Identify your biggest money-making crops

Transcription

1 growing news & ideas for local food producers January FOR MARKET Volume 22 / Number Identify your biggest money-making crops New Greens Harvester / 8 Planting by soil temperatures / 11 Farmers markets coast to coast / 15 Flower growers cooperative / 21 By Chris Blanchard Knowing that you ve got money at the end of the year means that you ve done okay in the market farming game. But if you want to do better if you want to put your effort into those crops that make the most difference to your bottom line you need to know how much it costs to grow and market your crops. If you sell at a farmers market or to stores and restaurants, you ll want to know that you are making money on each crop, not just on your offerings as a whole. And you ll want to know what crops to push, and where you should raise your prices or discontinue a product. Even with crops grown for a CSA, understanding the results from each dollar and each hour spent can help you evaluate pricing your program, or provide a strong explanation for why your members have to pick their own peas. Knowing your costs can also help you evaluate the potential effects of growing your CSA. And if producing that pint of Sungold cherry tomatoes is costing a quarter of the value of your box, you may want to reconsider that crop s role on your farm. And it s not just a matter of comparing crops within each marketing channel. Understanding how the costs required to sell at farmers market compare to the time put into writing newsletters and delivering CSA boxes will enable you to make smart decisions about pricing, expansion, and new directions when your circumstances change. When my partnership dissolved at Rock Spring Farm, I felt comfortable letting go of farmers markets in favor of CSA and wholesale because my analysis showed that farmers market sales provided a much lower margin when expenses, including unpaid labor, were added. Production and Marketing For every crop grown on a market farm, crops follow a more-or-less set pattern as you change seed, soil, and sunshine into cash. By defining the steps in the pattern, you can define the basic unit of each step acres, dollars, transplants, pounds then develop a cost per unit. Adding up the costs gives you a basic cost of production. The steps in the pattern of producing a crop include seeds, transplant production, agronomic work in the field and high tunnel, and harvesting, washing, and packing the produce. For production, each step in the process has a substantially similar cost structure. For example, seed costs are made up of seeds and shipping; and the inputs for producing a tomato transplant are the same as those for producing a broccoli transplant. By dividing the production process into a series of steps, you can isolate those expenses that are the same for every crop, and notice the expenses that continued on page 4

2 LETTER from Wild Onion Farm LYNN BYCZYNSKI Keep growing this winter Even now, with nighttime temperatures dropping to the teens, our unheated high tunnel is producing bountiful crops. Spinach, lettuce, chicory, kale, chard, carrots, turnips, and beets are still beautiful and delicious under their tunnels of frost fabric inside the high tunnel. We direct seeded those crops on September 27 and have been harvesting them since late October. It seems like a miracle to be growing an appreciable amount of food during the coldest, darkest days of the year. And yet thousands of growers throughout the country are doing it, bringing in much-needed winter cash while reducing their family grocery bills and keeping themselves healthy with good food. The proliferation of winter production has been matched by a growth of winter farmers markets. USDA recently announced a 52% increase in winter markets, from 1,225 in 2011 to 1,864 in That comes on top of a 38% increase from 2010 to Markets operating at least once between November and March are included in the tally, so single-day holiday markets are driving up the Growing for Market is published 10 times per year by Fairplain Publications, Inc., PO Box 3747, Lawrence KS There was lots to eat in our hoophouse in late December! GLADIATOR MULTIPIK PRIMO RED REWARD ISSN Volume 22 Number 1, January Fairplain Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be copied in any manner for use other than by the subscriber without permission from the publisher. Editor/Publisher Lynn Byczynski Associate Editor Daniel Nagengast Circulation Manager Jozie Schimke Office manager Jessica Pierson Contributing Editors Chris Blanchard Pam Dawling Josh Volk Print edition by mail: $36 for 1 year / $64 for 2 years (To Canada, add $15 postage; other countries, add $30 postage. All orders in U.S. dollars.) Electronic edition: $30 for 1 year subscription Full Access: $89 for 1-year subscription plus access to archives Full Access Plus: $99 for access to archives and print editions for one year Display Advertising: 2013 rate sheet available at or phone Classified Advertising: Send with payment before the 7th of the month. 50 cents per word for subscribers; $1 for non-subscribers. See our web site for available back issues and market farming books. Contact us: admin@growingformarket.com Web: Toll-free phone: Fax: Mail: GFM, PO Box 3747, Lawrence, KS RENAISSANCE REVOLUTION Judged BEST IN CLASS by growers who know! Excellent seed quality. Excellent field performance. Since 1879, Harris Seeds has had a solid reputation with large and small growers like no other. Order your free 2013 Professional Vegetable Growers Catalog today. Call us toll-free or visit us on the web. A Grower Friendly Company MONTAUK 355 Paul Rd. PO Box Rochester, NY A GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

3 total, but there are nevertheless many more winter selling opportunities than there were just a few years ago. Winter markets now account for 24% of the 7,865 farmers markets listed in the USDA national directory. USDA has played a role in the growth of winter local food through the NRCS High Tunnel Initiative, in which farmers can receive funding to build a high tunnel. More than 4,000 tunnels have been built in the first three years of the program. The program s future is uncertain at this point, with funding in the Farm Bill, which is mired in congressional budget negotiations. Even so, NRCS is going on the assumption that the program will receive at least some funding in Growers can apply for a high tunnel, but they are advised to do it right away this month because early applications are most likely to be funded. If you re interested, contact your local USDA Service Center. Introducing the GFM forums Another way to grow this winter is metaphorical by research, planning, and education. To that end, many people have suggested to me that Growing for Market ought to host a discussion group on our website. So I have created one, and I invite you to take a look and join or start a conversation. I set it up as three separate forums: Cut Flowers; Production of Veggies, Herbs, Fruit and other crops; and Marketing and Management. The first category is for everything pertaining to cut flowers, both grow- ing and selling. The second is about the growing end of market farming topics such as variety selection, tools and equipment, pest and disease control, planting dates, harvest and post-harvest. The third forum, Marketing and Management, is for topics pertaining to the business end of things, such as farmers markets, CSA, restaurants, organic certification, food safety, hiring and firing, recordkeeping, and so on. Because of the amount of spam we experienced when we tried to host a public forum several years ago, we are now limiting participation to GFM subscribers. You will have to log in to get to the forums. If you are an Online Member, just log in as usual. If you get GFM by mail only, go to the Member Login in the right column of www. growingformarket.com. Enter print in the field and member in the password field. (You should also use that login information to get your 20% book discount; see page 20 for details.) Once you see the page that says You re logged in! click on Forums at the top of the right column. At this point, there aren t many posts, but I am hoping that many of you will help get the ball rolling. With enough participation from GFM readers, the forums could become a valuable resource in the future, as well as a way to learn from your colleagues around the world. Have a great winter! Lynn Byczynski is the editor and publisher of Growing for Market. She lives on a small farm near Lawrence, KS. Organic weed control. Prevents weeds and boosts production... The natural alternative to black plastic. Better transplant survival rates Excellent weed suppression 100% Biodegradable no removal costs, no residual Feeds the soil with organic material Eliminates need for herbicides Can be tractor applied Works with both drip and overhead irrigation systems Porous allows air and water through Patent pending GROWING FOR M ARKET / JANUARY

