YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED – 030319
Curtis Stone
Mar 02
00:32 Cole
Can you provide the name of the packaging box, vented box liner and moisture paper they use? Not sure if that distributor also does the labeling on the boxes, but it’s impressive and would love to have the details. We are committed to amp things up here which includes branding so this info would be very valuable!! Another suggestion, it would be great to get a regional price (retail, wholesale) chart of what we can get for microgreens. research is available for greens but not much on micros… it seams to be allover the map! Thanks dude and cheers!
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01:49 Eliot
It is our first season in our Urban farm. I have purchased protective mesh and netting . What do you think about leaving it off and responding as I see any problems rather than putting it on at sowing time. I feel it will be time consuming to take nets on and off and crops will not be so visible. Will this be too late or is it an ok approach.
Loving the content so far much appreciated.
Many thanks
Elliott
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03:05 Henrik, 05:31 question about drip
Even though I was try to understand some details (through pausing the video) that were not spoken about about irrigation at Steadfast there’s still some stuff not clear to me. We are in Portugal in a quite dry climate and probably are going to adopt that same approach of Erich as what mixed use of drip and overhead is concerned. We’ve been using x-cel wooblers for over a year and will start this year with the drip lines.
Questions:
– What are the height of the wooblers heads and the spacing between each
– Are the nozzles the gold ones and angle high?
– How do the wooblers connect to the 1″line along the bed lenght. we use the quick coupling brown ones but the part that goes inside the 1″ tube seems to limit the flow…
– What is this 1″ line – seems colapsable from the video.
– Is it drip tape it is being used? What size of tube, mils of wall thickness and emitter spacing?
The reason for all the details asked about the wooblers is that Senninger does not getting into the thick of it in the website and we still not achieved great results in what concerns watering coverage
Thanks a lot to both!
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06:29 GAP question.
Keith Arkenberg
Erik, how are you conforming to GAP or FSMA regulations? I was under the impression that galvanized metal was not allow in a post harvest area due to the potential for rust. I noticed from Curtis’s past videos that both your wash tanks and drying screens are galvanized.
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07:51 Matthew. Winter crops
Hey Curtis, stoked you are answering some questions about Steadfast. I’m in southern Australia very hot, dry and windy. Cool frosty winter but no snow. Average rainfall 375mm. I would like to know about Steadfast Farms winter growing program, which crops, varieties, timing etc. Summer is tough here and I’m hoping to back off a bit on Summer production and see if I can make it up in the cooler months. We do get frost but have clear sunny days most of winter ( it does rain sometimes! ) Thanks for all your work you have helped a lot of us in Australia and New Zealand. Cheers.
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09:28 Marcus.
I hope you don’t mind, but I’m sending this because I am interested in your response, but more importantly to maybe provide you with a common question for your weekly answer session for your subscribers. I know, you’ve covered this ad nauseum, but people continue to attend concerts to hear their favorite bands play their biggest hits. So here goes:
Sometimes I feel like our devotion to modern market gardening philosophies and techniques is a bit like the boy who despite being punished for bad behavior with a box of horse manure for Christmas, immediately began digging through it with squeals of delight. When questioned by his parents why he seemed so happy he replied “Because I just know there has to be a pony in here somewhere!”
We began our journey to marketing naturally raised produce in the middle of Kentucky tobacco country by adopting traditional farming methods. We plowed the ground, then dragged the furrows, then disc harrowed the ground then ran a box tiller over it and couldn’t understand why we had a better crop of weeds than anything else, year after year.
I know weed pressure is a problem that haunts us all so my question is this: what does it take to become as successful as Colin Crickmore and others who use no tractors, use no deep tillage and seem to have already transitioned to a “weed free” garden for those of us just getting started in that transition process.
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11:41 Amanda
I would love to know how soil tests and soil consultants play into both your farm and Steadfast Farm, and also how Eric amends his beds in between plantings. I know a lot of people use just organic poultry manure, but wondered if other options are out there.
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Anaya
13:02
Hi Curtis,
I have been looking through most of your micro-green videos and I have not found info on the size of your packages. If I missed it, can you point me to the right video?
Here’s what I am looking for:
How many ounces do you put in retail packaging? and for what price? Are they $3 like your salad greens?
What size packaging works best for your chef clients? Do you charge them by the pound and how much?
Do you wash all of your micro-greens? Why or why not? I noticed that the couple in Airdrie (Micro Acres) do not seem to be washing theirs.
Thanks so much
Anaya
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13:57 Yoni
Hi Curtis,
I’ve been following your YT videos for a few years now, and am very happy to have signed up for the new site. All the content so far remains very helpful and encouraging!
My question is a bit off of the production/operational/marketing parts but I’d highly appreciate your opinion on this issue, being familiar with your generally positive views on other farming-social-related topics..
I run a small manually operated market garden in a sort of rural setting (town – village type..) , with my agricultural plot (about 1.5 acres) running alongside a neighboring plot. The neighbor is an old beekeeper who has been gives beekeeping courses on his plot for many years (he’s a ancient academic professor with ancient views). Anyway… he sprays his land with a backpack sprayer every now and then to get rid of weeds. Usually with roundup mixtures. When I started the (very small – about 30 X 50 ft beds) farm a couple of years ago, I placed a fence about 10 feet away from his boundary, and asked him to not spray at least another 10 feet strip (about 150-200 ft long) from my plot, and I proposed to trim that area myself (with a trimmer) He seemed OK with it. However, every season I see him spraying his plot, and he does start spraying where I asked him not to spray.. and we have this conversation over and over again. I try to explain to him both the dangers for him and his family (and mine), and my issue with my organic production side. (I’m not certified, but my direct-sales customers know I don’t use any pesticides or other synthetics..). He’s always reluctant to the issue, and says he’ll just finish up what’s in the canister (the herbicide) and I can finish off the rest with the trimmer.
This is very frustrating. We are on OK terms, but I don’t know what else to do. I’m a bit uncomfortable with this, since I’m stating to that I don’t use any pesticides on my production (which is true..)
I wont be able to trim his entire plot.. its about 1 – 1.5 acre of dense mixed trees, shrubs and bee hives..
Have you any suggestion how to approach him? I like your ‘offer value’ approach, but don’t know what else to offer ? how can his plot be kept weed free , without using pesticides ?
I believe applying woodchips would take tons of time and resource (given this is not even my land..), and be complicated to perform..
Would appreciate you view on this.
Thanks and keep up the great work!
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17:24 Julie Bankert
Those cement pavers you lay on the top flat when germinating microgreens, are they 6″ x 18″? That is what we understood you to say in the microgreens course, Germination Area. Are these figures metric? We cannot find 6″ x 18″ we can only find 8″ x 16″.
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17:47 bob cox
i am in my 60’s and have been growing produce for most of my life. market gardening is called “truck patch” gardening here in okla. that is what i do. summers here get hot and dry and water is a big issue. i have always had a problem with lettuce turning bitter in the summer and i still don’t know what causes this. maybe you have an answer or remedy for this.
i will say this about the from the field site. the value of the information you have produced so far is absolutely incredible. i have learned so much already that i feel like i just started gardening.(i am not very bright sometimes). the marketing series alone is well worth the membership fee. keep up the excellent work. thank you
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Here’s a link for the Vented Vegetable Box Liner from the first question:
https://www.arizonabag.com/products/vented-vegetable-box-liner
Toni, Perhaps you could offer to put wood chips to curtail weeds or flame the area before wood chips. Benefit to both.