Category Archives: Production

Favas: A Bean for the New Millennials

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK

I planted a half segment (500 sq. ft.) of broad beans today. It took less than an hour.

SF photo blog fava 3 planting

Once these initial plantings are up, I will wait for development, and then put in more sub-segment plantings right through June. By staggering the timing of plantings this way, I can have continuous production and sales throughout the summer. Then I’ll relay the area to another crop.

Broad beans are easy to plant and grow. The Earthway seeder does not have a plate to accommodate them, so you need to do it by hand. All you have to do is set up the beds, and press the bean into soil.

SF photo blog fava 4 row

Then rake over the bed. Your work rate should be about 10 minutes per bed to seed. Germination is more or less certain.

I’ve grown broad beans for years, and they have always been a good niche crop. But now that there is a new generation that partly defines itself by how adventurous they can be with their eating, there is even more demand. Just don’t call them broad beans. Call them fava beans. They’re a good crop to try to attract a new market, or see if you can inject some new enthusiasm into your existing one.

 

Early Spring Marketing Using Unheated High Tunnels

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Courtesy of Adithya Ramachandran, Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, Dundurn SK

Most farmers underperform at early spring markets. SPIN-Farming is based on generating strong cash flow by targeting $1,000 weekly sales – in late April or early May – regardless of your growing zone. To do that you need to ignore conventional gardening practices, and get into production early, in volume. Adithya Ramachandran’s Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, is in zone 3. Here is what he went to market with May 7.

SF photo fb early spring market Adi

Adi is using unheated high tunnels..and improving his production strategy all the time. Read below.

This spring has been an interesting learning experience. There are some things I would do different next year, including increasing my staggering time for radishes, and a greater focus on beets, green garlic and kohlrabi to target late spring sales.

Something else that I would like to try out next spring is an early planting of broad beans for bean production. I noticed that the ones I seeded in March were flowering now. However I tilled them all under because they were planted densely for shoot production (I didn’t get around to harvesting them all), and they wouldn’t have done well.

I also plan to diversify my spring sales next year with tulips.

Find out how backyard farmers get off to strong spring production and sales in early spring in the SPIN online support group. Receive free trial membership with the purchase of any SPIN guide. 

How to Determine Hoophouse Density for Tomatoes and Peppers

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Courtesy of Adithya Ramachandran, Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, Dundurn SK

When growing tomatoes in a hoophouse, think about how many plants you would grow on the same amount of space outdoors, divide that by 3, and plant only that number in the hoophouse. This is particularly important for tomatoes because they can get HUGE in a hoophouse. I learned that the hard way my first year with high tunnels. Not only does it make it difficult to work in there, but it also increases disease and pest issues, and they compete with one another for water and nutrients. You can improve your yield per square foot by planting fewer plants. This is particularly so if you don’t prune the plants (which I don’t do – too labor-intensive).

Peppers don’t get as crazy as tomatoes, but they also consume a lot of water and are very shallow-rooted, so again there can be competition if they are crowded.

SF photo fb wisdom Adi hoophouse densifty photo

LEARN MORE HOOPHOUSE BEST GROWING PRACTICES IN THE SPIN ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP. TRIAL MEMBERSHIP IS FREE WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY SPIN GUIDE.

Become Your Own Weather Forecaster

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Courtesy of Adithya Ramachandran, Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens, Dundurn SK

High tunnels require farmers to become their own weather forecasters. In the Saskatoon area, tonight’s forecast low is -13 C (8.6 F). That’s a little too cold for most cool-season crops, so we spent part of last week laying down row cover – 8000 sq ft of it. The cover also accelerates germination.

I’ve kept temperature records in past seasons to determine the effectiveness of row covers. Based on variables such as afternoon soil temperature at a standardized depth, number of layers of row covers, soil moisture status, and height of row covers above
plants, I came up with a few formulas for determining what the overnight low will be.

For example, today’s soil temp. at the 4′ depth is 10 C inside tunnels. I expect it to rise to 14 C by late afternoon. 14 – (-13) is 27. For a single layer, I use a factor of 0.35. 0.35*27 is 9.5. 9.5 + (-13) is -3.5 C (26 F). That is my forecast low underneath the row cover.

