Tag Archives: seeds

Seeds, Spring, Software, and Spreadsheets

So I posted several months ago about choosing seeds and planning fields for the 2015 season. Well, now that the season is finally starting, our plans have come a long way, and it’s funny to think how much has gone into it.

As you place specific varieties of crops onto your Garden Plan in Mother Earth Garden Planner, it generates a sheet with the number of plants, when they need to planted, and more useful data.

As you place specific varieties of crops onto your Garden Plan in Mother Earth Garden Planner, it generates a sheet with the number of plants; starting, planting and harvesting dates; and more useful data.

After we looked over what crops and varieties we wanted to grow, we had to consider what farm planning software to use to mock up LaFarm. Last year we worked with AgSquared but it wasn’t able to do everything we wanted in the most convenient way, so we switched. First, we were considering the open source Farm Data, being developed by some friends at Dickinson College, but given its relatively rough current state, we chose to go with the Mother Earth Garden Planner. Though the Mother Earth Planner is not actually made for a full sized farm and is more apt for smaller gardens, we were able to fit it to our fields, and the useful visuals as well as the printable data sheets give us the information we’ll need in the field in a good form.

With a rough idea of what we wanted and where, we made a preliminary plan with this software. After that, it was time to narrow down some details. I looked through all our saved seed and made a very extensive inventory with Microsoft Excel that I was able to cross reference with information from our Garden Planner as well as from seed catalogs about growing and pricing.

With that information, I was able to revise our Garden Plan to be much closer to what it will likely look like. This office farming has been happening concurrently with the start of our outdoor work and the purchasing of our earliest crops like leeks, potatoes, and onions, (the last of which we already have in the ground!) The Plan will be indispensable for us in knowing what else we need to get, and keeping track of what goes where and when, and having it now means not having to do extra office work when there’s too much to do outside. Even in cases when we might have to change the plan because of unforeseeable circumstances like weather or a failure in someone’s greenhouse, having a plan already makes recouping from something like that much more manageable.

-Joe Ingrao, Spring 2015 EXCEL Scholar

Setting Up for the 2015 Season

Please excuse my poor handwriting.

A farmer’s job never really stops. There are definitely sudden lurches in the amount and form of work to be done, but even in the dead of winter, the LaFarmers are still hard at work, office farming.

Office farming is the vernacular we use for the plethora of activities farmers need to do in an office to make sure everything goes right on the farm. Probably one of the most important thing farmers can do to support themselves. Definitely more important advancement than a tractor, in my opinion (and it doesn’t guzzle fossil fuel like there’s no tomorrow to boot!)

We like High Mowing for their exclusively organic seed collection, their positive business structure, and their ease of reading.

We like High Mowing for their exclusively organic seed collection, their positive business structure, and their ease of reading.

The two things currently on the LaFarm office farm agenda are key to any garden or farm. We are planning what we are going to grow and where. We have some saved seeds from the last few years, but we also have to look in this year’s catalogs for the rest of what we want. Our personal seed catalog of choice is High Mowing (pictured at right) but for some of the crops and varieties they don’t have, or run out of, we turn to Johnny’s Seeds.

Please excuse my poor handwriting.

I like a good old pencil and paper, but Microsoft Excel is also conducive to this sort of index.

Choosing seeds isn’t easy even on a scale like that of LaFarm. There are so many factors to take into account; disease and pest resistance, nutrition, weed resistance, soil type, tastiness, reliability, germination rate, you name it; so farmers often have to be very careful in choosing what will work best. I was tasked with taking a look at our catalogs and creating a preliminary list of varieties that would be useful (pictured at left.) This is only the basis for what will eventually be our seed order, because we to not only confirm which varieties we want, but also determine how much of each we need, and then how much we can afford.

Simultaneously to the seed selection process, we are trying to plan the layout of our fields, which is easier than it could be thanks to our 10 year crop rotation strategy for our main fields, and our several satellite fields for growing whatever crops we need. That’s another thing we start out with on pen and paper, but software helps tremendously to finalize.