4 Evaluating continued from page 1 are substantially different for specific crops. The process of turning a finished product into cash also follows a reliable pattern of marketing, sales, and distribution. Each marketing channel your crops follow will have different costs associated with it: a weekly newsletter for the CSA, packaging requirements for wholesale sales, or the costs of driving to farmers market and renting a stall. Data to pull together You ll need four kinds of data to derive your cost of production: the crop-specific expenses for each step in the production and marketing process; the universal expenses for each step; the number of units you used in each step in the process; and how much of each crop did you sell? Seed costs vary widely by crop, and can be one of the most frustrating data points because it usually consists of a large number of small purchases. If you can track these as you go, using a spreadsheet or a simple database, you ll be miles ahead in December. For the most accurate information, you should track the amount of seed you use over the course of the season for each crop, and do some math to figure out the cost of the amount of seed you used, plus any you discarded. Allocate Transplant costs to get a number for how much it costs to grow each transplant. You ll want to know the total number of transplants you grew of each crop. Costs include items such as potting soil, heating costs, and labor to water and move transplants. I include the labor to set out transplants as part of the cost of transplant production, since it takes significantly more time to put out transplants than it does to direct seed a crop. If you plant multiple seeds per cell for some crops, that s still just one transplant in terms of the costs of production. If you seed something like onions in a straight flat, use the cell count of the equivalent-sized cell tray to get the number of units used. Some crop-specific costs in transplant production could include activities such as grafting tomatoes, stepping plants up to very large pots, using expensive peat pots, or the extra labor associated with sticking perennial cuttings. Agronomy includes all of the cost to work the fields, build fertility, weed, and do everything up to the point somebody puts a hand on a vegetable to pick it. You ll get pretty close if you allocate the cost of operating your machinery and doing most of your hand-weeding across all of your cash crop acres; unless you ve got really amazing records, it s going to be hard to drill down to by-crop differences. Your end results should be expressed in a cost per acre. I don t try to allocate the cost of something like growing a preceding cover crop to a specific cash crop, G&M Ag Supply Company LLC Your Source For: Frost Fabric Row Covers Mulch Films Plug Trays Flats & Pots Poly Film Greenhouse Structures Greenhouse Supplies Erosion control Alternative Refrigeration Keep your produce cool and fresh for less New patent-pending technology cools your walk-in or insulated room to 35 degrees with just a Window Air Conditioner 10% of the up-front cost of a cooler compressor Save up to 65% in electrical operating costs compared to same size cooler Order now and try CoolBot for a 30-Day * RISK-FREE TRIAL * W. Country Lane Payson, AZ gmagsupply@npgcable.com 4 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

5 but I do allocate the costs of crop-specific inputs, such as mulch or trellising supplies. You will also need production records that tell you how many acres you planted to each crop. Because you are getting at the cost of production, you don t need to know how many acres you had in headlands or cover crops; the costs of growing and maintaining those areas will be allocated to the acres where you actually produced a cash crop. Harvest, Wash, and Pack captures all of the expenses from the time somebody puts a hand on a vegetable to pick it right up to the point expenses or labor start to differentiate by marketing channel. Several years ago, we undertook a bagged carrot enterprise. We allocated the costs and labor for harvesting and washing carrots to Harvest, Wash, and Pack; we also allocated the labor to put them into boxes or bins. We allocated the cost of the boxes and the labor to bag the carrots as crop-specific marketing costs for the different marketing channels. Because Harvest, Wash, and Pack costs vary dramatically by crop, you ll want to sample some harvest and packing times throughout the season. Combine the results of your sampling with your sales information to get total cost for each crop s harvest, wash, and pack inputs. We track cost allocations for activities in the farm s Shop, and allocate those by acre to each crop. Overhead expenses such as the expense to operate the farm car, or computers in the office are allocated according to the percentage of income provided by each crop. Tracking expenses associated with each marketing channel can provide valuable insights. The expenses for a particular marketing channel begin when you start to do something different, as in the carrot bagging example above. You ll need your sales records for each marketing channel so that you know how much of each crop you sold. You ll also need records for the expenses associated with each marketing channel, such as the boxes required to sell wholesale, the cost of a website for potential CSA members, or the labor to drive to and staff a farmers market stall. When it comes to Distribution, allocating expenses between different marketing channels can present real challenges. One farm I worked for in my early years took CSA, wholesale, and farmers market crops to market in one trip with a large refrigerated truck. In this case, allocate distribution costs among different marketing channels according to how much space they occupy on the truck; estimating by pallet will be close enough. At Rock Spring Farm, we spent years combining CSA and wholesale loads on one delivery run. Even though some stops were strictly wholesale, some were strictly CSA, and some were mixed, we only split our allocation according to the load, rather than trying to figure out which miles belonged to the CSA and which belonged to wholesale. continued on the next page For LOCAL FRESH PRODUCE Professionals Your seed sources for outstanding flowers and vegetables For FLORICULTURE Professionals GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

6 Evaluating continued from page 5 Ownership Costs For many of the links in these chains, you ll need to allocate the costs of owning equipment or facilities. If you bought a rototiller last year, that investment should last you a very long time. You can t expect it to pay for itself in just one year. To allocate ownership costs, use the following formula, in which the salvage value is the price you could get for the equipment after the useful life of the investment: As much as possible, you should also allocate the costs associated with owning an asset to the step in the production and marketing process where the asset is used. For example, allocate the insurance costs for your tractors to agronomy, and the costs of insuring the packing house to the harvest, washing, and packing step. Valuing Labor Most farms have two kinds of labor: the farmer s, and everybody else s. Hired labor should be valued at the actual cost of an hour of labor: along with the basic cost of wages, you want to include taxes, worker s compensation insurance, payroll processing recruiting expenses, health insurance, and donuts. You also have to account for your own labor to arrive at a meaningful cost of production and marketing. I suggest including your labor at the cost you pay your crew. Returns above that base wage represent the profits you earn for your entrepreneurial ability, tying up your cash in farm assets, and taking the risks associated with owning a business. QuickBooks Data To track much of this information throughout the year, I use the Class feature in QuickBooks. Turning on the class feature allows you to organize transactions in two ways Account and Class instead of just one. All income gets allocated to one of the Marketing classes in the list below; all expenses are classified in either Operations or Marketing. Operations Seeds Transplant Production Agronomy High Tunnels Field Harvest/Wash/Pack Shop Overhead Marketing Distribution CSA Farmers Market Wholesale Misc. Unallocated When I don t know how an expense like a fertilizer purchase will be allocated between high tunnels and field production, I use the next level up in the hierarchy; in this case, I would assign the fertilizer purchase to Agronomy, and use my production records to determine the correct allocation at the end of the year. Vegetable Transplants Specializing in ALL vegetable transplants for farms, market gardens and CSA s. Certified Organic We welcome all orders - 1 tray to 1,000 trays. No order too large or too small. Onion plants Sweet potato slips Growing transplants year-round. Deep Grass Nursery deepgrass@hughes.net 6 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

