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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] greens and weeds
  • Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 17:43:07 -0500


On Dec 31, 2005, at 2:19 PM, Mike Emers wrote:

<x-tad-smaller>Hi Rivka,</x-tad-smaller>

<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>

<x-tad-smaller>Thanks for responding.  We’ve tried going from transplants before and we might do it again.  It definitely lets the lettuce grow ahead of the weeds.  We seeded plug flats of 200 cells with the lettuce mix and then transplanted those out into the beds.  At 6 rows to a 36” bed, one plug tray will get us 8.33’.  So it will take 12 trays for every 100’ of row – which takes a while as opposed to making one pass with a multi-row seeder (such as the new one Johnny’s is selling).  Direct seeding is so quick, but if it doesn’t work, there’s no sense tilling all that in later.  It’s just a matter of getting our timing and planning in order.  If we want our lettuce mix next summer, we probably will have to do as you suggest and then really concentrate on eliminating weeds in future years’ beds by aggressive cultivation and cover crops.</x-tad-smaller>

<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>

<x-tad-smaller>What’s your method of starting the mix and then transplanting?</x-tad-smaller>

I don't do as many at a time as you do. I start in 72-cell plastic insert flats, 2 seeds per cell and thin to one, cover with plastic dome till germinated; germination is generally in the house, for warmth for the first planting or so and then after that for relative coolness. They get 3 to 5 weeks in the flats, depending on how fast they're growing and when I get a chance to get them in; then another 3 to 5 weeks in the field before I start to harvest. I plant at 8 inch spacing in a standard row system, by hand, usually with a ho mi. I harvest a given planting over 3 to 4 weeks, starting with fairly small lettuce almost baby lettuce size, winding up with full size plants; plants are selected at harvest to give the remaining ones enough room, taking about every third plant at first harvest and so on from there. Almost all of these get sold at market in mixed gallon bags, at least 3 varieties and 2 colors to a bag; my market customers don't seem to care whether they get 5 heads of baby lettuce or 3 split halves of large heads in a bag, as long as the flavor is good. This wouldn't work, of course, for any market that's fussy about getting a specific size; but consistently getting same-sized lettuce in the wildly erratic weather we've been having here the past 10 years or so is so difficult that I don't even try for those markets. Some people do pull it off, my hat's off to them.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale


  • Re: [Market-farming] greens and weeds, road's end farm, 01/08/2006

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