April in the Market Garden + Dialing in Your Germination

0:00And er, it's Farmer Jesse here, welcome to Growers Daily, your Daily Dose of Ecological Farming. In sight, it is Thursday, March 26th, 2026, and today we are going to talk about what the next month looks like on my farm and some related topics from episodes from other months on my farm. So let's do it. Alright, glorious Thursday to you all, I hope everyone is doing well and feeling well and all those good things, not to get redundant, but got another little bit of a hybrid episode for you today. Well, the old voice continues to improve, like it's in no dang hurry at all, that's super cute. Anyway, I had a different kind of day yesterday, as I spent the morning up in Frankfurt, which is our state capital here in Kentucky, working with a couple of organizations, specifically Kentucky's for the Commonwealth, also called KFTC, and the Sierra Club who were doing a joint lobby day for energy and environmental policy. I don't know if you've ever done any lobbying, but it's fun.

1:01I love it. It's a super fun time talking to your state representatives and go into the capital and just kicking it with like like-minded people. Hannah and I used to go up to Frankfurt multiple times a year, but it's been a couple of years, I think, since the last time, the timing hasn't worked out for us. The end of the session now is not the most fruitful time of the year for getting people to care about the issues that matter to you as the bills that are stuck in the committees right now are mostly not coming out of those committees for a vote, but it's still a good experience and important work. Mostly the bills that we were talking about yesterday were like on data center construction and protecting waterways, but there was also a bipartisan bill on urban agriculture that was up for a vote that I enjoyed throwing some support behind too. That's fun. Anyway, the details are very Kentucky-specific, but always find like a local ag organization or environmental organization that you like who does the sort of work you care about and take a trip up to your capital. It's always a good time and there is always a buzzing energy about that place. Then I came home and had to bust out some broadvorking real quick before heading to soccer practice because it's the season of everything all at once.

2:02Alright, so as I like to do around the end of each month of the growing season, I like to use this first segment to talk just a little bit about what the next 30-ish days look like on the farm this year and then in previous years. So basically, what the next month, the month of April holds for me. March for me, especially towards the end of the month, is a big time for getting plants started, which means that April is a lot of planting. The next big project in terms of planting will be getting the tomatoes into the tunnel. Many are still recovering from the grafting, which honestly went a little nap this season. Frankly, I grafted them too small. Like I said, I was trying them a little smaller because I had a nice cool day that I wanted to just spend grafting, but the plants weren't quite tall enough. So it was intentional, but it just ultimately wasn't super effective. Small is not good. It turns out. My working thesis was that a smaller plant might be easier for the plant to heal, but I think the result is that they just were too small to have, you know, enough roots to sustain the root stock through the healing process. So next time I will wait, like I normally would, less and learned. So you don't have to, I guess.

3:03But anyway, I potted those up and luckily had some un grafted plants I could fill in the gaps with because I think we lost like 50%. So usually it's like 5% or less. So anyway, those tomatoes will go into the tunnel probably next week, if not by the end of this week, but the temps are a little cool over the weekend. So I may as well just wait. I will be starting lettuce every other week until like mid-April I think this year, and then I will switch out to starting it every week because we just need a lot of lettuce. The majority of the hot crops that I plan to plant in the field will not go out until the last chance of frost, which is usually or at least safely May 10th around here. I've got a cover crop area where I'd like to put the peppers, but that wouldn't mean pushing the peppers back in the greenhouse until like mid-May, which that could be a challenge. They would be just absolutely enormous plants by May. Generally speaking, I love the greenhouse. I love keeping plants going in the greenhouse and just getting them as big as I can before I putting them out in the field depending on the crop. But once those plants get big and I put all that work into them, I get kind of antsy to get them in the field. So I can stop worrying about any potential disease in the greenhouse to take hold. I prefer that.