7 Cost of Production You can use the information gathered above to establish a total cost for each step of the production process. The total cost minus the crop-specific expenses gives you the non-crop-specific costs for the step; that divided by the units gives you the cost per unit. For example: Marketing Costs Once you ve established the cost of production for a given crop, you can use the same math to establish your marketing costs in each marketing channel. You might find it useful to think about marketing and distribution as a separate division of your agribusiness enterprise: in this model, each marketing segment buys the crop at the cost of production, then sells it for a margin above that cost. That margin has to cover all of the expenses associated with selling that product through that particular channel, as well as providing a profitable return. You can calculate the gross margin using this formula: To determine the total cost of the Agronomy step for tomatoes, you would multiply the base cost per acre by the acres of tomatoes you grew, then add any expenses that were specific to growing tomatoes, such as the ownership cost of tomato stakes, the cost of the twine for trellising, and the cost of the labor to do the trellising work. See what's new at Osborne! Over 60 new varieties available! Check what we've blogged about lately at: In addition to establishing the gross margin for each crop sold through a particular channel, you can use this same formula to establish your gross margin for the entire marketing channel, enabling you to make informed choices about shifting your marketing strategy. You ll also want to establish a break-even price for your product in each marketing channel you sell through. You can calculate a break-even price using this formula: Valuing crops in a CSA, and therefore establishing a gross margin and a break-even price, presents some special challenges since crops aren t sold as individual items, but instead as a package of products. But if you market crops through other channels in addition to your CSA, you ll want to understand your gross margins in the CSA relative to other channels. You can choose any number of methods for establishing a base price for a CSA crop: you can use farmers market prices, grocery store prices, or a wholesale price list. Use these prices with your packing records to establish a total base value for your CSA sales; your CSA share price divided by that base value, multiplied by the base price of a given crop, will give you an adjusted sales value for each crop. By estimating your costs and returns for crop production and marketing channels, you ve positioned yourself to make decisions about crop mix, marketing outlets, and pricing from an informed perspective. Chris Blanchard owns and operates Rock Spring Farm in Northeast Iowa, and offers education and consulting as Flying Rutabaga Works ( He is the co-author of Fearless Farm Finances: Farm Financial Management Demystified, available from GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

8 Tool Review: The Quick Cut Greens Harvester By Jean-Martin Fortier Do you know any tool or technique that can improve an aspect of your farming productivity by more than 200 percent? I do; it s the Quick Cut Greens Harvester from Johnny s Selected Seeds. Since early October, I have had the opportunity to try out the new Quick Cut Greens Harvester, which replaces the greens harvester Johnny s introduced in That first greens harvester was a great idea, but it had some drawbacks. The main flaw was that you had to move the blades manually back and forth in order to cut a dense bed of greens. The new model has fixed this flaw by powering the blades with a small hand drill, allowing you to harvest much faster. The result is a cleaner cut, with less effort. The designers of the tool also added a shaft of rotating ropes which sweep the greens into a collection basket, making sure that no greens go under the cutter. This also serves to pull the greens against the blades, allowing the harvester to cut sparsely seeded stands and less dense regrowth on previously cut beds. One of the main reasons we had stopped using Johnny s previous model of the Greens Harvester, was that the cut was never really clean enough to have a good quality second growth. Debris of the first cut would fall in the bed, leaves would not be cut at all, or they would be cut in half because it was challenging to always cut at the desired height. Over 350 Varieties of Organic Products The new harvester solves these problems. Now, the cut is perfectly uniform because it can be raised or lowered by two adjustable supporting skids or by simply holding the harvester at the desired height. Because the blades are actioned at such quick speeds, the cut is neat and clean, even more so than when using knives. And about cutting mesclun with knives.in our market garden, we harvest 200 pounds a week, which takes three people more or less two hours. With this new tool, one person does the job in less than 45 minutes! It s a major helper in our (too) busy harvest day. There are still a couple of flaws with the new tool. The collection basket could be bigger and more resistant. The overall ergonomics of the Harvester is not that comfortable. But I am sure that the guys at Johnny s will tackle those issues. Overall, I give the Quick Cut Greens Harvester a 9 out of 10 and can assure anyone that it s worth the price of $495. It will be available by mid January at or Just in time for the greens in your hoophouses. Jean-Martin Fortier is the owner of les Jardins de la Grelinette, a small 1.5 acre farm located in southern Québec. He is the author of a recently published book in French, titled le Jardinier-maraîcher. More about his work can be found by visiting 100% Employee Owned Committed to Organic Growers Since 1973 IDEAS PRODUCTS SINCE 1973 SOLUTIONS Johnny s Selected Seeds 40 YEARS GROW WITH US Johnnyseeds.com 8 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

9 Introducing the inventor of the tool By Lynn Byczynski The Quick Cut Greens Harvester was developed by Jonathan Dysinger, who was 15 years old at the time he started working on the design. Now, at age 19, he is building a business to manufacture tools for small farms. The story behind this young man s invention began at his family s farm, Bountiful Blessings Farm in Williamsport, Tennessee. The Dysingers grow vegetables for grocery stores and a winter CSA, and teach workshops to other growers. Jonathan s dad, John, was teaching about winter greens production and spoke of his respect for Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm in Maine, author of The Winter Harvest Handbook. One of the workshop participants offered to pay for John and his son to fly up to Maine and see Coleman s farm for themselves info@mainepotatolady.com We offer a wide selection of certified organic seed products: Certified seed potatoes Garlic and shallots Cover crop seed Fertilizers and inoculants Maine grown sweet potato slips and onion transplants Reasonable prices and volume discounts! Your source for quality seed potatoes Jonathan Dysinger, 19, in his hoophouse with the greens harvester he developed and is now manufacturing for Johnny s Selected Seeds. The Dysingers spent two days working with Coleman and talking about crops and tools. When Eliot mentioned that there was a great need for a better salad harvesting tool, it sparked something within Jonathan. Growing up, he had spent many hours harvesting salad mix himself. Out there on your hands and knees I don t enjoy it, he said. The young farmer, who modestly says he is blessed with mechanical aptitude, started tinkering with ideas as soon as he got home. I tried modified hedge trimmers, electric bread knives, and even made Lego prototypes, he said. It was something that was consuming a lot of my brain energy. I came up with several ideas, but they required running long extension cords and getting shocked every time I pulled the trigger. As he experimented, it became clear to Jonathan that the main problem with existing greens harvesters was that there was no way to move the greens into the collection basket. We realized we needed some sort of brush, Jonathan said. I tried a feather duster, but that wasn t wide enough. After looking around for something that could be used on the harvester, Jonathan eventually made his own brush with knotted rope. Two years ago, somebody we know locally who is a retired engineer and avid gardener helped me take my prototype to an actual production model. By February of 2012, I was really pushing to finish up school. We were still working on the harvester but it was on the back burner. Then we got the Growing for Market issue (February 2012) with an article about the Slow Tools Summit. That article, written by Josh Volk, recounted a gathering to brainstorm ideas for small-scale farm tools. One person mentioned working on a greens harvester and it motivated Jonathan to get back to work on his version. He contacted Coleman and Adam Lemieux, the product manager for tools at Johnny s, and arranged to travel to Maine again at the end of March to demonstrate his harvester. My dad and I made the 25-hour drive to Eliot s farm and did the demonstration, he said. That was an continued on the next page GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