For double layered row cover, I use a factor of 0.45. That gives me a forecast low of -1 C (30 F). Sunflower greens are the only crop to get double cover – all other cool-season crops should be fine with one layer.

SF photo guest blog Adi weather forecast

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Raised Beds May Work Against You

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Courtesy of Roxanne C., Philadelphia, PA

When you get serious about production, the first thing to go are those raised beds. Recently SPIN farmer Rex Landings cleared out the last of his.

SF photo Raised beds Rex

When you turn a garden into a business, you start using time and labor saving tools the average gardener does not, like a tiller and a seeder. So you’ll need to consider how well they work with raised beds. They are expensive to build, cumbersome to work, not water efficient, and can dry out quickly in arid climates. They don’t work in every context, for instance, when you are renting a plot without a long term agreement.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage is they are permanent. That means you can’t change your layout to grow crops that aren’t suitable for beds or put in very large scale plantings.

Raised beds can have their place, mostly for smaller-sized plots. Some advantages are they warm up earlier, and drain better during periods of heavy rain. The wood frames also can serve as anchors for row covers or low tunnels. But unless the soil you have is contaminated or your site has poor drainage, there’s no good reason to use them. They only limit your design options, and your thinking. If you don’t have to use them to solve problems, raised beds may actually create ones.

ARE RAISED BEDS RIGHT FOR YOU? PICK THE BRAINS OF SUCCESSFUL BACKYARD FARMERS IN THE ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP.  FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP COMES WITH THE PURCHASE OF THE SPIN GUIDES.

 

Plant With Your Head as Well as Your Gut

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK

“Go with your gut” is sometimes good advice. But if you want to succeed in business, you also have to use your head. Over the years I have developed strategies for each of my crops. Having a cropping strategy is especially important for crops that are pretty common or low value, such as carrots, garlic, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and even greens because you have to differentiate yourself at market from other growers, and you have to turn a low value crop into a high value one. That means having a crop available when others don’t, offering different varieties from others, or targeting different markets, like restaurants.

For instance, carrots have always been a top money making crop for me. But a carrot is not a carrot is not a carrot. There are different sizes of carrots. There are rainbow carrots. There are novelty carrots. Each one has a different place and time throughout my marketing period.

DDG4 photo 15

Carrots are an important crop because they provide steady cash flow. This year I am growing 10 segments. I sell them steadily throughout the season starting with scallion and then progressing to onion bunches and dry onion in the fall.

Leafy greens are another important crop to think through because there are so many options – chard, collards, kale, lettuces, salad mixes, spinaches. Fresh herbs, such as basil, cilantro and parsley can also be included. And then there are micro greens, orach, purslane and other novelty crops. My greens strategy is based on having anywhere from 100 units to 500 units of some combination of greens throughout the season, especially early on before other producers have them.

Knowing why you are growing a certain crop is as important as knowing how to grow it, and having cropping strategies is what turns growing into a business.

FIND OUT WHEN, HOW AND WHICH MONEYMAKING CROPS SPIN FARMERS ARE GROWING IN THE ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP. RECEIVE FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP  WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY SPIN GUIDE. 

Low Maintenance Crops Are Worth Way More Than The Effort

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK

I’ve used a multi-locational land base for over 25 years, and that has led me to appreciate low maintenance crops. They are ones I grow on plots that are not near my backyard home base. Most of the work goes into getting them established but once they are, maintenance work is minimal. Most years I can just rely on rainfall. If I get a substantial rainfall or two throughout the season, no irrigation at all is necessary.

Summer/winter squash and pumpkins was my low maintenance crop last year, and they really needed to be. We had a two month drought, and I would not have been able to invest the time to go out to the plot to do daily waterings. After transplanting, I watered each plant using a hose with a brush attachment. During the dry spell I did that once a week, and it took one hour to water 7,000 sq.ft. The plot has a well, and water is limited. So I created a crater around each plant to hold the water and directed the water right to that area around the plant. Weeding is the other consideration on plots away from home. With sprawling plants all you have to do is get them to maturity and then they take up all the space around them so weeds have no place to grow.

