Figure 1 – If you want lots of flowers, train your plant by cutting off lower branches that receive little sun (lollypopping). Figure 2 – Female flowers emerging Figure 3 – A plant that is ready to harvest. Figure 4 – Larger flowers retain water, creating conditions for botrytis (gray mold or bud rot) to
Many Maine farms and homesteads have low spots where cranberries will do well. Cranberries ready for harvest By Will Bonsall Most folks think of cranberries as a crop with requirements that are too challenging for their situation. Cranberries like sandy, acidic, soggy peat soils that can be flooded at will, whereas the average
Calendula offers season-long blooms for pollinators, and its flowers are edible and medicinal. Photo by Mary McAvoy By Joyce White There are so many reasons to plant a big bed of calendula, Calendula officinalis. It blooms until frost for cut flowers and medicine, it isn’t fussy about where it’s planted, pollinators like it, it
Without a contiguous perimeter of metal deer fencing that is at least 8 feet tall, these animals are likely to enjoy your crops. Anyone can set a live trap anytime and relocate woodchucks, raccoons or skunks. By Caleb Goossen, Ph.D. The three most common mammal pests that gardeners ask me about are deer,
Browntail moths. English photo March 1, 2020 If you find browntail moth webs within reach, clip them by mid-April and destroy the webs by soaking them in soapy water or burning them. Winter is the best time to clip webs due to the low risk of exposure to the caterpillars’ toxic hairs, due to caterpillar dormancy,
By David McDaniel Rick Kersbergen, Paul Gallione and Sam MacDonald remove plastic from a greenhouse at Moosehead Trail Farm in Waldo. Thanks to a new program, they’ll be able to recycle the plastic. Photo by David McDaniel. Beginning in the spring of 2020, farmers and gardeners will be able to recycle their waste greenhouse and
Toki Oshima illustration By Chris Grigsby The year 2019 was certainly a whirlwind in the world of hemp production in the United States. MOFGA Certification Services (MCS) has been working hard to relay information to growers, submit comments and testimony on proposed rules, and prepare our organic certification program to accept applications from hemp growers.
Jesse Stevens of Sy’s Trees in Sweden, Maine, grows a “hyper-diversified” orchard of more than 1,000 varieties of woody plants. Photo courtesy of Jesse Stevens Honeyberry, Lonicera coerulea, is an underutilized species that Stevens believes is well suited to organic culture in Maine. Photo by Opioła Jerzy, from Wikimedia. By Jean English Farmers from Sy’s
Over-mature garlic breaks apart and will not store as well, so it can be dried and ground into garlic powder. Photo by Kindle Bonsall By Will Bonsall I go to a lot of effort to produce food crops, and nothing irks me more than having useable food go to waste. I’ve heard people say, “Nothing really
Delton Curtis grafting at the Seed Swap and Scion Exchange. English photo By John Bunker Springtime in central Maine was designed for orchard activity. The long days and the warming sun lure me out the door like the Pied Piper’s flute. Get up early and cook up a saucepan of apples from the last bushel
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