10 Inventor continued from page 9 awesome experience, coming up with a product Eliot s been wanting for years. Lemieux agreed to buy the greens harvesters, and expressed the desire to include them in the Johnny s catalog to be published in mid-november. The heat was on. The Dysingers turned around and drove home the next day and Jonathan started trying to raise money to build a production facility. He received funding from members of a Slow Money chapter in Tennessee, from his family s CSA members, and from another farmer. On October 20, funding completed, he ordered equipment and materials. He established a separate company, Farmer s Friend, LLC, to manufacture the tools in a 6,000 square foot workshop newly built on the farm. Lemieux said that he, Coleman, and others had been trying to develop a better greens harvester for years. Jonathan went off and did just that. He returned to Harborside in March of this year with an ingenious design that just blew us away. Production has begun and Johnny s already has back orders for the $495 greens harvesters. Jonathan expects to be able to make 50 to 100 harvesters per month once he reaches full production capacity. 10 GROWING FOR M ARKET / JANUARY 2013 Eliot Coleman recalled his first meeting with the 15-year-old. He was interested in tools and asked what tools we hadn t succeeded with yet, he said. I showed him our drawings of the so-far-unsuccessful small motorized harvesters and encouraged him to go for it. The reason his model works and our previous ones failed is because he was smarter than us and realized that it needed more than just sharp blades. So he came up with that ingenious macrame cord brush which pushes the greens into the blades and into the basket. Pure genius. Cuts light crops as well as heavy crops. Cuts high as well as low. The kid did good. It s fascinating how often just throwing a new mind at an old problem is all that is necessary. And now he has his own factory to produce them. I am very impressed. Jonathan doesn t plan to rest on his success. I m viewing this business as something I m going to be doing a long time, he said. I have a long list of problems I d like to solve on our own farm. For information about the Quick Cut Greens Harvester, see or contact Adam Lemieux at Johnny s: alemieux@johnnyseeds.com.

11 More strategies for dealing with a changing climate By PamDawling In my last couple of articles, I wrote about cultivating resilience and understanding and predicting conditions. DIY weather-forecasting, phenology and Growing Degree Days are some tools I suggested for improving access to information about what plants are experiencing or could soon be experiencing. In this article, I m going to write about several other strategies: using soil temperatures when deciding planting dates; scouting and monitoring for pests and diseases; using pest and disease forecast services; and being prepared for the effects of extreme high and low temperatures. Soil temperatures The traditional calendars of planting dates for various crops may not be the best way to go as the climate changes. Soil temperatures are a good way to measure what the seeds or transplants will actually experience you may find you will do better planting earlier or later than you thought. The table on the next page gives soil temperatures (not air temperatures) Maine Certified Seed Potatoes Good Seed from Way Up North for various crops. In spring we ll be watching rising temperatures, and in the autumn, falling temperatures. This table is based on my own experience, with advice from others. Pam Ruch helped compile these figures, some information came from Nancy Bubel s Seed Starter s Handbook, some from ATTRA s Scheduling Vegetable Plantings for Continuous Harvest which can be downloaded free at attra.ncat.org/ I use a 4 metal probe soil thermometer. The older ones we used to get had large faces newer ones are small and easily lost. I found it improved visibility to make a hole in a yellow plastic lid, and push the probe through this first. Insert the thermometer 2 into the soil when measuring for sowing, 4 for transplants. Wait till you get the correct reading three or four mornings in a row: 9 am is the traditional time for temperature taking. Remember that the minimum and maximum temperatures quoted are just that they are not the same as the optimum temperatures. You can research optimum temperatures once you ve ordered the seeds! Likewise 100% Certified Organic Farm-Direct Certified Seed Potatoes 100% Certified Organic Vegetable Seed FREE Catalog Jim & Megan Gerritsen Wood Prairie Farm 49 Kinney Road Bridgewater, Maine jim@woodprairie.com Supplies for Small Growers SEED STARTING - Pots Trays Inserts Plug Trays Labels - large variety size, color & shape of blank plant pot & row markers Weed control, fertilizer, tapes & ties, watering, and more. AAAmercantile.com (best prices) - or - Enter coupon code GFM for a 5% discount for a limited time at AAAmercantile.com the minimum temperatures are not the winter-kill temperatures. I wrote about winter-kill temperatures in Growing for Market September 2010 and in my upcoming book, Sustainable Market Farming. Scouting and monitoring It s a good practice to make a regular tour of your crops once a week to monitor growth and health. Also, keep a weather eye open whenever you are working in an important crop. When you notice a problem, you can take a picture, mentally or with a camera, and then consult a variety of resources to identify the problem. The Cooperative Extension Service in each state includes a State Entomologist and a Plant Diseases Diagnostic lab that are free for farmers. It can be a big help when you are unsure, or when a serious pest or disease would require drastic action and you want confirmation of your suspicions. There are some print publications with excellent photos, although growers are increasingly using the Internet to identify problems. Whitney Cranshaw s Garden Insects of North America (see Resources at end) is the best book I know on agricultural bugs. The mere presence of a disease does not automatically require spraying. Likewise, just because a pest appears does not means you have to kill it. The action level or economic threshold is the point at which the losses from the disease or pest warrant the time, money and ecological disruption put into applying control measures. Knowing the action level for the important pests on your farm is well worthwhile it saves unnecessary worrying and wasted time spraying or hand-picking. One pest I monitor in our garden is the asparagus beetle. We count beetles as we harvest, and if we see more than 10 adult beetles/100 crowns, I spray spinosad when the bees are not flying (early morning or late evening). Our practice of harvesting all spears more than 7 tall each day helps control pests by removing the eggs on the spears. The instructions for spinosad are to shake well, and use 1-4 Tbsp/ gal (1fl.oz=2Tbsp=30ml). It is important to clean and triple rinse the sprayer, and not flush the sprayer in continued on page 13 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