SPIN photo squash plot 2

Low maintenance crops can also come into play in managing a larger land base. Keep your intensive relay areas to under an acre and close to the house, and put the the rest of the acreage into crops that need lots of space to sprawl, but do not need the tlc. My squash and pumpkin crop yield was 4,000 lbs. and $7K. Not bad for a crop that mostly took care of itself. Other low maintenance crops are green/yellow beans,garlic, onions from sets, and potatoes.

SPIN stands for s-mall p-lot in-tensive, but opportunity comes in lots of different sizes. If you see demand at market for a single season crop, or someone offers you a large plot outside of town, think beyond your backyard plot and put low maintenance crops into play.

YOU CAN JOIN IN THE DISCUSSION OF HOW WALLY MANAGES HIS SQUASH PATCH AND WHICH VARIETIES ARE TOP SELLERS IN THE SPIN ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP.  FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP COMES WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY SPIN GUIDE. 

Why Not Just Grow High Value Crops?

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK

In planning discussions the question frequently comes up, “If you want to make money, why not just grow the highest value crops?”  It’s easy to go through SPIN 2.0 Crop profiles and pull them out – rainbow carrots, garlic, microgreens, onions, shallots. Specialized operations can work – for a while. But farming is never steady state. What works one year can’t be counted on to work  the next.

The wheels of commerce are greased by trends, which are inherently short-lived. Consumer tastes and the competitive landscape are changing much more rapidly than they used to. A hot trend like micros attracts a lot of new suppliers, and then the market becomes saturated. If succeeding in business were as easy as just selling what’s most expensive, we’d all be as rich as Donald Trump.

Then there are the environmental concerns. Unanticipated weed pressure or dry conditions can make the growing of some higher value crops tricky. Disease and insects are also a risk. If all your business is dependent on one or just a few crops, and you have crop failures, just ask the Big Ag farmers how that goes. Boom and bust.

I’ve always followed the “steady Eddy” strategy by experimenting with a wide variety of crops and developing an extensive crop repertoire that includes lower value crops. Green beans, peas, potatoes, and winter squash are easier to grow in heavier weed pressure conditions.

If you sell at market, it is better to have a selection of produce so that you can be a one stop shop. Your regular customers will usually buy whatever you have, so that means more sales to your regulars. Also you will be better able to lure new customers. You also stand a better chance of developing a more consistent cash flow with a more diverse offering of produce. If you want to offer a CSA, a variety of items is usually part of the deal.

Specialized operations can simplify start up or work well as part-time operations. But they also increase your risks and limit your opportunities. As I said, farming is never steady state, and you can expand or narrow your operation as you go through different life stages. Adapt and prosper!

SPIN photo microgrees and field

Man does not live by micros alone. 

THE SPIN ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP IS ALWAYS SERVING UP BACKYARD FARMING BUSINESS ADVICE. RECEIVE FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP  WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY SPIN GUIDE. 

Compost Can Be As Important As Cash Flow

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Courtesy of Bryon H, SPIN Apprentice, Saskatoon, SK 

I attended a weekend course to become a compost coach in my city. It was full of useful tidbits I will be using on my compost pile this summer. I’d like to share some of that information in this post!

One of the main points was how uncomplicated and easy composting can be. Let nature do what it does best! Although there is a lot you can do to help this process. To remember what a compost pile needs you can use your hand. It consists of 5 things: air (your pile needs to have even equal aeration), Water (your pile should be very moist, to the point you can squeeze drops of water out of a handful), Browns (these are your high carbon ingredients, usually dead, dry, brown vegetation/wood), greens (high nitrogen, fresh, greens such as kitchen scraps & yard clippings) and finally a shovel full or two of garden soil (to kick start the beneficial microbial activity that is responsible for decomposing your pile).

I use pallets to construct my compost bins, which makes turning them rather difficult with the high pallet walls. To address this, I am going to use a technique I learned at the workshop. To create passive airflow I will be purchasing a length of PVC pipe to insert vertically in the middle of my compost pile. Before insertion I will drill four lines of holes into the pipe to allow air movement into the compost. I am hoping this will speed the process without me having to do additionally manual turning.