4:03Cover crops will take a big leap over the next month too. We are on the cusp of an absolute explosion of growth in general from grass to weeds to crops to cover crops. All of it is just about to erupt. Some of our neighbors have actually already started mowing. I mean, some of them have been mowing for a couple of weeks. A lot of people around here like to mow a lot. I personally refuse to do that for as long as, you know, as long as possible. One, because the grass needs to grow a bit in the spring, it just helps it to get good roots down. Two, because mowing is the worst use of time imaginable for a farmer. Well, mostly though, I do, I will admit that I do enjoy riding a mower, just hate wasting the time. And three, gas prices. Gas could easily hit $5 a gallon soon. What's that going to do to the price of food? What's that going to do? The price of, you know, like mulches, the price of everything. It's just hard to say. Some experts are suggesting that even if the war stopped tomorrow, prices could stay high for six or more months because of how hard it is to get that stuff back online. Anyway, there will be some mowing by late April, which is the time of year. I would love to have a mower collector the most because the grass is so fresh and lush

5:08and not, you know, like as weed seed is, it is in the late summer and fall. And if I have to spend, you know, money to mow it, it is well result in a mulch. For that reason, that tool is super high on my list right now, even though it's, you know, also super high on the price with like two to four thousand dollars. But anyway, it could, I mean, I honestly could even be the highest tool on my list because I just need more mulch options or at least mulch options that I can trust. I can trust my lawn and areas around my garden. They tend to behave and not, you know, like douse themselves with chemicals. Appreciate that. I do get some of those good fresh grass clippings from the living pathways, which also just erupt in April alongside everything else. But that largely gets moved to the compost and any residue that I take from the living pathways because the purple nettle and the chickweed and that sort of stuff is what's popping in the spring there. And yeah, prefer not put that down as a mulch because I already have kind of an issue with it at the moment because of the living pathways. Gotta keep those mode really well. I probably will be trellising the tomatoes by the end of the month, just depending on the temperatures and sunlight. I try to get that done as early as possible simply to knock out as many tasks as I can before

6:11things go bananas and may some harvesting will start in April as well. I mean, harvesting could start as early as next week with the way the lettuce is looking. That is when things start to get wild though. When you're harvesting planting, starting crops, prepping ground, all at once that begins at the end of April for us and just does not stop until October. April in that way is the real start of the marathon. Everything kind of up into that point is just like stretches and warm-ups. Anyway, what does the next month look like for you all? Let us know and otherwise we're going to go join Old Me for the rest of today's talk so that this voice can continue to heal. It's getting pretty good. I feel like I'm close. Like I'm hopeful that by Monday I can do a full episode. But we'll see. Anyway, we'll hear what I used to have to say. It could be anything. We'll see. The RB. This episode is brought to you by GrownBuy. Grow smarter with GrownBuy. The farmer-owned cooperative GrownBuy is the platform for online sales of everything. Custom and traditional CSAs, halves of beef, flour bouquets, whole-sale to restaurants, and now GrownBuy supports in-person sales too.

7:15With their new app GrownBuy Register, you can supercharge your market and farm stand, finally bringing together your online and offline sales and customer data. GrownBuy is proud to make local food accessible by processing snap benefits, online and in-person right within the app. GrownBuy helps you to put your best food forward. Schedule a demo today at koop.grownbuy.com slash no-till. That's koop.grownbuy.com slash no-till. All right, back to the show. Today's Patreon question comes from Patreon member Nathan Lau-Crisp, who writes, quote, Hey Jesse, I was listening the other day to John Kemp's podcast named Podcast Extra. Ask me anything with John Kemp from February 13th. There was one question asked about damping off of seedlings, and John mentioned that he used a sugar water solution to address damping off. I have a couple of questions to go with this. Have you used or heard of using things like this before? Does this work? Can this be used as a preventative? Could this or something else like this be useful anywhere else?

8:16And when can we get some more content between you and John, or one of the other agronomists from AEA? That would be very, very interesting conversation here, and you all pick one in other sprains, and deep diving into important agricultural topics, agronomy, jadam, sap analyses, answering questions, and et cetera. Keep up the good work. End quote. All right. Great questions Nathan. Okay. So first, yeah, John is a friend, and I'm always delighted to run into him at conferences and such. Very warm and thoughtful person, as you all can probably tell from his podcast, has a great laugh, very fun to hang out with. As Nathan mentioned, we've been on each other's shows before, and I will link those episodes in the show notes, and that way, for those of you who are not familiar with the regenerative agriculture podcast, you can check it out. It's great. John is super brilliant, and it's super nerdy agricultural stuff every week on that show. It's really fun. Great work, and would happily, and probably will do more with John in the future. And to that point, once Mike and I are settled into the editorial process and comfortable and get things back to where we want them to be, I would like to get back to having more

