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market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] Baby greens

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  • From: russandrosie <russandrosie AT comcast.net>
  • To: "'roger69 AT yahoo.com'" <roger69 AT yahoo.com>, 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Baby greens
  • Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 22:36:53 -0700

I grow them in flats and love the ease; although I'm still experimenting.
Here's what I do for what it is worth:
I use an organic potting mix and trays without cells.
I mix my lettuce seeds together, but other greens are each grown in their
own flats or perhaps two may share a flat.
I broadcast the flats with about 60 seeds. I've counted how many seeds are
in a pinch and count pinches.
For lettuce, I don't do cut-and-come-again but harvest at 28 days (more or
less depending on time of year) and dump the trays into the compost. With
the greens I do cut-and-come again. They seem to keep their quality better
than the lettuces.

The flat method has several important advantages:
1)The leaves are clean which saves time and more importantly, produces a
superior product from less handling. The premixed seeds also saves on
handling at packing time. To mix the greens into the lettuce I simply
layer the two items and scoop up through the layers as I bag.
2)The 28-day old leaves are prime and are never bitter or tough. There
little to no grading (looking for damaged leaves) to do.
3) There is no insect pressure. The insects need a bit longer than 28 days
to do their thing.
4) One can harvest at a comfortable height.
5) One can move the trays to the best locations for shade, sun, etc.
6) The time saved is incredible. Seeding is faster, there's no weeding or
grooming the trays for harvest. Harvest is faster. Washing is faster.
FYI - I found the greenhouse to be too hot for lettuce except in the
winter. A tip if you are new to growing salad greens. Lettuces are very
particular about soil. They need good fertility and water and plenty of
it. Fertility shouldn't be a problem if you are using a potting mix in
trays. I tried regular soil in trays. That was a disaster. Bonehead.

Wishing you success!
Rosie
Tanglewood Farm
Pacific Northwest
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Weeks [SMTP:roger69 AT yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 3:41 PM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Market-farming] Baby greens

Is anyone on the list growing baby greens?
If so, would you care to share your methods?

I'm considering growing them in flats for ease of harvest. Is anyone
doing that?

Basically I could grow them in flats, in or out of a greenhouse,
depending on what I'm growing; or I could grow some of them in raised
beds. I don't think growing them right at ground level would be very
convenient.

Any thoughts?

Roger Weeks
Weeks Gardens
Sebastopol CA

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