As the first harvest of the year begin to stray in , it ’s important that your farm has organisation in home to ensure yours run swimmingly . Althoughharvesting produceis one of the more enjoyable tasks on the farm , spend unneeded clip digging carrot get old quickly and can be your farm declamatory amount of money and time in waste labor . Here are four way to make your farm ’s vegetable harvests more effective .
1. Ensure You Have the Right Equipment
start with the basics , make certain that you have the appropriate equipment to acquit the various kinds of garden truck you grow . It might puzzle out fine to fill a 5 - gallon bucketful with Spinacia oleracea , for illustration , but it for certain wo n’t work to fulfil one with tomatoes . Before your harvests get , make certain that you have the appropriate container to transport each of your vegetable from the field of view into yourwash area .
As you regard what kinds of container you ’ll require , think about things such as how delicate the green goods is and how weighed down the container will be once it is filled . There ’s no breaker point in grease one’s palms large bins that can withstand 200 pounds of winter squeeze , for instance , if you wo n’t be able to pick them up .
2. Give Your Crew the Proper Training
Although efficiently find fault a gang of sugar might seem like an well-heeled project to you , do n’t usurp that it is for your bunch , even if they ’ve work on on other farm before . One of the best way to meliorate harvest efficiency is to take your crowd on your personal “ expert practices ” for picking vegetables . Decide on the straightaway ways you ’ve found to pick peppers , for instance , and train everyone on this technique as soon as the first pepper are quick to harvest .
you could also found standards associated with picking various veggie , including how long it should take to pick a lot of carrots or Japanese radish , or a hammer of cuke . For an deterrent example of the picking measure developed by another farmer , check out theHarvest Manualdeveloped by Jean - Paul Cortens ofRoxbury Farm .
3. Harvest Only What You Plan to Sell
Given how much labor it takes to reap vegetables on a regular basis , it ’s significant not to create more workplace than you demand to by harvesting extra produce . Take a scale leaf with you into the field so that you’re able to weigh produce as you foot it instead of infer as to whether you ’ve pick enough . Always be certain to nibble 10 per centum to 15 pct more than the amount you design to sell , however , to report for damaged composition you ’ll sort out while wash .
4. Plan Crops With Harvests in Mind
Another true way to make your harvesting more effective is to incorporate the logistics of harvest home into your craw plan for the time of year . If possible , send different plantings of the same crop relatively near to one another so that harvest 75 bunches of chard does n’t call for walking to three different plots across the farm . likewise , consider settle the heavier vegetables ( winter squash vine , carrots and so on ) and the green goods you pick most often relatively tightlipped to your wash area . The particular placement of various crops depends on the layout of your farm , but spend some sentence thinking about changes that could facilitate your harvests range well .
Improving the efficiency of your vegetable crop will save you time throughout the time of year — it will also help picking vegetable remain as fun as it should be .
