterwheel Dr.
Seven Springs, Pa. 15622

http://maps.google.com/?q=Seven%20Springs%20Mountain%20Resort

The Fair at Seven Springs is unique, as speakers, staff and attendees co-mingle throughout the weekend at this beautiful four-season resort. Take advantage of complete lodging and ticket packages, which can be booked directly through the resort. Packages are available including rooms or condos. For more information and to make a reservation online click here, or please call 1-800-452-2223.

I am presenting two 60 minute workshops at outdoor stages:

Cool Season Hoophouse Crops

Hoophouse winter greens.
Photo Kathleen Slattery

How to fill your hoophouse with productive food crops in the cool seasons. Suitable crops; cold-hardiness; selecting crops; calculating how much to harvest, how much to plant; crop rotation; mapping; scheduling; seasonal transitions; succession planting and follow-on cropping.

Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish

Sweet potatoes in storage. An ideal crop for winter meals, as they store at room temperature for a long time, maybe seven or eight months.
Photo Pam Dawling

At this workshop you will learn how to grow your own sweet potato slips; plant them, grow healthy crops and harvest good yields, selecting suitable roots for growing next year’s slips. You will also learn how to cure and store roots for top quality and minimal losses. This workshop will be useful to beginners and experienced growers alike.

My books will be on sale in the Mother Earth Bookshop

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I have presented at several Mother Earth Fairs Online. 

Online: Food Independence Course Part Two

was released on 3/26/21.

Yukina Savoy
Photo Ethan Hirsh

It consists of eight video presentations, most of which come with pdf handouts. My contribution is Growing Asian Greens, and pairs nicely with Guide to Asian Vegetables by Wendy Kiang-Spray, author of The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine. Other topics include Dandelion Wine, Homemade Teas, Food Conversations, Passive Solar Greenhouse Design, Productive Growing from Home, and Growing Your Own Spices.

Part One of the Food Independence Course includes seven videos, most with handouts, and there is a free preview of DIY Sourdough Basics with Jessica Moody. other topics include Your Edible Yard, the Chinese Greenhouse, Community Meat Buying Club and Mindful Meat Eating, Practical Yogurt and Emma’s Cool crops.

You can subscribe to the All-Access Bundle for $2.99/month (or $35 for a year).

  • Once you register for All-Access, you will receive access to all 47 current video workshops and prerecorded webinars plus anything new that is added.
  • All the workshop videos are pre-recorded and can be viewed whenever you like and however many times you like.
  • Because the videos can be viewed at your convenience, you can watch them on your own schedule!
  • At MOTHER EARTH NEWS, all of the content, including these workshops, are designed to empower you to become less dependent on systemic products or services. What does that mean? This is an opportunity learn how to save a lot of money on things such as groceries, expensive health products, energy, and more!
  • Unlike at the physical FAIRS, where workshops take place simultaneously, you don’t have to pick and choose which workshops to watch! Most folks can enjoy only 10 to 12 workshops maximum at a physical FAIR. Now you can see them all!
  • No additional travel expenses, such as hotel rooms, airfare, gas, pet care, dining out, etc.
  • All dogs are allowed!!!

I have also contributed an 8-part Garden Planning Course

Garden Planning Course

Before that, I did a workshop on

Winter Cover Crops for Gardeners

as part of the Winter Gardening Course.

Fall broccoli undersown with a mixed clover winter cover crop.
Photo Nina Gentle.

All these and many more videos and handouts are available as part of the All-Access Bundle

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Podcasts and Videos

Check out my page for Podcasts and Videos!

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More Virtual Organic Conferences in January and February

Here’s a useful list from eOrganic. I’ll be at PASA, but not the others.

eOrganic is the organic agriculture community of practice with eXtension. Theirr mission is to foster a research and outreach community, engage farmers and ag professionals through trainings and publications, and support research and outreach projects.

Growing for Market magazine

Growing for Market articles

January 2022 Growing for Market magazine cover

 

 

The January 2022 issue has my article on Greensprouting and planting potatoes. The November/December issue has my article on Planning  an asparagus patch.

 

 

 

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Heads up on Sustainable Market Farming price increase elsewhere but not through my website.

After nine years at a cover price of $34.95, it is going for another reprint, and will be $39.99 as of February 25, 2022. Fortunately I have plenty of copies on hand for direct sale.

My recent work in Growing for Market, Mother Earth News and pepper research

Seed saving and processing

August 2020 Growing for Market magazine

Heads up everyone saving seed from their tomatoes, melons, or squash this year, in anticipation of possible seed shortages next spring! Or because you have the time at home to figure out how to do it, and you’re around to stir the bucket three times a day! I have an article on wet seed processing in the August issue of Growing for Market magazine.

Roma tomatoes cut in half for seed extraction.
Photo Pam Dawling

Also see my post on washing and drying tomato seeds, with lots of photos.

The next issue will have my article on dry seed processing (think beans, peas, okra, lettuce).

The current issue also has a couple of interesting articles on how to move step-by-step towards no-till growing, or at least minimum-till. Many gardeners and farmers have floundered while making this transition, so learn from the experienced! And there’s an article by Julia Shanks on balance sheets, for those intending to make a living farming.

Winter Cover Crops for Gardeners

A no-till cover crop mix of winter rye, hairy vetch, Austrian winter peas and crimson clover.
Photo Bridget Aleshire

I have a workshop on Winter Cover Crops for Gardeners as part of the Mother Earth News Fair Online Winter Gardening Course. The Winter Gardening Course features 7 videos, each 21-44 minutes long. Mine’s 32 minutes on cover crops.

You can enroll for the 8-course Winter Gardening Course for $20.

