Re: USDA Leafy Greens Proposal

**"* S* <m*@gmail.com>**

It's hard to give a blanket quantities/timing/space formula for any crop
because of differences in growing conditions. However, I'll share what I
learned from running CSA farms about how much to plant of each crop per
share. A share fed a family of four -- generously, I might add -- from the
first pick up days in late April to the last pick up days right before
Thanksgiving.

First of all, you plant and replant during the season. This is especially
true of greens--you plant lettuce every week to 10 days depending on the
size at which you distribute it and the cultivar you're growing. For
example, I looked back at an old starting schedule, and there are 25
planting dates for full heads of lettuce and eight cultivars; the schedule
runs from the first planting on March 6 (a greenhouse planting of Waldman's
that was to be transplanted to the field on April 19 and harvested May 27)
to the last seeding, also of Waldman's because it does so well with cold,
that was to be planted Jul 29, transplanted on Sept 12 and harvested Nov 11.
For the first pick-ups, I distributed ONLY salad greens because I could
harvest them at 4 to 6 weeks old--that is a complicated starting schedule
that no one but a farmer would even consider.

I allotted a total of 72 linear feet (my beds had four rows each, so it was
18 bed feet over the season) of lettuce per share. As I said earlier, a
share could easily feed a family of four and many of their friends and
relations. For home use, one would grow less. As a CSA farmer, you are
committed to giving people certain staples every week and they tend to give
some of their share away to friends and neighbors. How much lettuce can a
family eat, after all?

Other greens had a less intense planting schedule. Arugula, for example, had
5 planting dates: April 3, May 16, June 3, June 22, July 19, Aug 15--I was
figuring on an average of 40 days to harvest and was giving it 12 linear
feet (3 bed feet) per share.

Space varied according to how much people wanted of certain crops--some
people left things on the "share the share" table, so I learned to adjust
amounts based on what they left behind. The total space given for various
greens was: Chard, 12 ft; Chervil, .5 ft; Cilantro, 1 ft; Claytonia, 4 ft;
Collards, 8 ft; Cress, 8 ft; Dill, 3 ft; Kale, 8 ft; Mizuna, 12 ft; Mustard,
12 ft; Napa, 8 ft; Orach, 4 ft; Pac Choi, 12 ft; Parsley, 12 ft; Sensposai,
3 ft; Sorrel 8 ft; Tatsoi, 8 ft.

Obviously, no family is going to want those quantities. But if people pay
attention to what they eat, they can figure out a rough estimate of the
space they would need to grow their greens as well as a schedule of when to
plant them. Also, in areas where it is hot during mid-summer, lettuces tend
to taste bitter unless you grow them under shade cloth. Most people would
rather go without lettuce during these times than invest in shade cloth.
--I'd rather invest in the cloth, of course, and also use double-decker
plantings to give them shade.

I think garden writers can do a service by explaining how to figure out a
starting schedule and space allotments--people can take it from there once
they understand the basics of doing that.

Miranda Smith
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