Extend Your Vegetable Season

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Extend Your Vegetable Season
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Extend your Market Season?

• First Questions to Ask
• Is there a stable market?
• Does enterprise fit current farm operation?
• Determine benefits and drawbacks.
• Drawbacks
• No break
• Increased management
• Higher costs
• Plastic disposal

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Reasons to Extend Season

• Stretch invested dollars
• Spread risks
• Make money
• Longer income period
• Retention of customers
• Higher yields
• Better quality

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Approaches to Extended Market Season

• Stagger Production
• Grow in the Cold
• Row covers
• Row tunnels
• High tunnels
• Transplants
• Mulches

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Fresh Market Vegetable Prices

• Often better before or after regular season

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Methods to Increase Earliness

• Site selection
• Well drained warm up sooner
• Slope of land
• land sloping 20o towards south 6 warmer
• land sloping 20o towards north 19 colder
• Soil Texture
• Light soils have greater temp swings (frost
  prone)
• Heavy soils more constant temp
• Variety selection
• Early maturity
• Cold tolerance/germination

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Methods to Increase Earliness

• Use of windbreaks (50-70 ft apart)
• Wheat strips perpendicular to wind
• Providing frost protection
• Air drainage on slopes
• Irrigation of dry soils prior to frost
• Irrigation during frost event start at 34 F.
• Plant protectors
• caps
• Row covers

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Methods to Increase Earliness

• Plastic Mulch
• Gain of 1-2 weeks
• Increase early and total yield
• Use of transplants
• Larger cell size earlier yield
• Proper transplant age
• Set at proper time
• Use starter fertilizer
• Pest control
• Proper Fertilization
• Timely irrigation

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Vegetable Yields
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Vegetable Yields
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Fruit Yields
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Earliest and Latest Vegetable Planting Dates
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Earliest and Latest Vegetable Planting Dates