AdAgrA Conference 2024: Growing Better

Turning Tomatoes into Profit

Adner Abreu

AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Turning Tomatoes Into Profit Part 2

Just a clarification, somebody was asking me, so the class won't overlap in the advanced course for sure.

Just I had to clarify that 1 because somebody was, is the next class the same?

It's like, no, I won't be teaching the 6 elements 6 times.

And we'll be talking about now turning to medicine to profit.

I was just wanting to give you those 6 elements because it will help you really say foundational principles that will help you understand then what I'll be sharing now with you.

They want us to record the questions and answers, so just feel free to ask questions as I go, alright?

So we'll be talking in this 1, for the next 3 classes, we'll be talking about seedlings, understanding tomatoes, timing your rotations, watering and fertilization, pruning, and of course, selling your tomatoes because it's turning your tomatoes into profit, right?

But first, we need to understand how to grow them and how to make bring to market that top quality tomato.

All right very good so the first 1 here is seedlings.

Germinating your own seed and there is a option out there where of course you can go and buy your plants and and not have to do it your own now if you are a home gardener so you want to just plant 2 to 2 3 tomato plants to not go through the stress and troubles of growing your own seed.

Alright but of course I'm assuming since this is an advanced class that all of you are really have a place to do seedlings so do your own and it's interesting so I personally think that it's in the around 50% of the success starts with the seedlings.

And the reason why is that, for example, when it comes to germination, when it comes to the type of soil you use, when it comes to the variety you use, it has huge impact on that.

So let's talk about, for example, here, germination time frame.

So germination time frame is perhaps 1 of the key components, 1 of the most important when it comes to germinating your seeds.

So for me, I have a rule that when the first seed pops up, meaning when you see 1 germinating, within the next 12 hours, 8 hours, I need to see at least 75 to 80% of all my plants germinated.

And the second day, meaning the next day, all of it needs to be almost germinated.

And basically, no more than 36 hours for all your seeds to be already out.

And this will allows you, and this you'll know that you have a good seed, first of all.

The other thing is that in your greenhouse, the last thing you want is a tomato that is this small and another 1 that is this big.

You don't want a roller coaster in your greenhouse.

You want your tomatoes to be the same height from the beginning to the end, all throughout the greenhouse.

Now, the only way you can achieve that is, and the way you know that you're going to achieve that is by germinating your own seedlings.

Because if you buy seed, for example, if you buy plants, when you buy it, they're all the same height.

But that doesn't mean they germinate at the same time.

So you can have a strong plant that is doing really well, and then another 1 that is trying to keep up with a crowd, but you don't really notice that.

So when you plant then, your tomatoes, you will be like some are taken off, other ones are still struggling.

And then you will have problems right from the get-go with your plans.

The other thing is that there's something that is called stress, all right?

So you want to start your seedlings, you want to start those plants stress-free.

They're going to deal later with a greenhouse getting super hot, with the ground cold, with humidity, with no humidity, with air blowing through.

I mean, they will later adapt to all that.

But as they're germinating, for the first 3 weeks of their lives, give them a good life.

So as an adult, we go through a lot of stuff that our parents didn't tell us any about.

So, you know, they didn't tell you, you know, when you're a little baby, oh, so cute.

And then when you're grown, it's like, get out of here.

So, if you've been canvassing, you will know like, get out of my property.

And the way to avoid stress, and the way you know that you don't have stress in your seedlings, you have good germination, you have good growth.

When you have a, and I've had happen, I had this happen to me that for example, you have, you know, a few plants germinate in the morning, a few plants in the afternoon, a few plants the next day, a few plants here, and it's a week later and seedlings are still germinating.

If that is happening to you, just grab that tray and throw it away because you have bad seeds, you have bad germination condition, and you already are going to have problems.

I mean there is no point really in dealing with that set of plants.

Now, it's interesting, you know, when we think about soil, the type of soil that we use to germinate the seeds, we need to think about a few components.

It needs to drain, it needs to hold moisture, and it needs to have lots of aeration.

So basically, The idea to germinate, the soil that we use to germinate, is not about good soil.

It's about proper environment for the seed to germinate.

Don't think about this is a great soil, this stuff is gonna germinate so well.

No, we're thinking about how this stuff is going to germinate so well.

No, we're thinking about how this stuff is going to germinate well.

Because I remember, And I've seen it multiple times, you know, people go and buy this great soil, and it's, you know, and they put their seed there, lovely, and then the seed struggles to germinate, and it's like, what's happening?

The seed doesn't have enough power to push through, that soil may not have proper aeration, doesn't have enough moisture for the seed to germinate.

I remember someone as well that just grabbed peat moss and planted seed and all the seed rotter because the peat moss holds too much water.

So basically, the reason I'm sharing the principle, the idea of what you need in a soil because there's lots of different soil, but what you're looking for is something that drains, something that has proper aeration, and yes, they add a slow release in most seed medium, seed germination medium that has a slow release fertilizer.

So as the plants come out, the root starts to search, then they can find nutrition.

