[Snakeroot Organic Farm logo]
 • HOME
 • What's New Here
 • Snakeroot Poultry

THE BASICS
 • About Our Farm
 • Annual Farm Tour
 • Community Supported
    Agriculture Plan (CSA)
 •
Directions to our Farm
 • From a Run Out Hayfield to
    a Prosperous Organic Farm
    in Ten Easy Years

 • Get Real. Get Organic!
 • History of Our Farm
 • Pictures of the Farm
 • Where We Buy
 • Where We Sell
 • Our Yearly Work Schedule
 • Just Pretty
 • Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
 • Newsletter Archive.
 • What We Will & Won't Ship

OUR PEOPLE
 • Working Here
 • Our Apprentices
 • Our Farm Workers
 • Pictures of Us at Market

WHAT WE GROW
 • Fresh Vegetables
 • Fresh Fruit
 • Fresh Herbs
 • Perennials
 • Aloe - a magical plant
 • Our Bird Houses
 • Lupines
 • Rosemary Plants
 • Lovage, Tansy & Yarrow
 • Our Product Brochures
 • Dried Vegetables
 • Dried Culinary Herbs
MAPLE
 • Maple Syrup
 • Maple Syrup, p.2
 • Sugarin' Is Like Ice Fishin'
 • Our New Sugarhouse
TOMATOES
 • Tomato Seedlings
 • Tomato Seeds We Offer
 • Tomato Seed Production
 • Paste Tomatoes
GARLIC
 • About Garlic
 • Garlic for Sale
 • Garlic Year Round
 • Mulching Garlic
 • Growing Rounds from Bulbils
 • Whole Bulbil Cluster Method
 • Planting Garlic

MULCHING
 • Using Mulches
 • Combatting Quackgrass
    with Mulch

 • We Want Your Leaves!
 • In Praise of Chips

FOOD & FARMING INFO
 • Buying in Bulk for
    Storage, Canning & Freezing

 • Winter Storage Tips
 • How to Freeze Our Veggies
 • Building Techniques
 • Our Outbuildings
 • Evolution of the Farm Table
 • The Story of Our Cooler
 • Prepping Veggies for Market
 • Crop Rotations
 • Drip Irrigation
 • Low Pressure Water
 • Planting with Spreadsheets
 • Greenhouse Vegetable
    Production

 • Let-tuce Begin
 • Recipe Favorites
 • Our "Remay Roller"
 • Gardening Class Notes
 • Your Most Expensive Crop

OPINIONS & IDEAS
 • Being Green
 • Digging Potatoes by Hand
 • Farmers' Markets in 2012
 • History of Pittsfield
 • Hybrids or Open Pollinated?
 • Making Websites
 • Open Source Software

FARM TRANSITION…
    Our Retirement Plan
 • How Should a Farmer Retire?
 • Impediments to the want-to-be     farmer
 • Reducing the Value
    of the Land

 • Who Will Farm Here When
    We're Gone?

 • Apprentice Terms and Stages
 • From Apprentices to Partners
 • Transferring Farm Ownership





…and now for something completely different…

At dawn
Canoe bow waves are quickly lost
    on the shoreside
But go on out of sight
    on the lake side.

-1986


The constant swish-swish of skis
    On a day long ski.
The constant swish-swish of wiper blades
    On a day long drive.

-1990


My dog, trotting barefoot
Steps on a garden slug
And thinks
Nothing of it.

-1999


Word spreads quickly
as I approach the pond.
All becomes quiet.

-1997


Hidden in the vines
a large warted cucumber
jumps out of reach.
A toad!

-1997


Delicate puffs
of marshmallow snow
carefully perched
on a branch,
await the trigger of my hat
to melt their way down my back.

-2010
Deep in the tomato jungle
Fruits of yellow, purple and red
Tell of their readiness
To go to market.

-2010
Sugarin' Chores
Snowflakes hurry through my flashlight beam,
As my boots knead new snow with spring mud,
On my nightly Hajj to keep the boil alive,
For as long as possible until the dawn,
To match the power of the flowing sap,
With my meager evaporator and will.
The prize at the finish line are jars of syrup
And Spring.

-2013

Seeds & Seedlings Feb. 19; snow date Feb.26. Page 1 of 2
Presenter: Tom Roberts, Snakeroot Organic Farm, Snakeroot Road, Pittsfield 04967, email: tom@snakeroot.net

Remember: EVERY VEGETABLE HAS ITS OWN REQUIREMENTS, for temperature, water, sun, fertility, days to maturity, picking window, edible part, ability to transplant. Potato farmer who decided to grow chickens.

Starting seeds - Direct Seeding vs. Transplanting: Not every vegetable likes being transplanted and some simply shouldn't be. Scheduling of different veggies & herbs, planting depth, seed size, double transplanting. Advantages of transplanting: Earlier harvest, crop is ahead of weeds, instant garden, allows delay of garden preparation, buys you garden time for succession cropping, no thinning in garden.
Disadvantages of transplanting: Need containers, potting soil, warm sunny place to grow, slower and more work than direct seeding.

Timing is everything. Timing of transplant starting is most common mistake. Too early or too late. Every veg is different. Using transplants to gain time.

Non-seedy “seeds”. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion sets, garlic, shallots.

Plants, not seeds. Rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish, most perennials. Take several years to produce.

Potting soil. Should be different than regular garden soil which has poor nutrient balance for seedlings, likely to be weedy, poor water holding properties compared to potting soil. Peat moss & synthetic fertilizer based (sterile) or compost based (alive).

Seedling containers. Recycled plastic containers, peat pots, tomato trays, or pro tray cell flats.

Starting vs Growing Temperature. 75-85° for germinating, then 60-70° for growing.

Problems. Damping off (soil too wet), leggy (=too tall: too warm, not enough sun), no or low germination (old seed, abused seed, too deep, dried out, too cold, variety differences, just wait).

Growing your own vs buying seedlings. If you don't have enough warm & sunny area, buying some or all of your seedlings may be your best bet. Grow lights. Buying long transplant-growing-time plants.

Hardening off. Easing the seedlings into the garden slowly to reduce transplant shock. Think of it as transplanting in two steps. Tenderness to cold varies with vegetable.

Transplanting. Never break up the rootball if you can help it. Exception: onion family. How to tell when they are ready to be planted into the garden: look at the roots, not the tops.

Direct Seeding Planting. Remember your garden map? Placing the seeds. Depth. Succession plantings related to days to maturity and overall garden productivity. Thinning.

Cold frames. Old storm windows or plastic sheet over a box on or in the ground. Opening on sunny days and closing at night, especially early in the season, are critical.

Hoop houses. Inexpensive low greenhouses that can make your garden think it's in Maryland. Season extension, winter production.

Greenhouses. Gardening fun all year round, as well as a better place to start your seedlings than the kitchen window.

Row covers. Slitted poly with hoops or white floating row covers with or without hoops. Pest barriers and temperature moderation.




27 Organic Farm Road, Pittsfield Maine 04967
http://www.snakeroot.net/farm
owned and operated by
Tom Roberts & Lois Labbe
Tom: Tom@snakeroot.net (cell) 207-416-5417
or
Lois: Lois@snakeroot.net (cell) 207-416-5418

Gardening for the public since 1995.



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