From microgreens to succession planting.

A way of running a kitchen around produce bought straight from the people who grow it, often named on the menu. For a grower it means chefs who want to know where and when something was grown.

Also called Farm to fork

Growing for restaurants

Produce grown very close to where it is eaten — on the restaurant’s own roof, in its courtyard, or a few streets away.

Urban and rooftop farms

A supplier a food business is allowed to buy from under its local food rules. Kitchens may ask a grower to show they qualify; the rules differ by country and region, so check with the local authority.

What a kitchen asks a grower for beyond the usual order: a crop, by a date, in an amount — “purple radish from the Friday after next”.

In Ortalio a chef request is logged with what, by when and how much, and linked to the crop-plan line that answers it.

See a chef request

The short list a grower sends the chef, usually each week, of what is ready and roughly how much, so the chef can order from it.

Also called Fresh sheet

See successions planned

A regular order a kitchen keeps with a grower — the same crops, amounts and days each week until it changes. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand the words also mean a regular bank payment, so growers there say a standing weekly order or a recurring order.

In Ortalio a standing weekly order is recurring delivery work: each delivery is logged against it, and it is invoiced per delivery or once a month.

Also called Standing weekly order · recurring order

See a delivery logged

The list of what to harvest on a given day, worked out from the orders due.

What goes into each kitchen’s crates for a delivery, line by line, checked as it is packed.

See a delivery logged

A short is a line delivered in a smaller amount than ordered, or not at all; a substitution is something else sent in its place, agreed with the chef.

In Ortalio a short is logged on the delivery itself, so the invoice and the record match.

See a delivery logged

The time a kitchen can receive a delivery, usually outside service. Each kitchen has its own.

Also called Receiving window

The counter between the kitchen and the dining room where finished plates are handed over — and where a grower’s crate often lands.

Also called The pass

Designing and keeping planting that is meant to be eaten — herbs, vegetables, fruit and edible flowers — as part of a property’s gardens.

Growing for restaurants

A garden grown to supply a kitchen, usually close to it: beds of herbs, salad leaves and vegetables picked as the menu needs them.

Also called Potager

Growing for restaurants

A kitchen garden planted to one chef’s menu, often with varieties the kitchen can’t buy.

Beds, containers or growing stations on a building’s roof. On a hotel or restaurant it is often grown for the kitchen and the bar, and shown to guests.

Hotels and resorts

A vertical planting of herbs or leaves a kitchen harvests from. A purely ornamental living wall is a different trade.

A bed built up above the ground in a frame, filled with soil — the usual growing station on a roof or courtyard.

A place where you grow for a client: the client’s property, or your own farm.

In Ortalio a site is either the client’s property or your own farm; both work the same way.

See the growing stations

One place a crop grows on a site: a bed, a hydroponic tower, a microgreen rack, a channel or a greenhouse bed.

In Ortalio each growing station has its own ID and history, on the client’s site or your own farm.

See the growing stations

A grower’s scheduled visit to a client’s garden to sow, care for, read and harvest.

In Ortalio a program’s garden visits repeat on the Growing Calendar on the rhythm you set.

See the Growing Calendar

An ongoing agreement to grow for a client, with visits on a rhythm and a crop plan that runs season after season — not one-off visits.

In Ortalio a program is a recurring series, billed monthly or per visit.

See program billing

Deciding what to grow, where and when, so the right crops are ready when the kitchen needs them.

See successions planned

The written result of crop planning: crops, stations, sowing and harvest dates, and the successions between them.

In Ortalio the crop plan holds each station’s successions, with the next sowing planned before the last harvest.

See successions planned

Sowing the same crop again at intervals, so the next planting is ready as the last one finishes and the kitchen never runs short.

In Ortalio the crop plan holds each station’s successions, with the next sowing planned before the last harvest.

Also called Successive sowing

See successions planned

Moving crop families to a different bed each season to keep soil healthy. Not the same thing as succession planting, which repeats one crop over time.

How long a variety usually takes from sowing or transplanting to its first harvest, as the seed supplier gives it. Real timing depends on the season and the site, so growers keep their own.

The stretch of days a crop is at its best to cut.

Sowing seed straight into the bed where it will grow.

A young plant raised in a tray or pot and moved into its bed; also the act of moving it.

Getting young plants raised indoors used to outdoor conditions a little at a time before transplanting.

When a leafy crop runs to flower early, often in heat, and turns bitter — the moment a succession has to be cut short.

See successions planned

Crops cut a few leaves at a time so they regrow for several harvests.

Flowers grown to be eaten or used to garnish — nasturtium, borage and many more — usually picked on the day.

Young greens grown in light, in soil or on a mat, and cut above the root once their first leaves open.

Microgreen growers

Germinated seeds eaten whole, root and all, grown in water without light — a different product from microgreens.

The shallow tray microgreens grow in, one crop to a tray.

Also called Flat

Microgreen growers

What seeds grow in instead of garden soil: a soil mix, coir or a fibre mat.

Soaking larger seeds, such as peas and sunflowers, in water before sowing so they start evenly.

The days a sown tray spends covered, often weighted, in the dark, so the shoots stretch before they see light. Growers set it per crop.

The light that indoor trays and stations grow under.

Shelving that holds trays in tiers, usually with a grow light over each shelf.

Microgreen growers

A tray delivered still growing, for the kitchen to cut as it goes.

The small lidded box or basket microgreens and leaves are packed in for a kitchen.

Also called Punnet

Growing plants without soil, their roots fed by water with nutrients dissolved in it.

A hydroponic system where a thin film of nutrient solution flows along a channel past the roots.

A vertical hydroponic system with plants in pockets up its sides, fed from a reservoir at its base.

See the readings

How strongly a nutrient solution conducts electricity, which shows how much nutrient is dissolved in it. Read with a meter and written in mS/cm.

In Ortalio EC and pH are logged on hydroponic stations and shown against the target range you set.

See the readings

How acid or alkaline a nutrient solution is. In hydroponics it affects which nutrients the roots can take up.

In Ortalio EC and pH are logged on hydroponic stations and shown against the target range you set.

See the readings

The band a grower wants a reading to stay inside, set for each station and crop by the grower.

In Ortalio the target range is yours to set per station; Ortalio never sets one for you.

See the readings

The water and dissolved nutrients a hydroponic system feeds its plants.

One measurement taken on a station on a given day, such as EC or pH.

See the readings

What was cut, from which station, how much and when.

In Ortalio a harvest is logged at the station it came from.

See a harvest logged

What went to which kitchen, how much, when, and anything short — checked against the order.

In Ortalio a delivery is logged at the kitchen door against the order, with a photo if you want one.

See a delivery logged

Something a grower notices and notes: a pest, a crop running to flower, a reading outside its range.

In Ortalio each finding is marked routine, attention needed or issue, with what you did about it.

See the readings

Ortalio’s calendar of sowings, successions, garden visits and delivery days.

See the Growing Calendar

Ortalio’s report for a client: the visits or deliveries, plantings, readings, harvests and requests answered over a period.

In Ortalio it goes out in your company’s name when the chef asks, when you choose, or on a timetable you set.

See the report

The record of one finished job: its steps and times, photos before and after, materials and the grower’s note.

In Ortalio every finished job keeps one; the client sees it if they ask for it, or if you decide to share it.

See the Work Record