Since winters are long here in Saskatoon, I was eager to learn what my options are during that time. There are a few indoor composting methods, but they are more complicated/delicate than a simple outdoors compost pile. The two methods described were Vermicomposting and Bokashi fermentation. The most exciting thing I learned about winter compost is that the process of freezing actually improves decomposition time in the spring! This is amazing! The freezing actually affects the cellular structure of the material causing all the materials to soften when thawed. That changing of the structure makes the food much more accessible to all the microorganisms which will heat up and decompose our compost!

For all the backyard farmers out there who have to deal with complaining neighbors we also touched on concealing compost piles. You can either conceal the pile with plants or incorporating the composting into the design and spaces of your plots. Using plants can be done in two ways, either with a plant growing directly in the compost pile (squash absolutely love volunteering for this) or with trellised plants growing around the structure of your compost pile.

I haven’t had any personal experience with composting in the plot , but am interested in trying this in the future. There are a few common techniques such as the lasagna bed, trenching, keyhole gardens and various ways of doing this that are built into permaculture design.

I am excited to try out some new things this season with my compost pile. I hope you can do some tinkering as well and find success!

SF photo compost Bryon

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Move Forward by Thinking Backwards

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Courtesy of Jared Regier, Chain Reaction Urban Farm, Saskatoon SK

Every bit of advice I encountered about starting a farm suggested not starting with any kind of CSA program in the first year.  I did it anyway because it just seemed like the right fit for our farm scale and values.  The SPIN system gave us the confidence to dive in.

We knew that to keep our members happy, we had to have steady production and a balance of crop selection to harvest throughout the season, but accomplishing this is a challenge.  When the average gardener thinks about growing a tomato, they start with the tomato seed.  CSA farmers start with the tomato sale.  This shift in mindset makes all the difference.  In order to plan effectively, we need to start with the end result and work backwards.  Anyone can follow the same algorithm if you know your weekly box value, your units of sale (ie,1/2lb bag of lettuce for $5), and your expected yields per standard bed.  Just layout a new spreadsheet and follow the steps below:

  1. Decide on the weekly and total value you want to offer your members for the season. This year, we decided on a $35 weekly value for our Standard Share memberships and we will offer this for a 15 week season from the first week of July to mid October.  That leaves us with a membership price of $525.
  2. Determine the contents of the first of your weekly boxes and be specific. Write down the quantity and value of each crop that each box will contain.  Most of our units are $5.00, so I generally need a combination of about 7 items per week.
  3. Repeat #2 for each of the remaining weeks of the season. Change the combinations as you expect new crops to be ready for harvest.  Your members will appreciate your boxes more if you consider combinations that would work well for meal preparation.
  4. For each crop, total the units of production needed for the entire season for one member. This will show you both the quantity of crop you need to produce and the value of each crop your members will be receiving.  For example, I can see that out of the $525 total share price, $40 will go towards 8 lbs of heirloom tomatoes.
  5. Decide how many members you would like to serve and calculate your total production needed for each crop. If you don’t know, do the math for 10 or 20 and see what things look like.  Just multiply all of the totals by 10.  This step is simple, but important because it transforms your quantities into numbers that are on the same scale as your standard bed production numbers.  If 10 members all need 8 lbs of tomatoes, I need 80 lbs in total.
  6. Determine the number of standard beds you need to plant for each crop using your crop totals and the expected yield per standard bed. For example, with tomatoes I can calculate that based on at least 100 lbs of production per 50 sq ft bed, I will need 0.8 of a bed to serve 10 members.  I always round up to make the math easy and for a bit of production insurance.  The SPIN 18 guide is extremely helpful for this stage!
  7. Add up all of the beds to determine the total number of beds you would need for 10 members.

That’s it.  Do you have enough land?  Can you add another 10 members?  Can you adjust your crop proportions to make better use of your land base?

SF photo Jared blog Move Forward

Need help with your production planning? Then hang out in the SPIN forum where you can pick the brains of the most successful backyard farmers today – like Jared. A free trial membership is available with the purchase of any SPIN guide.