12 Temp. F Maximum and Minimum Soil Temperatures for Various Crops Crops 36 Fava beans, Lettuce, Onion, Parsnips, Spinach 39 Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Garlic, Pak Choy, Peas, Radish, Spinach Notes Minimum sowing temperature, minimum active growing temperature for established plants. Minimum active growing temperature for established plants. 40 Cucumber Minimum active growing temperature for established plants. Arugula, Beets, Minimum sowing temperature. Edible podded peas need warmer soil. Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chinese Cabbage, Kale, Leeks, Parsley, Peas, Radish, Swiss Chard, Turnips 43 Potatoes Minimum planting temperature. 50 OP Sweet Corn, Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Tomato Garlic Minimum sowing temperature, minimum active growing temperature for established plants. In fall, wait for temperature to drop this low before planting 55 Ginger Minimum transplant temperature. Ginger, Sweet Potatoes Harvest before the soil falls this cold. Edamame Minimum sowing temperature. 60 Garlic Bulbing starts in spring when soil temperature exceeds this. Sweet Corn (most) Minimum sowing temperature. Spinach Maximum active growing temperature Amaranths, Beans, Cucumbers, Eggplant, most chenopodia, Malabar Spinach, Muskmelons, Okra, Peppers, Pumpkins, Squash, Minimum sowing temperature. Dark-seeded beans can germinate at 55 F (13 C) 61 Eggplant, Pepper, Squash Minimum active growing temperature for established plants. Kohlrabi Maximum growing temperature during seedling stage (higher leads to leggy plants). 65 Cowpeas, Peanuts, some Sweet Corn Minimum sowing temperature. Tomatoes Minimum transplant temperature. Sweet Potatoes Plant after 4 days above this temperature. Cabbage, Cauliflower Maximum active growing temperature. 68 Watermelon Minimum sowing temperature. 70 Melons, Peppers Minimum transplant temperature. 75 Peas Maximum active growing temperature. 80 Beans, Celery, Lettuce, Parsley, Parsnip Maximum sowing temperature. Parsnip much better emergence below 70 F (21 C). 85 Beets, Pepper, Radish, Squash Maximum active growing temperature Carrots, Spinach Maximum sowing temperature (68 F/20 C is optimum for spinach) 86 Beets, Leafy brassicas, Peas Maximum sowing temperature 90 Ginger Maximum temperature for good growth Sweet Corn Maximum active growing temperature 95 Cucumber, Eggplant, Onion, Tomato Maximum active growing temperature Onion Maximum sowing temperature (below 80 F/27 C better) Minimum active growing temperature for established plants means that below this temperature the plants go dormant. For a good rate of growth, temperatures need to be 6-10F (4-5C ) warmer than the minimum. Maximum active growing temperature means plants go dormant above this temperature. 12 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

13 Changing climate continued from page 11 WINTER SPECIAL Jiffy Hitch Systems Inc. since 1991 MADE IN THE U.S.A. creeks or ponds. For several years we have not had enough beetles to need to spray. We also use spinosad if needed to deal with Colorado potato beetles once larvae are seen, and if there are more than 100 adult beetles/100 plants or more than 200 larvae/100 plants. For our potato patch, I expect to need hours and gallons. If needed, I repeat in 6-7 days sometimes I just spot spray where larvae are seen. With Mexican bean beetles, we are willing to ignore a few, but most years numbers are high enough to take action. When larvae are seen (often on the first cloudy day in June), we order Pediobius parasitic wasps. I wrote an article about sustainable pest control in Growing for Market in January 2012, so I won t repeat that information here. The more you learn, the better prepared you ll be. Learn to recognize bugs of all kinds, and understand their life cycles and enemies. Take a hand lens. Use a red LED headlamp for nighttime scouting. Set traps and lures (sticky traps and pheromone traps) for indicating whether or not a certain pest is on your farm, so that other measures can begin as early as possible. Moving on to sustainable disease management to take hold and cause a problem, a disease needs three things: a susceptible host, the presence of a pathogen, and suitable environmental conditions. It s the same for disease in people. Diseases don t happen to people or plants because they are evil or unbalanced. I hate those statements that blame the victim when disease happens! Sure, we can reduce the chances of any of the three and reduce the likelihood of the disease, but even if we ve done everything we can, plants can still be stricken. The goal of monitoring disease organism populations is to prevent the disease from reaching economically damaging levels. Bacterial diseases are not as easily controlled by modifying the environment as fungal diseases are. Viral diseases can interact with each other and become hard to distinguish. Viruses are often spread by aphids, so reducing aphid populations is a key early step. The basis of IPM in biointensive systems involves a pro-plant (rather than an anti-problem) approach to creating healthy plants and soil. Vigorous plants are better able to withstand damage. The aim is to prevent disease organisms finding the crops, keep damage to a minimum, pay attention to what is happening, and control diseases by the least ecologically damaging method. This approach is site-specific and must be adapted to each crop and situation. The sequence of steps is basically: prevent problems; monitor for problems; then, if needed, treat problems. Good record keeping helps improve effectiveness. Record what you see, when, where, what action you took (if any), and the relative success of what you did, and compare with methods used previously. Keep learning, and apply what you learn. ATTRA has a good publication Biointensive Integrated Pest Management which addresses pests, diseases and weeds. php?id=146 For some major diseases and pests there are websites offering regional forecasts. These combine scouting and reporting of outbreaks with meteorological forecasting of temperature and wind direction and speed. They provide a localized risk assessment and a map like a hurricane forecasting map showing which way the problem is continued on the next page The safest, easiest, quickest hitch on the market. Connect and disconnect 3-pt. implements without leaving your tractor seat. Prices are based on the tractor make, model & horsepower for the Male Jiffy Hitch.The Female Jiffy Hitch prices are based on which 3 pt. implements you will use with the system. For your individualized price during our Winter Special CALL NOW USING PROMOTION CODE I own and operate Johnson s Backyard Garden, a 200- acre certified organic vegetable farm in Austin, TX. Since we grow so many different kinds of vegetables, we use over 20 pieces of equipment and change it out daily. We use the Jiffy Hitch System on everything as it allows us to make these equipment changes efficiently and safely. As a diversified vegetable grower, I highly recommend Jiffy Hitch for its ease of use and reliability. Brenton Johnson For more information on making your farm safer, call or visit GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

