Growing good broccoli in a bad climate with Jan van der Heide of Bejo Seeds

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Jan van der Heide to the podcast. He is the Northeast Market Manager for Bejo Seeds, a Dutch vegetable seed company that has breeding stations and distribution all over the world.

Jan has a depth of knowledge about brassicas, and we’ve been getting a lot of contact lately here at Growing for Market about how to avoid the many disorders that can cause broccoli and cauliflower to grow poorly. Now, if you are a brassica grower, you are probably all too familiar with the symptoms of messed-up broccoli and cauliflower: examples include tiny, unmarketable heads that formed prematurely, properly sized but poorly formed crowns, crowns that have some beads that are starting to open and flower when other beads are still undersized, and a seemingly unlimited range of other disorders that reduce yield and marketability in brassica crops.

Broccoli and cauliflower are very sensitive to the wrong climatic conditions, which is why over 90% of the broccoli consumed in the USA is grown in coastal California, where the conditions are particularly good for broccoli. Though because, by definition, local, direct-market vegetable growers cannot all be in California, nor are all areas of California equally great for broccoli, direct market growers need to figure out how to grow in a range of climates.

Jan, however, is based in a region that is much less naturally kind to broccoli: the Northeast US, where unpredictable weather and wide temperature fluctuations can make getting a good broccoli crop difficult. In fact, Bejo is working with Cornell University and other collaborators in what is called the Eastern Broccoli Project in order to identify varieties that will do well with the variable weather east of the Mississippi. We discuss everything from scheduling to variety selection to similar crops that can be grown instead of broccoli, in order to meet customer demand without putting too much risk on the grower.

In Shop Talk with Neversink Farm @neversinkfarm we chat about new tools, old tools, how they can benefit your farm and tips to use them successfully with Conor Crickmore of Neversink Tools, which manufactures tools for farmers.

In this episode of Shop Talk, we discuss tray dibblers, why Conor dibbles all his flats, and the advantages of a good dibbler. We talk about why he doesn’t cover his flats after seeding, and how this helps him get flats out of the germinator when the seed has just cracked, before the shoot has any chance to get leggy, and how a good dibbler can also be used to pop seedlings out of a flat.

Thanks to our collaborator on this podcast Neversink Farm. They make this podcast free to everyone with their generous support. For tools designed and made by farmers, check out www.NeversinkTools.com

Connect With Guest:

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.bejoseeds.com www.bejo.com

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