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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] planting calendar wish

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  • From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] planting calendar wish
  • Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 18:27:54 -0500

Take a look at Dan Kaplan’s. I use it as the base for my crop planning – everyone will do things a little differently. I bought his as much for his data on his planting dates, amounts, etc – to have a better starting point or a comparison with my projections when I started the CSA.

 

Before I used Kaplan’s, I did primarily the calendar in Excel. I put weeks of the year across the top, then date of the week (5/3, etc), crop, variety, seed or transplant, etc. I color filled in the columns for avg last frost and first frost, beginning and end of markets, high sales days, etc. Then coded the week to start seeds (g), transplants (t), seed (s), and weeks of expected harvest (x). That allowed me to visually see what should happen with successions. Of course, the actual harvest dates didn’t coincide with planned, as a beginner it gave me a starting place. As Allison mentioned, sort by the g, t, s, x, copy what you want that week and paste it into another worksheet (because the way I did it you will get all the g in date order, then all the s in date order, etc. The reason for making harvest x is so that it comes at the end of sorting. I also used some patterned fills, but that is a pain when copying and pasting the planting to  harvest intervals for successions – the patterned cells don’t move. Same thing happens with the colored columns for frost and markets.

 

I can email  you my old version. Since Dan charges $25 for his, I won’t email you my version of his.

 

Beth Spaugh

Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY

Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com

Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and geese

 

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." - Wendell Berry

 

"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Wiediger, Alison
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 3:00 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] planting calendar wish

 

We have done exactly that with a spreadsheet.  Actually, the first workbook of the spreadsheet functions as our seed order - crop, variety, seedsman, pkg size, days-to-maturity, price, etc.  Once entered, it can be updated for the next year, and can be sorted by seedsman for doing online ordering.  Then, the second workbook copies over crop, variety, DTM, and adds, seed or transplant, date to seed, date actually seeded, date to transplant, date actually transplanted, number of plants or row feet needed, size of cell for transplant, figures expected first harvest, entry for actual first harvest, figures actual DTM and variance from entered DTM. And some other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. For a given crop, say squash, insert lines for how many plantings you will make and copy the static info into them, then add your planting dates for each one.

 

Really cool data!  Over time, it will really help us to fine tune planting dates for OUR PARTICULAR FARM - which of course differs from catalog dates.  Also, it helps us with actually harvest days in fall - which is very different from summer - even for the same variety.  I have to admit we don't do as good a job of entering the data during the middle of the busiest season, but it still helps a lot.  It is also a fabulous help when we are seeding all those transplants in the spring - just sort by seeding date, print it off, and you have your work list for that day.  Ditto transplanting - although weather often throws a wrench into those!

 

Give it a try!  If I can develop one, you can too - I am NOT a power spreadsheet user. We will be using the template for the 3rd season this year and the data becomes more valuable with each season.

 

Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm

 


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Roots Farm & Karen Sutherland
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 1:03 PM
To: Market Farming Community Farming
Subject: [Market-farming] planting calendar wish

Greetings to all,

 

I'd like to have a calendar (software) that would allow me to enter varietal names and a small amount of additional info. (like whether hybrid, organic, etc.) with planting dates and expected days to maturity.  My vision is then that the calendar would automatically generate expected harvest dates (perhaps with choice of graphic display) and so be a good tool for: 1. estimating market readiness, 2. projecting holes in cash flow and therefore when we need to plant various additional crops to fill in gaps and 3. figuring how far off our maturity times are from stated times to allow better planning in future.  

 

Does anybody have or know of anything like this?  If so, is it actually worth the data entry time?  (I am aware of the adage "Be careful what you wish for...")

 

Thanks!

 

Best wishes,

 

Karen

 

Roots Farm

Organic Produce

Fruits, Roots, Vegetables & Herbs

CockraneDOMINICA

767-449-3038

 




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