14 Changing climate continued from page 13 heading. An example is the cucurbit downy mildew forecast from NCSU: ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/cucurbit Extreme temperatures Climate change doesn t mean we ll all get warmer winters for most of us it means more variable and more extreme temperatures. So figure out which crops are most marginal already in the winter temperatures you re used to, (see and decide whether they are worth keeping in your farm s crop portfolio, or whether they are important enough to be worth providing more protection for (doesn t every hoophouse owner want another hoophouse?) In very hot conditions, some vegetables we normally think of as hot weather crops can suffer and go dormant. This past summer, many people reported problems with tomatoes not being able to set fruit. But we couldn t get eggplants. They didn t even flower, never mind set fruit! Daytime temperatures over 85 F and, more importantly, nights above 72 F can cause tomatoes to fail to set fruit, even though the plants look healthy and vigorous. The flowers just dry up and fall off. If the hot spell lasts less than a week, production can quickly recover. But if there is a long stretch with warm nights, there will be a gap in fruit production that can have serious financial consequences. Some growers suggest that night-time temperatures above 62 F, but below 72 F can to some extent compensate for hot days. Clearly daytime maximum temperatures are not the only factor, or else we would not have gotten tomatoes but no eggplants. Possibly high humidity can help tomatoes pollinate. We have fairly high humidity, which may have helped our tomatoes (but apparently not our eggplants) keep going. Perhaps we need to look for a more heat-tolerant eggplant variety. There are both heirloom and commercial varieties selected for ability to produce in hot conditions. They are referred to as hot set or heat set varieties. Some cherry tomatoes also do well. Additionally, many heat-set varieties also perform well under extended cool, rainy weather and some early (cold-set) varieties are also able to function in hot weather. Heat stress can be reduced by the use of shade cloth, preferably held above plant level by cables or ropes, so that airflow around the plants is not compromised. Organic mulches can help reduce soil temperatures and conserve moisture. Seaweed sprays can improve plants heat and cold tolerances. No-till planting can help conserve existing soil moisture. Adequate irrigation, naturally, makes a big difference. Where to look next At the recent conference of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, I went to a great workshop by Laura Lengnick, who is doing valuable work to help farmers get ready for climate variability. She is one of the main authors of a USDA ARS report Climate Change and Agriculture: Effect and Adaptation. Its publication date is November She also spoke at the August 2012 symposium of the Ecological Society of America, Climate change impacts on agricultural systems: confex.com/eco/2012/webprogram/ Paper33548.html. She suggests viewing climate change as yet another production risk to assess and prepare for. The vulnerability of your farm has two components: exposure and adaptive capacity. As far as vulnerability, the most immediate key exposure is water issues (too much and too little). Rising air temperatures, including night temperatures, more extreme temperatures provide threats and some opportunities. Increasing CO2 levels will provide some positive effects such as faster crop growth. As far as adaptive capacity, the main feature of that aspect is our personal capacity to respond and plan. Laura Lengnick says Greater attention to climate as critical for decision-making is expected by future generations of producers. We need to start with ourselves. Resources Since writing my previous article I ve found more resources to help with understanding and predicting climate change: DailyClimate.org a daily newsletter; NOAA Climate Prediction Center: noaa.gov/index.php; a fun weather site is where you can see, for instance, what your average winter low has been, and plan plantings accordingly. Another resource for improving your farm s resilience is ATTRA s Drought Resistant Soil. It addresses ways to increase the organic matter content of the soil, and keep the soil covered at all times. Two additional resources on frost management are NCSU s Frost/ Freeze Protection for Horticultural Crops at hort/hil/hil-705.html; and the Food and Agriculture Organization 126- page book Frost Protection: Fundamentals, Practice and Economics, ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/ y7223e/y7223e00.pdf has it all. Garden Insects of North America is available from growingformarket. com or by phoning See page 20 for information on how to get it at a 20% discount. Pam Dawling is the garden manager at Twin Oaks Community in Louisa County, Virginia. Her book, Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres, will be published Feb. 1. www. sustainablemarketfarming.com 14 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

15 8,000 miles and 18 farmers markets By Gwynn Hamilton and Bert Webster This past summer, we were invited to vacation with the extended family in California. Impractical as it seemed to leave the farm in July at the peak of the growing season, we found really dedicated and talented help and scheduled a six-week drive across the country with our 8-year-old daughter. It had been nine years of farming without a summer vacation, so we saw this as an opportunity to see what other farmers were doing and reinspire ourselves. Our specific goal was to visit farmers markets as customers and evaluate the effectiveness of their produce displays. On our 8,000-mile cross-country odyssey, we visited 18 markets across 16 states. We saw a lot of market stands we liked and formulated the three A s of an effective market display authenticity, abundance, and approachability. The best displays combined these traits into an irresistible source of fantastic foods and gave us a plethora of ideas and insight. Authenticity Farmers markets are special because the eaters buy direct from those who grow the food. Customers get to know farmers and develop relationships. The best market stands cultivate these relationships by posting clear signs and banners identifying the farm, including a growing location. Market stands look very similar and customers often don t know where one stand ends and the next begins. During the height of tomato season, one vendor s pile of fruit looks much like the next. If a customer buys an amazing tomato from you, you want her to come back next week and get more. In addition to signs and banners, we suggest designing a label and sticking it on any bag or bouquet sleeve that leaves the stand. Add a name and a logo to your sign and start establishing loyalty. Proving yourself to be authentic is especially important for farmers selling at markets that are not groweronly markets. A reseller can easily put up a sign that suggests a farm and fool customers looking for the genuine article. Your banner and labels chock full of information will set you apart from someone buying and reselling boxes of goods. Convince your customers that you grew everything on the table in front of you. A beautiful market stand in Tucson looked as though it represented a local farm, but when asked about his garlic, the man behind the counter said it was just regular garlic. A talk with the market manager revealed the market rules to be pretty loose on reselling products. Not all customers are savvy about identifying growers, and farms need to make it obvious that they grew the items for sale. The variety names should be on the tip of your tongue, and preparation suggestions should come easily. Farms big enough to have a dedicated sales team should make sure these folks spend some time at the farm. If a customer asks whether an onion is sweet or when the beans were picked, sales people need to know the answer. Many farmers feel like their time is better spent at the farm getting work done, but the market stand is the farm s public face. Customers want to buy from the person who grew their food and will reward authenticity with loyalty. Abundance The most striking feature of an effective market stand is an overflowing display of vegetables. We saw mountains of beets in Texas, trucks filled with avocados in California, and gorgeous cascades of carrots in Oregon. Piles of ripe produce cry out for the customer to help themselves. Not only will customers dive right in to a pile of peppers, a larger display invites larger purchases. Customers flock to vendors with overflowing piles of veggies and hardly notice tables with a little of this or that. Small-scale growers have more trouble creating copious displays, but should continued on the next page Biologica means Organic! 33 varieties of certified-organic seeds Delicious Italian heirloom varieties Certified by CCPB, which is recognized by IFOAM ( Generous seed counts, $3.45 per packet Order online: or phone GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

16 18 marketsaffordable Insurance continued from page 15 for Farmers Markets and Vendors make Finally! every effort A company to copy that the understands large growers the insurance and create an abundant needs presentation. of farmers markets and their vendors. At The the National stands Farmers with Market lots of Insurance tomatoes, Program we found offersthat we were insurance drawn rates to starting those tables at $250 that for markets piled up and contrasting $275 trays of colors and varieties for vendors. and set them out together. We were in awe of $1,000,000 those tables per so occurrence full that the displays had to go vertical. Creative $2,000,000 marketers aggregate stacked bins and trays for multiple layers of display. Produce might hold better in a cooler or in the back of the truck, but these folks had learned that anything not on the stand is more likely to go back home. Creating a good display requires a vigilant salesperson. As soon as a customer buys a large bag of peppers, the best venues were immediately restocking the display. Set up your stand in a way that makes refilling easy and quick. Arrange bins behind the stand logically and continually check the display. When supplies are down to the last few veggies in the bin, they need to be consolidated. We ve noticed that even if a product is moving well, the last of it will languish unsold. Customers are disinclined to buy Make sure you are covered properly for less by contacting the last of anything, especially if it appears picked-over. Campbell Risk Management We often remove the last handful of beans or basil, bag it with a label with our logo, and sell ext it 203 to the next customer. As consumers, we love convenience and, we have learned, abundance. Affordable Insurance for Farmers Markets and Vendors Finally! A company that understands the insurance needs of farmers markets and their vendors. The National Farmers Market Insurance Program offers insurance rates starting at $250 for markets and $275 for vendors. $1,000,000 per occurrence $2,000,000 aggregate Microgreens are catching on across the country. In Escondido, California, the selection was fantastic. Organic Redneck farm in Leaburg, Oregon, converted a vintage truck into the best farmers market display of the trip. Make sure you are covered properly for less by contacting Campbell Risk Management ext 203 The abundance of carrots at this stand in Eugene, Oregon, made them irresistible. 16 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

