Search the site
Events Calendar
« 
February 2010
 »
SMTWTFS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28 

Welcome to Growing for Market!

Print

Growing for Market is America's most respected publication about growing and direct marketing vegetables, fruits, herbs, cut flowers, plants, and other farm products. Growing for Market covers farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture, the local food movement, organic growing, cut flowers, and much more. Growing for Market publishes 10 issues per year, in print and online, and offers memberships to our extensive online archive of articles. Become a member today!

February 2010 cover image
February 2010 Issue now available, featuring:
  • How to manage soils, pests, diseases, and weeds in a hoophouse.
  • Don't heat the entire greenhouse; build a tent inside the greenhouse for early crops.
  • Fear of urban farming, part 2: Diseases, noise, and commerce in residential areas.
  • How to grow celery and celeriac.
  • A daughter's testimonial about growing up on a market farm.
  • Using a spreadsheet to map crop fields.
  • Free crop planning software.
  • The secret to long-stemmed sweet peas.

Plus news, classified ads, and new suppliers. Subscribe now and your subscription will start with the February issue! You’ll get the free E-book Extending the Season. Plus you'll get a 20% discount on all books!

Local Color coverNew Book for flower growers!
Frank and Pamela Arnosky are expert, successful flower growers who have been writing about cut flowers in Growing for Market since 1995. Local Color is a compilation of their most recent columns, from 2001 through 2009.
Click here to purchase Local Color as an E-book to download now.
Click here to order the printed version.


Click here to start a print subscription.

Click here to start an online subscription.

Click here to buy a print copy of the February 2010 issue.

Click here to buy a PDF download of the February 2010 issue.



These articles have recently been added to the GFM Archive.

  Take dahlia cuttings now for hoophouse planting (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
Dahlias1Dahlias are spectacular cut flowers that always command attention at the farmers markets. The main season for field-grown dahlias is late summer through fall, but if you have a high tunnel, you can get an early start by taking your own cuttings in January. Dahlia plants from cuttings, planted out in April in an unheated high tunnel, will produce harvestable stems by late May here in Michigan.
  Water greenhouse plants automatically (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
I apprenticed a number of years ago on a small farm with a woefully undersized but beautiful old glass house where water imagewe propagated all of our vegetable starts. I learned a lot in that glass house, hand watering the seedlings every day, making sure it was opened in the morning for ventilation and closed in the evening to keep the heat in, mixing up potting soil and seeding tray after tray.  Andy, the farmer, rigged up a system to automatically water. It worked for a while but one day in summer, we came to check on the seedlings, after having been distracted for a day or two, and they were just about dead. If I remember right, the battery in the timer had failed. That memory sat with me for years and, determined to never let that happen again, I stayed away from automatic water for a long time.
  Advice for winter down time: go to school and learn a skill (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
When planning for the winter, consider the great return on scarce agricultural dollars from practical courses at vo-techs and community colleges.  For a fraction of the credit hour cost at private colleges and even state universities, you can get started in skills needed everyday on a farm:  Welding, plumbing, wiring, carpentry, masonry, auto mechanics.
  Steps for successful planning (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
We have a sequence of planning steps to be done in the winter, taking the information from each one on to the next stage. I have written about some of these steps in earlier Growing for Market issues. This article is about continuing the planning process and compiling your own field manual, which provides a handy reference you can consult when anything seems unclear during the busy season.
  Urban farms start to meet with resistance (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
badseed“I bought that house because I wanted to be somewhere tranquil, peaceful.  I didn’t want to live next door to goats!”

Kansas City market farmers Dan Heryer and Brooke Salvaggio of BadSeed Farm recently asked for an exemption to the city codes controlling livestock in residential neighborhoods. Kansas City limits homeowners to two goats, which must be kept 200 feet from any buildings on nearby lots. Dan and Brooke had three goats that rotated through four pens along the fence lines, none of which complied with the 200-foot setback.  Their farm is in the back and part of the front yard of her grandfather’s house (where they also live), in an upscale neighborhood with large lots.
  Hoophouse update: most profitable uses (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
Part 1 of a three-part series on hoophouse production.Hanley tunnel
Part 2 ­— Managing soil fertility, pests, and weeds in the hoophouse.
Part 3 ­— Mobile hoophouses.
For more hoophouse information and links to the publications mentioned in this article, go to growingformarket.com and click on the hoophouse photo in the right-hand column.
  High tunnel innovations (in: Archive)
Jan 1, 2010
hoophouse nobleThe options for high tunnel construction are increasing in response to the nationwide popularity of hoophouse growing. Growing for Market will feature these innovations throughout the year. Contributions from readers are welcome.
  More information on hoophouses (in: Archive)
Dec 27, 2009
Growing for Market is your best source for information about hoophouse/high tunnel production. SUBSCRIBE TODAY so you don't miss a thing! Bookmark this site and check back periodically to see what's new.

 Click on the headline above for a list of current resources.
  NRCS program to help with hoophouses (in: Archive)
Dec 10, 2009
USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service has created a new cost-share program to help farmers purchase hoophouses for specialty crop production.
  Produce buyers beginning to require GAPs certification (in: Stay informed about how food safety issues will affect you)
Dec 3, 2009
Growers report that some supermarkets are now requiring them to have certification of Good Agricultural Practices. Learn more about GAPs and whether you might be affected.
 
more articles >>
Free Farmers Market Issue
Member Benefits

Online Subscribers can download a PDF of each issue of Growing for Market as soon as it is published each month. Full Access Members can get the monthly issues here, plus access the archive - more than 1,100 articles and growing every month - plus get discounts on books.
Full Access Plus Members get all the above PLUS a printed copy of Growing for Market by mail each month. 

 

E-Commerce Solutions