9:18interviews slash guest hosts for this show, probably closer to the fall when farmers are starting to be a little bit less busy, but that's the idea. Just been sort of hard to work that stuff in with the immense amount of work that this show requires, but soon enough, especially possible, and thanks to, you're all support. Anyway, so I had not heard that treatment for damping off before. For the uninitiated, if you've ever had a tray of seedlings just starting to die off in the greenhouse with a moldy slime look or feel to it, that's damping off. There are a few different diseases that can cause it, such as fucerium and pithium and a couple others. It's all basically the product of poor ventilation, poor soil mix that does not have enough of the aeration component and or too much moisture on the young leaves. The crops that we've found are most susceptible to it are things like beets and spinach and some legumes, but it can get others as well. It's a pretty common greenhouse problem. Our solution has always kind of just been better airflow and to bottom water those crops versus top watering with a sprayer over top of them.

10:20That has more or less solved the issue for us. Now what I have not tried is treating the plants once they have, you know, damping off. So John's recommendation is interesting. He suggests, quote, a foliar application of a light dosage of sugar, and you could stop damping off like flipping a switch with a small application of sugar. Why? Because the sugar application did two things. One, it changed the sugar and energy levels of the seedlings. They had higher sugar content. More importantly, that's the secondary effect of that is that the that light dosage of sugar stimulated other microbes and those other microbes suppressed pithium and prevented pithium from becoming a problem and causing damping off and quote, he goes on to say other growers have tried and have had success with this procedure. So if you're in the midst of damping off, that may be worth a try. But also make sure that within any greenhouse production that you're doing that you always are maintaining good airflow. We have a fan in our greenhouse.

11:20It's just a box fan, but you know, the bigger the greenhouse, the better the fans have to be. And then we keep the doors open. We open them every day. Just good airflow is essential. Don't water from over top for certain crops or for most of your crops if you can help it. That's a good soil mix as well. I think that makes a huge difference. Anyway, John's done great work and a lot of people have had success following his guidance. So it's worth checking out his company advancing eco agriculture and not a sponsor, past or present, but it's much more ecologically and microbially based soil management solutions rather than chemical based so love their work. His podcast is also an absolute gem. Great resource. Today's episode is brought to you by Good Agriculture. If you'd rather be on the farm, then inside doing your taxes, you're not alone. Good agriculture handles farm bookkeeping and tax filing. So there is no scrambling in tax time. They keep your books clean and up to date and show you where your farm's finances stand. If you're behind, they'll get you caught up. They also help farmers find funding and stay ahead of grant deadlines.

12:23You run the farm. They help the business learn more at goodagriculture.com slash info. All right. Back to the show. Today's Patreon question comes from Patreon member Ryan who asks, quote, hey, Jesse, I volunteer to nonprofit, read no money, market garden style farm that supports our local food bank were in a dry cold area without access to overhead irrigation and used drip irrigation only. Because of this, we have trouble germinating certain seeds in the springtime as the top couple inches of the beds dry out quickly. We've had success using a small amount of hay as mulch to keep the soil moist, but it also cools our beds which sets our season back by a couple weeks. We've invested in a silage tarp this year and want to try solarizing the bed with clear plastic for a week before seeding to warm the bed and then put the silage tarp down post-seeding to keep the soil moist and warm for germination. We would then remove it about a week later before the seedlings die from lack of light.

13:26Do you have any thoughts or experience with this? Is there another way to accomplish what we're looking for without spending any money? End quote. All right. Thanks, Ryan. And I love this question. Basically, tips for germinating seeds in the field with or without a tarp. Or at least that's what I'm going to turn it into. So first, for the listeners, let's just go over what seeds require to germinate regardless of tools or if they are started in trays or in the soil or whatever. Those are proper moisture, ample humidity, the correct temperatures, the right soil depth, and time. You could also add light to that list for our positively photoblastic veggie friends. And that is, of course, in well-prepared soil. So taking one, those one by one, most veggie seeds need to swell with moisture to trigger their germination. They then need to stay moist, thus the humidity, through that process without getting overly saturated, like a seed sitting in water is not generally going to germinate. Then every seed has its temperature range and optimal temperature. So if the temps are on the lower side of that range, they will take longer, hence times inclusion in their needs. And if it's on the higher side, they may germinate faster, but may not germinate as well.