17 Approachability Every spring a new customer will come to our stand wondering where to pay for another vendor s produce. They are confusedly looking for a central checkout line and assume all the vendors are part of a supermarket-like display. We may think the farmers market is the most easy and accessible form of commerce, but our customers are used to shopping in an impersonal supermarket setting, and farmers markets can be intimidating. Besides being friendly and ready to help, farmers should assess the stand layout for ease of shopping. Buying at a well-planned market stand is easy and logical. Many customers are new to market and a setup needs to make it clear how the purchase works. Prominently state the name of your farm, what you re selling, why it s great, and how much it costs. Put these signs in a location that won t be blocked by the customers and your friends that stop to chat. We saw beautiful banners and signage that were completely obscured by the first shopper. In order to develop loyal customers, you need to be blatant about your identity as a fantastic producer. While we often take a moment to check the appearance of the stand first thing in the morning, we should be doing this throughout the sales day. Sneak out and see your booth from the perspective of a passerby at the busiest time of the day. Can anyone tell what s for sale behind the line of people? If your price tags and signage are hidden by buyers, maybe a sandwich board or chalkboard can stop people in their tracks with a delicious roster of your products. Cross out what has sold out throughout the day to remind people to come early and assure them that you have even greater variety if they get up a bit earlier. Clear and legible labels are well worth your time. We can say with confidence that many farmers across the United States refuse to put out FormTex Plastics Plastic Packaging Solutions for the Produce Industry Complete line of stock and custom produce clamshells and trays u Stock clamshells and corrugated trays that are really in stock u Complete line of recyclable products u All our products are made from food-safe recycled materials u 1 case or a truckload u Unrivaled new product design and prototyping capabilities u Credit cards accepted For more information, please call David Grice at extension 120 or d.grice@formtex. com. FormTex Plastics Corporation 6817 Wynnwood Lane Houston, Texas Fax Website: Service@FormTex.com price tags. Do we as growers assume that people who shop at farmers markets can afford what we have to offer at any price? Do we think that customers aren t comparing prices? Most customers don t like to ask questions and some will walk right by if the cost isn t obvious. Find the member of your sales team with the neatest handwriting and take the time to label thoroughly. Adding details like variety names and concise cooking suggestions can turn a browser into a buyer. How about a sample? You know your product is good, but is it clear to the folks walking by that you have something special? Samples can be a great way to introduce customers to your product but they must be presented carefully. In Nebraska we were appalled to see a gruesome, pickedover carcass of a chicken on a dingy plate at an unlabeled market stand. The man behind the counter had a grill and a truck full of coolers but no indication of what was for sale. Passersby were encouraged to pinch off a nibble of chicken, but few were stopping. Potential health risks aside, this sample was not enticing. From lots of taste-testing we can testify that even samples of our favorite fruits and vegetables can look a bit gross after being picked over for a morning. Prepare samples behind the counter on a clean cutting board then move the bites to a clean plate for display. Refresh this display often. Samples might also require napkins and a waste basket or compost receptacle. As it turned out, that Nebraska vendor was selling smoked, pasture-raised chickens. We purchased one, and it was delicious, but few others seemed adventurous enough to even try a taste. When assessing your approachability, don t forget to evaluate your layout. Even as farmers market professionals, we avoid entering a tent or a U-shaped arrangement of tables. The chance of being trapped in an unending conversation or locked into continued on the next page GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

18 18 markets continued from page 17 an unwanted purchase is too high. In looking back over the hundreds of photos we took on our trip, we were surprised to see how many vendors were on the phone behind their stands. Needless to say, we didn t stop to talk or make a purchase. Look busy, but not on the phone. If market is slow, rearrange your stand, re-stack the carrot bunches or make a couple of bouquets. Customers are more likely to approach a bustling stand and walk by a vendor slouching on the tailgate. Make sure the sales team gets a break to eat, use the rest room, and walk around market. If you can t visit other markets, at least get around to see what s happening at yours. Consider your overall aesthetic. We would have never considered astroturf, but the folks down south use it to cover tables. It looks bright and shiny, but maybe your style is a tablecloth or even some clean burlap. Step back and look at your baskets, bins, and boxes. A New Mexico vendor displayed squash in a laundry basket, and though it was probably purchased specifically for that job, one might wonder whether it had formerly held dirty clothes. Wash those bins, baskets, and tongs frequently. Pull out your fresh overalls for market and leave the grimy ones behind for cleaning out the barn. And lastly, wash your produce. Customers don t want to take home your soil and they don t want to pay for dirt if the item is priced per pound. Back at our home market, we have begun to add a few changes to our stand. We try to write up our price tags the night before market, because as it is across the country they seem to be the first thing to skip in the market morning crunch. We have implemented a rule of no eating in view of the customers. And every week we experiment with piling more on the stand higher and lower on bins and crates. Next we ll add that chalkboard roster of products. We ve started dreaming about rebuilding the stand this winter, but for now a few touches here and there have improved our appearance and sales, and remind us of the special opportunity for two farmers to take a summer vacation. Gwynn Hamilton and Bert Webster are the owners of Stonecrop Farm in Newport, Virginia. Their small family farm produces certified organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers for the Blacksburg Farmers Market and wholesale distribution. They can be reached at stonecropfarmers@ yahoo.com. Makers of Living Media for Organic Growers Montpelier, Vermont vermontcompost.com we speak organic Wrinkle Crinkle Crumple Cress Outredgeous Lettuce Red Ursa Kale Aurora Orache Mizspoona Mustard Lacinato Rainbow Kale Purple Goosefoot Hyper Red Rumple Waved Lettuce Edulis Lambsquaarters White Russian Kale Glossy Epazote Wild Garden Seed Salad Greens & Herbs For the Fresh Market Grower Ecological Crop Improvement For And By Farmers Send For Our Free Catalog Wild Garden Seed P.O. Box 1509, Philomath, OR Our ecological approach to plant breeding generates superior strains and original varieties for farmers who don t use chemical protectants and fertilizers. Organic Seed from Gathering Together Farm Magma Mustard Wild Red Kale Green Velvet Orache Pink Petiole Mix Mustard Blushed Butter Cos Flashback Calendula Wild Garden Chicories Blush Butter Oak Lettuc Golden Purslane Survivor Parsley Giant Red Celery GreatGreen 18 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013