But the reality is, and actually, I don't know why it tells us this, that the seed has the germinating power to go up.

So it doesn't need fertilizer for the next, for the first few days.

It has its own power in there, and that's why, for example, like, Like, what's that called?

When you germinate the seed and you eat it.

So sprouts are so good because that power has burst.

So for the first few days, the seeds aren't even thinking about where they're going to get the food from, because they have their own food.

And if you look at the ceilings right here, this picture has the perlite.

Now, 1 tip in doing this, when you fill your plug tray, the amount of pressure that you put in the plug tray, it needs to be equaled throughout the tray.

And that is for the greenhouse, I use 32s.

Let's say the standard size is this paper.

I almost said pepper, paper that basically they put, you know, 280, 288 holes, you know, 400, 100, 72 or 32.

So The less the holes, the bigger they are.

Home Gardening

Daniel Nicholls

Beating the Botanical Besiegement

This is the other part that I come to the conferences for, is doing what you're doing, is sitting in the audience.

So I'm going to go do that after this, but for now here we are, and I'm really looking forward to sharing this with you.

Let's get started with the word of prayer.

Father in Heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here at Agra.

Not just that we can be here in the conference, not just at this conference, not even just at this presentation, but Lord, thank you that we can be together.

Thank you that we can be a part of this amazing movement that you have raised up of people to share, to share what it is that you want the world to know.

And Lord, may we always, may I always, even as a presenter about gardening topics, may we always remember the context of where this all fits in to sharing the last message of mercy with the dying world.

And we're grateful for these things that you have revealed to us so that we can know you better, live closer to you.

May your spirit be present with each of us here, and we're grateful, Lord, that we can offer our gratitude and ask for these gifts in Jesus name.

All right, so just out of curiosity by a show of hands, how many of you actually had a pretty good idea what this topic was about when you saw the title?

Okay, I thought it was incredibly witty when I made the title, but I didn't realize how unclear it could seem.

Weed management options for the home garden.

I am the agriculture director at Holbrook Indian School.

We are a Seventh-day Adventist academy, boarding academy, and elementary school for Native American students in Holbrook, Arizona.

So yes, we even have second and third graders in our dorms, unfortunately.

And we have a farm and gardening classes for the students.

I manage the farm, teach the gardening classes.

So today we're going to be talking about something I haven't done for a while, which is home gardening, which is awesome.

I'm very curious, how many of us are currently gardening?

How many of us are planning to garden starting this spring?

And of those of us that are planning to start gardening, how many of you have gardened before?

OK, so for the brand new gardeners, my goal here is to present as much information as I can at a pace and in a manner that is as digestible as possible.

I realize being at this conference at all is like trying to drink from a garden hose, or excuse me, trying to drink from a fire hose, as far as assimilating information goes.

I am intending to get my PowerPoint to the proper people so that it will be available again.

I am also intending to direct you toward additional resources that will help you moving forward.

All right, so beating the botanical procedurement.

As my background, I started in home gardening.

By the way, I started doing some home gardening, but I immediately went to market garden size stuff.

As soon as I discovered how amazing gardening was, I immediately went big scale with everything I was doing.

So I have experience on the home gardening level, but a lot of what I'm going to be speaking to you about from is coming from the market gardening perspective But as it applies to what you're trying to do, okay so the thing with home gardening is there are many different ways that you could go about it.

Even market gardening, there's a lot of different ways you can go about it, but things have become pretty standardized in the market gardening world because of the availability of certain tools and things that fit into a pretty standard system, right?

You have raised beds, permanent in-ground raised beds, 30-inch bed tops.

I apologize if this is just sounding like word soup to you.

So things have become very standardized in the market gardening world, so a lot of the tools have become the same that most market gardeners are using.

And those tools have now transferred into the home gardening world.

When they really started in the home gardening world, but then they became kind of a standard tool.

Some of their ways they got used and ways they were produced changed and now they've come back into home gardening as market gardening tools that are applicable to what you're doing.

So that's the perspective I'll be speaking from.

It all applies And you're not really going to find much that's different.

What is different is that in home gardening, you have a lot of options that we don't.

You have different ways you can make your beds.

You can build your beds in those big galvanized steel tubs, right?

You've got a raised bed that's just below hip height here.

Imagine trying to make a quarter acre of those.

That's where we get away from that type of thing in the market gardening world.

But the way that you're going to weed that, there are still tools that are gonna be usable for you, okay, that are gonna make that, weeding that as quick and easy as possible.

So that's what we're going to talk about here.

All right, so first before we talk about weed management, we need to know what is a weed.

I'm, by the way, I'm not giving you, I am going to give you, I'm going to give you the Webster's Dictionary definition here of a weed.

A weed is a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.

So I do this with my students all the time.

We'll go down the bed that has a bunch of kale in it.

And then I've got a volunteer lettuce in the kale bed.

I'll point at that lettuce, and I'll say, is this a weed?

And some of them, they're not really sure.

In gardening, we call it a volunteer, right?

