Next year, I will incorporate lettuce seed production into my vegetable garden. It will be separated from the vegetable production by the minimum isolation distance that lettuce requires. The physical location of the seed crop will be at the front of the garden closest to the house, this will ensure the seed crop will not be forgotten. If all goes well in the first I will then incorporate my 2 other seed crops into the production system. This will allow me to get the hang of producing seeds and balancing the work with the vegetable garden. I foresee the first year being a practice run and won't intend to sell, except maybe in small quantities at the farmers market or to my friends. I will conduct germination testing and re-plant the seeds produce to make sure they are true to type - test my production methods and make sure I am on track to confidently sell a good product.
Some of the biggest challenges in the first year will be providing a dry space dedicated for seed cleaning and processing. This will likely need to occur in the basement of the house for now, until I can work on building a barn/shed that has a dedicated seed room. We have a small car port on the property that can be used for seed cleaning when the time is right but it is not sealed, may become damp and has risk of rodent presence. The basement is dry and free of rodents and will be good for the storage of the seeds before and after cleaning. The cleaning would be best done in the car port as it will be dusty.
Another challenge will be giving my crops the regular attention that they need. Right now, farming is not my primary or even secondary source of income. At the moment, it is for my own consumption and to practice for the future when I can make some money from the crops. There will be a gradual incorporation of more and more farming in the future. The goal is that within 5 years I can work part time at a steady job for income and farm half the time. Once my operation becomes more profitable and requires more time and attention I can wein off working at an outside source. This approach will be challenging and tiring. Approaches to overcome this would be to team up with friends or family and maybe an intern to help check on the development of the crops and with weeding and other maintenance tasks. Also, allowing it to become part of my regular routine to walk my fields and note what needs to be done and having dedicated days and evenings to maintenance.
I look forward to next and am excited to incorporate seed production into my life!
Some of the biggest challenges in the first year will be providing a dry space dedicated for seed cleaning and processing. This will likely need to occur in the basement of the house for now, until I can work on building a barn/shed that has a dedicated seed room. We have a small car port on the property that can be used for seed cleaning when the time is right but it is not sealed, may become damp and has risk of rodent presence. The basement is dry and free of rodents and will be good for the storage of the seeds before and after cleaning. The cleaning would be best done in the car port as it will be dusty.
Another challenge will be giving my crops the regular attention that they need. Right now, farming is not my primary or even secondary source of income. At the moment, it is for my own consumption and to practice for the future when I can make some money from the crops. There will be a gradual incorporation of more and more farming in the future. The goal is that within 5 years I can work part time at a steady job for income and farm half the time. Once my operation becomes more profitable and requires more time and attention I can wein off working at an outside source. This approach will be challenging and tiring. Approaches to overcome this would be to team up with friends or family and maybe an intern to help check on the development of the crops and with weeding and other maintenance tasks. Also, allowing it to become part of my regular routine to walk my fields and note what needs to be done and having dedicated days and evenings to maintenance.
I look forward to next and am excited to incorporate seed production into my life!
Photo Source: https://maxpull-tlu7l6lqiu.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/lettuce-bolting.jpg
This is the last required blog post, right? To the best of my knowledge I have completed all the blog posts and all the course requirements. Thank you, it's been great! Perfect timing to end as the BC Seed Gathering is the next 2 days! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Carla; Yes, this was the last blog post, and as you can see I too am finishing up my duties as an instructor. It was great to meet you in person, by the way. This is exciting to read that you have solid plans to grow a seed crop next year, I hope your plans come true! And it's a good idea to start small like this, working with what you have. Build up in scale as you work out the kinks and truly experience the challenges that will arise. You have also picked a good crop to start with as lettuce grows well where you are, and is relatively easy to produce good quality seed from, and also to do the post-harvest cleaning. So good plannng on your part. One small suggestion to help you if you're busy but still need to give the crops the attention they need is to mulch the plants to reduce weed pressure, and to spend a small amount of money on drip irrigation, so you can water them at night or in the day when you're not around. Once it's set up, drip irrigation is easy to turn on and off, and requires minimum time from you. All the best in your endeavours! It's been great having you in the course. :)
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