Preliminary, hand written notes which will be the basis of our crop plan this year. This year we are planning on using the Mother Nature Garden Planner, but there are alternatives like Farm Data and Ag Squared.

Preliminary, hand written notes which will be the basis of our crop plan this year. To finalize with software we are planning on using the Mother Nature Garden Planner, but there are alternatives like Farm Data and Ag Squared. Many farmers also swear by the adaptability and raw power of Excel to be the only software intense enough to handle a full plan.

These efforts are only the beginning, the metaphorical seeds for our whole 2015 year, but they are important steps. And maybe it’s nice to be able to work away from the blistering sun for some of the year. Long live office farming!

-Joe Ingrao, Winter 2015 EXCEL Scholar

Getting Ready for Spring: an article for Community Gardeners and all!

Hey folks,

Let’s face it, it’s been warm this winter and we may be able to plant early this year without problems. Our usual average early crop planting date is around March 17th when we can start early crops without the threat of freezing our seedlings, but it may be sooner this year. Why not give it a try?

Here’s a few tips for starting your season off right:

1.) Find a good source of seeds and plants. Cheap seeds can often result in lower quality plants and produce which have a higher threat of disease, cracking, or pest susceptibility. A list of organic seed companies are in a previous post below. These are trusted companies with high quality organic seeds. For plants, buy them from a trusted retailer and make sure each one is healthy and strong. If you buy and plant a diseased or pest-infested plant, you may have problems all season long.  Talk to the retailer about their sanitation methods and how to pick a healthy plant.

2) Sterilize your tools, planters, stakes, etc. I can’t stress the importance of sterilization enough!! If you want to prevent disease spreading:  clean everything that touched last year’s soil that will be touching this year’s soil. Wooden stakes especially harbor disease from year to year.  Because of how wet things were last fall, this is particularly important this year.

3.) Prepare your soil. Now is the time to prepare your soil even if you’re not planting yet. Spread some organic compost and let it sit until you are ready to till or plant.
Note to 2012 Community gardeners: we will be purchasing a new tiller this year for you to use. I will send an email with more info soon.

4) Start Seeds indoors. Have you ever tried it? Now’s your chance. Here’s an article from Organic Gardening.

5) When to plant what?? Overwhelmed by all the veggies and when to start it all indoors or out? This is a great, quick resource I use all the time by Mother Earth News: What to Plant When.

If YOU have any questions, or would like to write on a certain topic, send me an email and we can add a post.

What to do now? Seed order time!

Hi folks,  it’s about that time to think about ordering seeds.  Where can I get organic seed, you say?  You can request a catalog or shop online.

Lots of options these days…

1. High Mowing Seeds: Vermont

2. Fedco Seeds: Maine

3. Park Seed: Pennsylvania

4. Seed Savers Exchange: Iowa

5. Johnny’s Select Seeds: Maine

6. Seeds of Change: California

7. Peaceful Valley: California

Here is a list by the Organic Seed Alliance of even more organic seed sources! Do you have other suggestions?  Leave a comment with your favorite seeds.

Fall harvest, 2011: Delicata Winter Squash from High Mowing and Provider Snap Bush Beans from Seeds of Change

Project Update! Good News All Around.

Hey everyone!

Most of the seeds have officially arrived!  I picked them up just in time for the LEAP meeting on Wednesday.  We’re still waiting on a few packets, but they’re here for the most part.  Also, apparently the field has been plowed as of Monday afternoon: so we’ll be putting in the fence posts and planting very soon!!

Prof. Brandes is going to Metzgar tomorrow morning (Sat.) with some students to survey.  And Prof. Derek Smith has been working with Dining Services and the campus legal staff to work out serving the veggies in the dining halls.

Things are a happenin’! 😀
If you’d like to help out with planting/fence posting let me know and I can add you to the garden club email list!

Jenn