Serious Grower – Details, episodes & analysis

Jason wants to turn his lawn into an edible landscape and an amazing place for his family in Oregon. We’ll drop in throughout the year to hear how things are progressing.

Learn more about Community Supported Research

Oregon State Extension resources for backyard berries and fruit tree pruning

Saffron Lifecycle 

Container growing for blueberries? 

Growing Sweetpotato? What could go wrong? 

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Riding High, John Runefelt; Libertalia, Arc De Soleil, Takes Two to Tango, Ryan James Carr

Susan is a professor of agriculture in the seacoast region of New Hampshire. She runs a community garden and works with students and community members across a wide range of age groups. She's an experienced commercial farmer but she has thoughts on how we value the non-commercial aspects of growing.

Listen into this wide ranging conversation about unique pests in high tunnels, as well as a deep dive into tomato hornworm and breeding for resistant tomato varieties.

UNH Farm2You on Facebook & Instagram

The full interview with tomato breeder, Dr. Greg Vogel, Cornell University 

Learn more about Community Supported Research

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Beginning to Dream, Ryan James Carr; Just a Friend, Matt Large; overture, doseoff; In the Bag, John Runefelt

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer, growing in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, and she encountered a planting of cowpeas during a recent tour of her ag experiment station that was meant to support wasps. She wants to know what gives?

We chat about stinging wasps and the non-stinging parasitic wasps who provide biocontrol of pest insects.

Full interview with Dr. Veronica Yurchak Extension Specialist in Commercial Vegetable Production at the University of Maryland

Learn more about Community Supported Research

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Summertime Madness, Matt Large; Whisky Saved My Soul, Daniel Fridell

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, and she's been reading about Luther Burbank alongside a pile of seed catalogues. We discuss what makes crops "true to seed".

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Libertalia, Arc De Soleil; Overture, Dozeoff; Can't Handle It, Ryan James Carr

Susan is a professor of agriculture at the University of New Hampshire. We discuss the ins and outs of growing in unconventional situations and talk spiders. 

Learn more about the Farm2You program at UNH 

Learn more about the research project Optimizing pest management in high tunnels to increase the resiliency of local food systems

Learn more about pesticide regulation 

With the Homies, Sarah the Illstumentalist; Aquatic Flower Dance, Ryan James Carr; Oh Please; Gerhard Feng; Overture, Dozeoff; Talk 2 Me, Ryan James Carr

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, and accidental grasshopper rancher. The ins and outs regarding the rearing and farming of insects is discussed.

One of many popular ant forums can be found on Reddit 

Learn more about the Schmidt Pain Index

With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; The Doom and Gloom Choir, Luella Gren; Drinkin' & Jivin', TAGE

Caleb Goossen joins us for a deep dive into the interplay between fertilization and pest severity.

TL;DR Overfertilizing your crops might make some pest infestation worse, but underfertilizing won't solve all your pest problems. 

We review data from Laybourne & Aradottir 2022 and Nowak & Komor 2010. 

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Overture, Dozeoff; Riding High, John Runefelt

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer in Montana's Bitterroot Valley. In this episode we live react to an interview with Will Hastings about his work developing the Growing Kiwiberries in the Northeast guide. 

Learn more about how kiwiberry is resistant to infestation from the invasive fruit fly, spotted wing drosophila!

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; La Belle Nini, El Flaco Collective

Jason is turning his Oregon home into an edible landscape and a terrific place for his family to hang out. In this "garden coaching" session we exchange advice on topics, both mechanical and botanical, touching on hops, pole beans, melons, and luffa sponges.

Resource from Oregon State University on Growing Hops in the Home Garden

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Libertalia, Arc De Soleil; La Belle Nini, El Flaco Collective, Aquatic Flower Dance, Ryan James; Afternoon Fireworks, Duke Herrington

Kasi is a non-commercial farmer in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, where its been pretty windy lately. We discuss the history of hedgerows, bramble maintenance, wild fruits, and landscape alterations on the farm.

History of hedgerows in the UK

The Hedgelayer Documentary

Music: With the Homies, Sarah the Illstrumentalist; Aquatic Flower Dance, Ryan James Carr; Summertime Madness, Matt Large; Disco Makumba, El Flaco