plotsField notes
Notes from the field, the greenhouse, and the back office.
Same Bug, Two Crops: Why the Beetles Stripped the Eggplant and Skipped the Peppers
Flea and Colorado beetles both feed on eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes. Eggplant gets hit first and hardest. The reason is the leaf: eggplant foliage is tender, thin, and low in deterrent.
By the PlotsFarm team
soil health · 6 min
Rabbit Tea: The Free Fertilizer Under the Hutch
Rabbit manure generally runs higher in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium than cow or horse manure. For a grower running intensive beds where every square foot is working, that density matters.
market gardening · 3 min
Same bed, same lettuce, 75% more heads
Every grower has read the back of a seed packet. Lettuce, 8″ apart in the row, 12″ between rows. Most market gardeners quietly ignore it and plant tighter, and they are right to.
market gardening · 6 min
Vegetables for Asian Stores: Finding the Niche the Market Hasn't Filled
That is the whole pitch for asian greens: real demand, thin local supply, and a product so perishable that being close is a genuine advantage
7 min
The Cost of an Empty Bed: Planning Your Beds to Stay Full All Season
Walk your plot in the season and count beds with nothing in them. Each of those beds is still costing you. It's irrigated. It's weeded, or will need to be. The only thing it's not doing is earning.
interplanting · 6 min
Hire the Marigolds: What Interplanting Actually Saves a Small Market Garden
A $3 packet of marigold seed. 6 squash plants protecting 100. The empty space between your crops is already irrigated, weeded, and paid for. Interplanting puts it to work — fewer pests, fewer sprays, more food off the same beds.
composting · 3 min
What the 2026 fertilizer crisis is teaching small growers about on-farm fertility.
Urea up 47%. Diesel up 46%. 70% of US farmers can't afford the fertilizer they need. What to do this season, this fall, and next year.
That's all the field notes for now.
Get our monthly newsletter
Crop planning notes, market-garden tactics, product updates. Once a month, no spam.