14:29Like the percentage of germination of the entire crop will be lower. Soil depth is important as well, both for light access and humidity. Some seeds are very shallow germinators, so if they are planted too deep, they may not come up at all. Some seeds, like carrots, are slow as I'll get out and have to be kept moist for a week and warm weather or a month in cold weather. So all of those things have to be considered, or germination will be poor, no matter what your soil preparation is like. So in terms of soil preparation, it just has to be nice and clean and the seeds have to be able to have some soil around them to hold in that humidity. So all of those things have to be considered, or germination will be poor, no matter what. However, the tarp thing is effective at taking care of several issues, especially with slow germinators like carrots that are not positively photoblastic, if I may enjoy another excuse to use that term. So for instance, what we do to germinate summer carrots is to sow the carrots, water them in really well, lay the tarp down, white side up here in Kentucky for about five days and remove it in the evening. That in the evening part is really critical for us.

15:30If they are up at all, when you uncover them, they will roast in the sun, thus the reason I recommend the evening, like removing it in the evening. If it's warm enough outside and in the soil, that five days should be enough time. You really have to watch it, though, because if they start to germinate, they will get leggy fast. Same technique can be used for beets, lettuce, spinach, and other crops like that. In the early spring, you can also use the black side up to slightly warm the soil, which may be perfect for you and your sort of question here. But again, just pay close attention to germination under the tarp and check two days before you expect them to actually germinate, or in the case of lettuce, just remove the tarp after about 36 to 48 hours. Now, one thing I remember seeing in 2019, in Quebec at Fairhamcatcher, Tomp, that was like JM48's farm for a while, was they were tarping and then adding a clear plastic film directly over top of it, kind of like what you're talking about, to heat the soil, so basically like they're heating the black plastic tarp with the clear plastic tarp. So I guess also the clear plastic tarp helps them to get through the snow earlier.

16:32So the snow would melt earlier, and then they would remove that clear plastic tarp, and then either plant directly into the soil and recover it, or just take that plastic off entirely. Not sure if they continued using that method of soil warming, but I think your idea is basically the same. And so except for they were putting that clear plastic right over the black plastic. And you could try this idea, and then maybe it saves you a step. Otherwise, yeah, drip tape can be obnoxious for germination, so potentially think of ways to get the water to spread evenly on the bed, such as dripping under a tarp, or pulse watering, or even shifting the emitters once or twice, which yes, can add to the anointness. Anyway, I hope that was helpful, and thanks for the great question. We will discuss this a bit more in the summer when I'm germinating carrots in the heat, just utilizing a tarp for better germination. Now I should note, you can also use row cover, or something like that to help it. We'll help warm up the soil a little bit, but it will definitely help with the humidity part. All right, I hope you all enjoyed that little bit of a hybrid compilation episode.

17:38I would really appreciate your patience on the voice as always, it is certainly getting better. Don't forget, no-till growers is a non-profit 501c3, so donations are tax deductible and greatly appreciated. Please make sure to like and subscribe and or follow wherever you're getting the spot gas. That's an easy way to help us out as well. An enormous thank you to all of our show sponsors, and if you'd ever like to sponsor the show, you can reach out to farmroomshellatno-till-grows.com. Huge shout-out to Willie Breeding for the theme music, Mike Hilbert for the production help in editing, and also my wife Hannah for absolutely everything in the world. Also, shout-out to Epidemic Sound for the background music that you can hear. Pick up a hat, look, we've got new ones, we've got blue ones, two blues. This one's like kind of a teally blue, and then this one's kind of our old dark blue. Those are on the site now, and any time you get a hat from us or a book from us, it's just fundraising for us, like we're just trying to help continue to do this work. So big shout-outs to the support, big, big thank you to everyone over at Patreon.com, slash no-till growers, wear it at a certain level, or if you just bump up from one level to another, you sign up in the month of March. You will get a shout out on the show, but we're going to hold off on those probably

18:39till next week. I feel like I should be able to do a full episode next week, I'm just trying to ease back into it. I don't want to re-end your myself. Anyway, stay tuned, and thank you all again for your patience. Much love, see you soon, by soon I mean tomorrow. Bye.