Christian Martin

Living Hope SDA Church

Walk in Love: Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

Who stated, returning hate for hate multiplies hate.

Adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

My message today is entitled, Walk in Love, Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself.

Let's bow our heads as we acknowledge God together.

Father in heaven, we're in your presence.

We already sense, Lord, that you have already spoken to our hearts.

Yet now, Lord, once again, we acknowledge you because we are about to open the Word of God.

And we ask that you would speak once more through your word.

I pray, Lord, that the message that we receive would be a message that you would take, that you would take deep into our hearts and may we walk from this place, inspired, challenged, and encouraged to be disciples of Christ, known for their love.

The human race, with all its variations of size and shape, with skin tone and eye color, so different from 1 another.

We all have 1 common characteristic, Just 1.

And what I mean by that is something that God himself instilled within the heart of the human creation.

An innate desire to be fully known and truly loved.

Again, it's a God-given yearning that He put within each 1 of us.

And Timothy Keller stated this well when he said this, to be loved but not known.

To be known and not loved, oh, that's the greatest fear.

But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.

It liberates from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.

It does with mine, because he's so spot on, to be fully known and truly loved.

So, So humanity, as we know it today, well, it's a group of living organisms trying to find their way through life As we interact with each other in this journey we call life.

And humanity has been around for several millenniums.

In fact, the Gospel writer, Matthew, describes humanity in the early centuries with this word.

In Matthew 9, verse 36, Matthew, as you know, 1 of the disciples, he recalls a time when there's a mass of humanity together.

And in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36 he describes the scene in these words, when Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

You get a crowd of people today in the 21st century, long, far removed from this.

And today, a multitude will be precisely consisting of the same type of people, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Because at the end of the day, and I know that We have learned often the hard way, but returning hate for hate, that will not, will not make things better.

Returning hate for hate does nothing to emotionally support the harassed.

And much less does it uplift the helpless.

And so that being the ultimate reality, what then is a true Christian's response to the pain of the crowds, the people all around us who are in such dire need of help.

And it ought to be a response that cannot fail.

Because after all, a true Christian is a follower of God, a God who is almighty, he's all powerful, a God who can do all things.

And so a true Christian's response ought to be a response that cannot fail.

Jesus said it plainly, love your neighbor as yourself.

Here's a true Christian's response to the pain of a society, of a culture that is consisting of people harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself.

And that's why the Good Shepherd commands.

It's not a strongly suggested, you know, opinion or recommendation or, no, no, no, no.

A command to love others regardless of race or background.

To love others regardless of one's faith and beliefs.

Love others regardless of how, of how, what their story is of how they moved into this country.

To love others regardless of how they dress.

To love others regardless of their skin color.

Not only in my life, but in observation, how easy it is to love those who are just like us.

I mean, we do like people who are just like us.

Maybe that's why Jesus said in Luke chapter 6, verse 32, he asked a rhetorical question.

You know those kind of questions that have an implied answer already.

He asked in Luke 6 32, listen, if you love those who love you, What difference does that make?

We don't gain the attention of our friends by our love.

When you think about it, it's almost like they expect it.

Because with friends, you have a mutual relationship.

We don't gain their attention by being loving.

And did you notice that The Bible never says, and if I'm wrong, you can point it out, show me where the text is.

But the Bible never says, love your friends.

Karl Tsatalbasidis

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Vatican II: Cultural Worship Invades Adventism

And there was at least 1 person that walked in that was here when I was here 8 years ago.

But they're not a student anymore, so you're not going to be here forever.

Those of you, some of you are going to graduate, but it is a privilege to be here with you this evening and this weekend.

The title of our message tonight is Vatican II, Cultural Worship Invades Adventism.

So I'm hoping that you're going to find this a very informative and enlightening presentation.

When I was in my doctoral studies I was told that I needed to get some bibliographic material on all the things that we had published as far as doctoral dissertations.

And I discovered that the outside world, Catholics and other evangelicals, had done a lot of homework on Vatican II, and I came up with peanuts as far as Adventism was concerned.

And so as I began to read their documents, I began to be quite amazed and shocked.

So I hope to really inform and enlighten in this presentation because what the Catholics have done is like absolutely unbelievable, unbelievable.

And so if you've ever had the idea that you're kind of dealing with idol worshiping people and they don't know much, nothing could be further from the truth.

And so I would just ask that you bow your heads as I just pray 1 more time.

Our Father in heaven, Lord, We look forward to the day when we can worship you around the throne.

We ask that you would send your Holy Spirit because we want to worship you in spirit and in truth.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Turning Tomatoes Into Profit Part 2

1h

Beating the Botanical Besiegement

1h 14m

Walk in Love: Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

38m

Vatican II: Cultural Worship Invades Adventism

54m

Two Covenants

57m

Growing Better

1h 42m

Turning Tomatoes Into Profit Part 1

59m

Super Simple, Savvy Soil Blocking

20m

Daniel 6

43m

Two Altars

53m

09 Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

31m

09 The Persecuted Church

28m

Sound Doctrine