19 Understanding one of the few insecticides for organic growers By Raymond A. Cloyd Very few insecticides are registered for use in organic production systems, which makes dealing with the multitude of arthropod (insect and mite) pests a challenge. The product Entrust is commercially available for use against a number of insect pests including thrips, caterpillars, leafminers, and some leaf-feeding beetles including Colorado potato beetle and flea beetles. It is an expensive product, however, so it s important for growers to understand how to use it. Some characteristics associated with Entrust include: a two-year shelf life when stored properly; the ph of the spray solution should be between 6.0 and 9.0; regulation of thrips and leafminer populations may be improved by adding an adjuvant to the spray mixture; and no more that six applications are allowed within a calendar year. Entrust contains the active ingredient spinosad, which is derived from a species of actinomycete bacteria, Saccharopolyspora spinosa, that when fermented creates metabolites called spinosyns; two are biologically active compounds responsible for insecticidal properties spinosyns A and D. Spinosad works rapidly, killing insects within one to two days after having been ingested. Although the material may directly kill insects by contact, it works best when ingested. This is the reason why spinosad has minimal effect on phloem-feeding insect pests such as aphids and whiteflies. In addition, spinosad has minimal, if any, activity on spider mites. Spinosad is relatively stable at a water ph of 5 to 9, and has a half-life of approximately 200 days at a ph of 9. The water solubility of spinosad is low-to-moderate (235 ppm) at a ph of 7. Furthermore, spinosad has short persistence in the environment with the major route of breakdown being ultra-violet (UV) light degradation. Spinosad has rapid contact and ingestion activity. Control or regulation takes one to three days with residual activity up to two weeks. Spinosad has two modes of action: the first one involves excitation of the insect nervous system, resulting in depolarizing of neurons, leading to paralysis and death, by disrupting the binding of acetylcholine at nicotinic acetylcholine receptors located at the post-synaptic cell junctures. The second mode of action is associated with negatively affecting the gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) gated ion channels. Spinosad does not have any systemic properties as the compound does not translocate through the xylem or phloem when applied as a foliar spray; however, it does exhibit translaminar activity, meaning that the compound penetrates leaf tissues and forms a reservoir of active ingredient inside the leaf. Spinosad has been shown to be safe for use on most horticultural crops exhibiting no phytotoxicity. The impact of spinosad on natural enemies including both parasitoids and predators has been extensively studied. Direct applications or wet sprays of spinosad are harmful to certain parasitoids; however, any direct toxic effects generally decrease as the spray residues age. In addition, spinosad is highly toxic to bees as a wet spray, but once residues dry then any toxic effects to foraging bees are negligible. Spinosad appears to be compatible with many predatory insects and mites with no direct or indirect effects associated with green lacewings, ladybird beetles, minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs, and damsel bugs. Furthermore, spinosad is not directly harmful to many predatory mites. Entrust is just one of the few insecticides registered for use in organic production systems with activity against a wide-variety of insect pests. Proper stewardship of this valuable insecticide will ensure its effectiveness for organic producers, which involves rotating with other insecticides with different modes of action to avoid the potential for resistance; however, this can be difficult due to the limited number of compounds available for use in organic production systems. Raymond A. Cloyd is a professor and Extension Specialist in Horticultural Entomology / Integrated Pest Management at Kansas State University. He can be reached at rcloyd@ksu.edu. MOVING? Please send us your new address before you move. The Postal Service will NOT forward this periodical, so try to let us know your new address before we mail your issue the last week of the month. You can phone us at ; admin@growingformarket. com; or send the change of address postcard to GFM, PO Box 3747, Lawrence KS Greenhouses & supplies Drip irrigation MORGAN COUNTY SEEDS Top quality seeds at an affordable price Kelsay Rd., Barnett, MO Phone Fax Free catalog Norman & Vera Kilmer, owners Fertilizers Vegetable, herb & flower seeds GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY

20 classified advertising Equipment 1 & 2-ROW POTATO PLANTERS. 1-ROW POTATO AND SWEET POTATO DIGGERS. Parts for most small diggers. SEED CUTTERS. WATER CAGE Plant Protectors ; FLAME WEEDERS, 4- and 5-torch walk behind models, ideal for market gardeners and CSA s ; Farming Jobs APPRENTICESHIP: Crager Hager Farm is looking for full and summer season apprentices for This is a CNG fruit and vegetable farm in West Georgia, working to be sustainable. We sell direct and wholesale 10 months of the year. Apprentice will learn the full range of skills to be a successful farmer. For more information and to apply go to www. cragerhagerfarm.com PLOUGHSHARE FARM is a 160 acre organic vegetable farm serving a 450 member CSA in Central MN. Now accepting applications for the 2013 season for experienced vegetable farm workers. Pay is dependent on experience and includes a housing option. for detailed information and an application. Gary Brever gjbrever@ midwestinfo.net WAVERLY FARMS in Burkeville, VA, is looking for a partner to grow its sustainable, chemicalfree CSA and gardens on designated sections of its 235 acres. Qualified individuals will have a proven track record and training in sustainable or organic growing, CSA planning, harvesting, packing, delivery and sales. We provide the land, equipment, working capital and business and marketing resources and reasonable compensation. Contact Patti Rosenberg at or patti_rosenberg@hotmail. com. You can learn more about our farm at Farms for Sale Seeds, bulbs, and plants GRAFTED TOMATO PLANTS - Call for 2013 pricing and availability. Lawrence KS TRANSPLANTS - CERTIFIED ORGANIC. Your varieties or ours. Individual plants and tray sizes. Onions, leeks, specialty crops, herbs, vegetables, flowers, grafted tomatoes. Supplies and services FARMER S MARKET SPECIAL Organic cotton t-shirts with your logo $8.50each/24pc minimum. Wholesale blank shirts also available. 100% Made in USA from organic cotton grown on our farm. com; go@sosfromtexas.com WOODCREEK FARM & SUPPLY Natural and organic products: Organic seed; Natural fertilizers; Growing mixes; Animal supplements; Pest management; Growers supplies. Cana, VA; Phone MARCUS CUTTER, BROKER ASSOCIATE, buyer s agent, will help you find farmland in Western Wisconsin, marccutter@edinarealty. com CLASSIFIED ADS WORK! And for GFM subscribers, they re only 50 cents per word. ($1 per word otherwise.) ads@ growingformarket.com or phone Ads in the print edition are published online for free. Market farming books 20% off for subscribers The 50-Mile Bouquet $14.36 Small Farm Equipment $12 A Family Farm in Tuscany $19.96 Winter Harvest Handbook / DVD $80 Market Farming Success $20 The Essential Urban Farmer $20 Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers $17.60 Microgreens $16 The Flower Farmer $28 Woody Cut Stems for Growers and Florists $32 Find the complete list at www. growingformarket.com. To get the discount, look for the Member Login box in the right column on the home page. In the field, type print and in the password field type member. When you see a screen that says You re logged in click on Online Store in left column. You ll see the regular book price crossed out and the discounted price above it. If you don t see that, stop and call us to order. We cannot refund the discount if you order at full price. Or just give us a call at , Monday-Thursday. ORGANIC FARM BUSINESS for Sale. CCOF certified, 8 leased acres in Santa Cruz County, California. 10 years in operation. Loyal customer base in Santa Cruz and San Francisco. info@freewheelinfarm.com 20 GROWING FOR MARKET / JANUARY 2013