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Episode Summary
The Profitable Mini-Farm is a new series hosted by Diego Footer and Jodi Roebuck to take a deep dive into the technicalities of farming—from designing your farm’s layout to crop planning to treating your soil.
In this episode of The Profitable Mini Farm, Diego breaks down and simplifies farm accounting and how it translates to profitability for the business. After that, Jodi and Diego parse the nuances of growing salanova—from the differences in hand transplanted vs. paperpot transplanted, to amendments, to the soil moisture, to packaging and selling.
Today’s Guest: Jodi Roebuck
Jodi Roebuck is the main farmer behind Roebuck Farm and is a John Jeavons alumnus. He has been teaching sustainable bio-intensive growing techniques all over the world for over 20 years with the aim of creating sustainable food systems while bridging the gap between farmers and consumers.
Relevant Links
Roebuck Farm – Website | Instagram | Facebook
Paperpot Co.’s Jang Grower’s Notes
In this episode of Farm Small, Farm Smart
- Diego introduces the episode on how market gardening is a very profitable business (00:08)
- Looking at sample profits on a bed of salanova lettuce (02:45)
- Making the projected numbers a reality (08:40)
- Check out Paperpot Co.’s FREE Resources (12:45)
- How Roebuck Farm plants out their salanova lettuces (14:20)
- How long direct seeded crops in 60-cell trays stay in the nursery (16:43)
- The difference between growing salanova in paperpots vs. growing salanova in 60-cell trays (19:01)
- Lettuce-specific bed prep and amendments (22:12)
- Treating soil moisture differently when paperpot transplanting salanova (25:12)
- Spacing paperpot transplanted salanova (29:52)
- Comparing paperpot transplants & hand transplants (31:14)
- Transplanting by hand over transplanting by paperpot (33:08)
- Managing weed pressure after the salanova crops are established (34:29)
- Getting multiple cuts off a salanova crop (38:07)
- How Jodi cleans up the crops after the first cut (39:44)
- Post-processing salanova lettuce for market (40:39)
- Planning how much of different varieties go in a salad mix (45:32)
- Unit sizes for the different market streams for salad mix (49:43)
- Check out Paperpot Co.’s season extension equipment! (52:00)
- Harvesting technique for salanova (53:53)
- Drip vs. overhead irrigation (58:39)
- Multiple successions in just one planting (59:49)
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