By: Laura Davis, NOFA/Mass Soil Health Technical Advisor & Certification Coordinator

Seedling Sales Now Open for Growers

Are you mesmerized by the healthy looking plants in all those seed catalogs?  Perhaps you want someone else to do the seedling starts this year? Well you are in luck, NOFA/Mass has compiled a list of certified organic seedlings available from farms throughout the state, so perhaps one of them is near you!  Why buy organic seedlings? If you are an organic grower, seeds and plants propagated in organic soils will perform much better in your garden or farm.  We also want to ensure that you can access productive and hardy plants without harmful chemicals. Do yourself and our pollinators a huge favor and avoid buying plants that are available at your neighborhood box stores. Please support your local farms with your seedling purchases! Furthermore, these farms can also give you some expert advice on choosing varieties, and some will grow trays for commercial growers too.

If you are a certified organic farm in Massachusetts and you missed the email to add your farm to our organic seedling promotion program, please fill out this google form by April 15th and you will be added to the list.

How  to Take Advantage of NOFA/Mass’s Soil Health Services

Now that you have your plant purchases scoped out, how is your soil health? Have you been meaning to test your soil this year and just did not get around to it last fall? Do you need some help understanding what amendments to use and how to enhance the biology of your soil?  NOFA/Mass has been building our soil health technical assistance program over the last five years and we love to talk about soil, cover crops, biology and more. We are offering soil services that can help you enhance your soil fertility and grow a productive quality harvest. We hope that you will take advantage of our services that cover the three pillars of soil health: chemistry, biology and physical structure.  We offer Logan Labs soil testing through NOFA/Mass, analysis of that test report and make recommendations based upon the deficiencies your soil has. Already have a soil test report? Send a note to [email protected]g with your test report attached, note growing area size and any amendments you already have.  If you need to get your soil tested, email [email protected] and we will make sure that we send you the worksheet to send along with your soil samples to Logan. 

Did you know that NOFA/Mass has a gardening forum where gardeners throughout the state can post questions and get answers from fellow gardeners and farmers? To subscribe, send a blank email to: [email protected], with subject line: gardener’s forum. 

Thanks for growing with us!

Laura Davis