(Underhill) A cool and damp spring pushed the sweet corn schedule back about a week. We’re trying some transplanted and direct seeded in bioplastic this year to try to get corn sooner than August. The transplants are looking good so far. Pumpkin planting looks to remain on schedule after this next cool weekend. Some of …
Continue reading “Vermont Vegetable and Berry News – June 1, 2026”
Soil compaction is causing trouble for many vegetable farmers, even if they don’t know it. That trouble may be in the form of reduced yields, excessive runoff and soil erosion, or an increase in root disease. Just because compaction is out of sight doesn’t mean it should be out of mind. Understanding Compaction Soil is …
Anyone who grows perennials in the Northeast has probably experienced the frustration of “winter kill” when a plant that is perfectly healthy going into winter does not make it out alive. There are many reasons a plant might die, or be seriously injured, during the winter. Some are biological, such as rodent damage, others are …
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD (Westminster) After five or six days of encouraging warm weather, everything just stopped. Beets were emerging but they haven’t grown a centimeter in the last few days. And the asparagus still hasn’t shown itself. We managed to not freeze the sweet corn in the cold frames and have several plantings in …
Continue reading “Vermont Vegetable and Berry News – May 4, 2026”
Many people or entities own farmland that they would like to see farmed by someone else, but they may not know how to find the right farmer or how to create an effective lease agreement. Providing advice on these topics can be challenging because there are many possible combinations of landowners, land and property status, …
For thousands of years garlic has been used as food, a spice, and a medicine. Recently it’s been used as a pest repellent, too. Garlic probably originated in central Asia, and was then brought to the Mediterranean area and Europe. By the early 1700s it found its way to America. Types of Garlic There are …
Many organic vegetable growers consider weeds to be their primary pest problem. Integrating a variety of weed control techniques is the best way to achieve effective organic weed control. Weed management techniques are aimed at preventing weeds before they appear, or at suppressing weeds once they are present. Weed prevention techniques include: · Rotation of …
Continue reading “Weed Management on Organic Vegetable Farms”
As the growing season gets into full swing it’s a good idea to take steps to ‘tune up’ your marketing to help optimize farm profitability now and into the future. Whatever type of marketing you engage in, here’s some advice to help you remember what you already knew about running a top-notch roadside market. Act …
Truth be told, I’m not much of a marketer. As an extension educator, my colleagues and I ‘give away’ our products, which are information and advice. We can afford to, since you already paid us. When a ‘customer’ thanks me, I often reply: “your tax dollars at work!” In addition, as someone trained in production, …
About one third of Vermont’s vegetable farms are managed organically. On many others, herbicides are used only on a few of the crops. Vegetable farms here and throughout New England are relatively small, and tend to have many plantings of highly diverse crops, making it a hassle to spray different materials at different times. Necessity …