Or choose the 2020 all-access course bundle of 21 courses (over 100 videos) for $150.

Or before summer is over, go for the $120, 8 course (56 videos) Summer Bundle.

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What went wrong with our hoophouse peppers in 2020?

Diseased hoophouse pepper plant.
Photo Pam Dawling

Our 2020 hoophouse peppers were stunted, crinkled, yellowing and failed to thrive.

Possibilities:

  1. Too cold in edge bed A (drafts under baseboard)?
  2. Too wet in bed A (rainwater under baseboard, not much drying out due to shade of tomatoes)?
  3. Nutsedge poisoning: roots exude something that inhibits other plants?
  4. Soil too salty?
  5. Soil nutrients poor?
  6. Aphids
  7. Aphids spread a virus? (plants were crinkled)
  8. Are we sowing hoophouse peppers too early? In cells that are too big?
  9. Are we transplanting hoophouse peppers too early? Keeping them in in cells that are too small?

Possible solutions

  1. Be sure to block drafts all winter. Try not to plant peppers in cold edge beds.
  2. Close one row of driptape if soil in edge bed A seems excessively wet compared to other beds. Re-dig outside moat to keep soil water out.
  3. Do better about weeding out nutsedge. Investigate soil properties that encourage nutsedge.
  4. Use beds C and E instead of middle bed D when doing salt water wash down. Poke out holes in sprinkler, ensure all are working. Get a better sprinkler.
  5. Do soil tests in October and remediate soil as needed.
  6. We could monitor for pests and act promptly
  7. Deal with aphids and avoid viral diseases
  8. Sow later, in smaller cells.
  9. Transplant later, after potting up to bigger cells or pots.

Summary of ideas after our meeting and reading 2020 records:

  • Use fresh seed
  • Go back to deep 6 cells for sowing, (smaller than R38)
  • Use more appropriately warm growing conditions. Peppers don’t recover well from setbacks. They remain stunted long term.
  • Test soil and act accordingly.
  • Ensure salt wash-down reaches the edge beds.
  • If planting in chilly edge beds, ensure the baseboards are not drafty.
  • Don’t overwater.
  • Remove nutsedge whenever we see it
  • Monitor for pests; deal with aphids to avoid long-term virus diseases.
Pepper plant with aphids. Photo Pam Dawling

Hoophouse Pepper Records Research

  • We have been sowing 2/3 for a 4/7 transplant date. That’s maybe too long. 9 weeks.
  • 2/3/20 Hphs peppers sown as scheduled. Used R38s rather than usual deep 6s. It’s recommended not to sow peppers in large cells – they are slow growing, and it’s hard to get the watering right in large cells.
  • 2/11 -2/14 Peppers germinated. We had some trouble with keeping the germinating chambers up to temperature because we didn’t have the right lightbulbs.
  • 2/15 – 2/17 Heat mats not all plugged in or working right.
  • 2/21 resowed Gilboa. PeaceWork was old seed, poor vigor? Or low germ rate?
  • 2/28 Gilboa resows had been in tent but weren’t actually germinated. Back in fridge.
  • 3/4 – 3/9 Potted up. Is this true? R38s don’t normally get potted up. Maybe due to patchy germination?
  • 3/16 In ghs drafty zone
  • 4/5 Ghs door left open all night
  • 4/12 Ghs door left open all night again.
Hoophouse peppers in a better year!
Photo Pam Dawling

Info from Sustainable Market Farming  and The Year-Round Hoophouse

  • Sow 8-10 weeks before you intend to transplant.
  • We used to sow our hoophouse peppers 1/17, then 1/24, then 1/31, then 2/3.
  • Minimum temperature for germination is 60F, optimum 68-95F.
  • Peppers seem to produce stockier plants if soil temperatures are 65-68F, max 80F daytime, min 60F at night after germination. Use a soil thermometer.
  • Transplants getting slightly cooler nights will grow sturdier plants that flower later and have more potential for big yields. Rowcover at night if 40F or below.
  • After third true leaf, can reduce night temp to 54F. May increase yields.
  • But, permanently stunted by conditions that are too cold.
  • Keeping them in pots or cells that are too small will set them back. If transplanting is delayed, pot up to larger size, eg tomato pots.
  • Pot up when a few true leaves appear. After that no heat mat needed.
  • We moved our transplanting date from 4/1 to 4/7 (one week after tomatoes is usual)
  • Transplant at 6-9 weeks, with 4 or 5 true leaves, not yet flowering. OK if they are big.
  • Soil for transplanting should be at least 60F, ideally 68F
  • Avoid transplant shock. Soil needs to be damp before, during and after transplanting. Avoid root damage or bending. Shade if hot, sunny or breezy.
  • For the first week after transplanting, keep warm.
  • Established peppers benefit from 70-75F days, 64-68F nights
  • Maintain sufficient levels of boron, calcium, phosphorus.
  • Monitor and control aphids and thrips to prevent the diseases they vector.
  • An inch of water per week is about right.
  • Foliar feeding with fish or seaweed emulsion once a week after fruit set.
  • 65-80 days from transplant to full-size immature fruits, and another 2-4 weeks to ripe fruit.
  • Yields should be 5-18 lbs/10ft.

Ideas after rereading those sources

  • We might do better to set the sowing date a week later (2/10), keep the transplant date at 4/7 and aim for an 8 week-old transplant? (Avoid colder conditions)
  • We need to pay more attention to temperatures of germination, seedlings and potted transplants. Write the goal temperatures on the Seedlings Schedule
  • We need to pay more attention to not overwatering seedlings. Write that on the Seedlings Schedule too.