A Guide to Seed Selection: Tips, Tricks and Helpful Products

With Spring just a mere six weeks away, it’s literally getting easier to look on the bright side. With the sun setting later and later each day its beginning to look a lot like growing season once again. While the winter months can be a drag for garden lovers, experienced growers know that winter time is one of the most important times of the year, as it allows you to plan out next year’s garden. For many, seed selection begins as soon as the last crop has been harvested, and for some, seed selection never stops!

Customer Spotlight: Pat Raunick’s Nurturing Greenhouse

The beauty of greenhouses is that they can be as big as any large commercial grower may need, or as small as any backyard hobby grower needs to grow fresh, healthy produce within the comfort of her own home and yard. The latter is the case for Pat Raunick, a Growers Supply customer who purchased a greenhouse in order raise her own produce and to create an activity she could enjoy with her grandchildren.

Photos are worth 1,000 words—or $500!

Do you love taking pictures as much as you love your Growers Supply products? Well, it’s time to get inspired and take some great photos of your favorite Growers Supply items in action because our 2013 Photo Contest starts June 18th! We love our loyal readers so much, we wanted to give you a couple days head start to find (or take) the perfect photo!

Get ready for your ten seconds of fame, because if you win, you’ll be featured on our website and this very blog. Anyone can enter and we’re looking for photos showcasing how you use our products, so get snapping.

The grand prize winner will receive a $500 Growers Supply gift certificate and five lucky runners-up will each receive a $200 FarmTek gift certificate. How’s that for motivation?

Protect your Plants: How One Growers Supply Employee Kept his Blueberries Safe from Predators and More!

Today’s blog post comes to us from Carlos C., a long time Growers Supply employee and hobby gardener. 

My wife and I are big fans of pick-your-own blueberries and each year we visit the local orchards to stock up. I planted my own blueberry bushes four years ago, along with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. At the beginning of each season, I would see tiny blueberries growing, but by harvest time they would always seem to disappear. Obviously the local New England birds were “picking their own,” along with the other critters in my neighborhood. Determined to have my own blueberries for breakfast this year, I decided to install some bird netting over the blueberry bushes.

Spotlight on Mike Sossong and his Ever-Growing Raised Bed Gardens

Mike Sossong of Portage, Pennsylvania has been an enthusiastic hobby farmer and grower since the mid 1990s. Since then, his projects have become predominantly focused around vegetable growing. Wanting to provide fresh produce for his family, Mike decided to give raised-bed gardening a shot. In 2012, he purchased six raised beds from Growers Supply® and has expanded his garden by another two beds this year.

Ten Tips for Seed-Starting Season

Once Groundhog Day has passed, it is difficult not to start thinking of spring. For most growers out there, thinking about spring goes hand-in-hand with thinking about seed starting. This year, review some great seed-starting tips and tricks with us to make sure you have your best crop ever!

Grow Your Own Way: A Guide to Growing Media

In today’s world, growing plants is not as simple as just putting seeds in soil and adding water and light. As technology has advanced, the choices growers are faced with have expanded immensely. Many types of growing media have been developed that include the nutrients necessary for plants to grow. Here is a sampling of our favorite types that you may want to try when starting your seeds this spring.

Look What’s Growing on in CT

At Growers Supply, we pride ourselves on educating our staff with hands-on training, which means eventually everyone has to get some dirt under their fingernails! After successfully starting our seeds indoors this year, we moved them into the back lot of our Connecticut office. We’ve got jalapenos in raised beds, petunias in hanging baskets and eggplants in NFT channels growing abundantly. Take a look for yourself!

Ultimate Guide to Growing Tomatoes – Part 4: Beyond Basic Tomatoes

We’ve been talking tomatoes for 3 weeks now and I’ve probably said “tomato” over, what, three dozen times? All these times I’ve said “tomatoes,” you’ve probably imagined something like this:

Aren’t they beautiful? Of course they are! They’re perfect standard tomatoes. But this is the Ultimate Guide to growing tomatoes, not the standard guide. Let’s go beyond standard to ultimate. I’m talking heirlooms and organics. This is what I’m talking about:

That’s the ultimate pile of tomatoes!

Ultimate Guide to Growing Tomatoes – Part 3: Tomato Plant Troubleshooting

Most tomato problems stem from poor tomato care. As we covered in part 2, if you follow a proper watering schedule, provide enough light, and give your plants the proper nutrients, you can avoid things like splitting or cracking, yellowing leaves and blossom end rot. Outside of proper plant care, there are certain steps you can take to prevent disease and pests in your tomato plants.

Common Tomato Pests

The most important part of pest prevention is diligence. Watch for pests daily. Spot them before they become a problem. Look under the leaves and inside buds. Use a magnifying glass as they are often very tiny. Monitor your sticky cards. Remember, these are indicators only, they are meant to let you know of pest problems that may be present in your greenhouse or garden. They will not and are not meant to control pests.