chris09
Garden Ornament
This article was posted in Growing Produce http://www.growingproduce.com/article/23912/organic-production-pointers
Organic Production Pointers
An organic grower shares his firsthand experience with crop rotation, pest management, disease control, and more.
October 10, 2011
The Family Garden organic farm in Bell, FL, recently hosted an organic production workshop to offer tips and advice for managing organic vegetable production systems. American Vegetable Grower caught up with the farms owner, Jordan Brown, prior to the event to get some of his thoughts on topics like crop rotation, pest management, and fertilization. Heres what he had to say:
Q1: How do you address crop rotation? What are some of the challenges and solutions youve found?
Brown: I would like to start off by saying that Florida is the hardest place that I know of in the U.S. to grow organic vegetables. Ive seen a couple people who have farmed or gardened in other parts of the country organically come here and just fail. We have challenges that other people dont have. Were in north Florida, so our harvest season is from October until early July, so its almost year-round.
As far as crop rotation, I try to pay attention to it quite a bit. Our farm is about 22 to 23 acres of vegetables and about an acre and a half of fruit trees, so crop rotation is pretty important because the disease and pest populations can build up really fast. I try to keep everything in the [crop] family, and I have all the fields delineated with a map on paper so that we can keep families together. Weve got a lot of problems with tomatoes. Its one of the harder things to do here. I planted tomatoes in a field where I never planted tomatoes before, and no one else before me, and they still got the same diseases that they did everywhere else.
Q2: What are your practices when it comes to cover crops?
Brown: In the summertime, I use cover crops whenever we have a vacant field. The organic matter helps suppress the weeds. In the winter, sometimes we use oats for a shorter period, but if its going to be sitting all winter, well use rye.
Q3: What do you do to maintain the fertility of your soil?
Brown: We spend a lot of money on organic fertilizers. Thats the simplest thing. The cover crops help to put organic matter back into the soil, too. Weve got different soil types everything between sand and clay right there in a really small area, and sand and clay have to be managed differently. But as far as nutrients, we buy chicken litter. We have to time it because it has to be down 120 days before harvest. Thats hard this time of year, because we can put it down and wait that period of time, and ammonia can run off. Or, if we get a tropical storm, it leaches out, so thats more difficult this time of year. We use the chicken litter more in the winter because it has less opportunity to leach.
Here, because of the heat and humidity, things mineralize a lot faster. The cost of the fertilizer is about $1,000 an acre a lot more than conventional, but if you try to be cheap with the fertilizers, youll have problems.
Q4: How do you handle pest and disease management?
Brown: The biggest thing is timing what you plant and having an understanding of the area and what pests come at what time. When I first got here, I just planted tomatoes in the fall because in Florida we can, and we got whiteflies really bad. So we have to work around that. Right now I have a little patch of tomatoes, but its a new virus-resistant type, so knowing what to plant and having a good disease resistance package, thats more important for organic growers than anything else. The best approach, I think, is planting the right thing at the right time. Not spraying all the time is a big help, too, having cover crops, and having places for the good bugs to hide out is a good thing.
Q5: Have you had any challenges when it comes to organic certification?
Brown: Not really. You just have to keep fairly simple records. Its not super in-depth. Other than that, you just fill out the papers, and if there are any problems, just put in the application and talk to [the certifying agency]. You might have to get someone on the phone, but its not as bad, I dont think, as Ive heard people making it out to be.
Q6: Do you have any advice for growers who are not currently growing organically but are considering it?
Brown: I think if theres any way they could spend time either working for or learning directly from somebody whos doing it in their area, that would be the best benefit, because just jumping into it you can lose all your money. For vegetable growers, if youre just trying to substitute this fertilizer for organic fertilizer, or this spray for that spray, it usually doesnt work out.
Not my article,
Chris
Organic Production Pointers
An organic grower shares his firsthand experience with crop rotation, pest management, disease control, and more.
October 10, 2011
The Family Garden organic farm in Bell, FL, recently hosted an organic production workshop to offer tips and advice for managing organic vegetable production systems. American Vegetable Grower caught up with the farms owner, Jordan Brown, prior to the event to get some of his thoughts on topics like crop rotation, pest management, and fertilization. Heres what he had to say:
Q1: How do you address crop rotation? What are some of the challenges and solutions youve found?
Brown: I would like to start off by saying that Florida is the hardest place that I know of in the U.S. to grow organic vegetables. Ive seen a couple people who have farmed or gardened in other parts of the country organically come here and just fail. We have challenges that other people dont have. Were in north Florida, so our harvest season is from October until early July, so its almost year-round.
As far as crop rotation, I try to pay attention to it quite a bit. Our farm is about 22 to 23 acres of vegetables and about an acre and a half of fruit trees, so crop rotation is pretty important because the disease and pest populations can build up really fast. I try to keep everything in the [crop] family, and I have all the fields delineated with a map on paper so that we can keep families together. Weve got a lot of problems with tomatoes. Its one of the harder things to do here. I planted tomatoes in a field where I never planted tomatoes before, and no one else before me, and they still got the same diseases that they did everywhere else.
Q2: What are your practices when it comes to cover crops?
Brown: In the summertime, I use cover crops whenever we have a vacant field. The organic matter helps suppress the weeds. In the winter, sometimes we use oats for a shorter period, but if its going to be sitting all winter, well use rye.
Q3: What do you do to maintain the fertility of your soil?
Brown: We spend a lot of money on organic fertilizers. Thats the simplest thing. The cover crops help to put organic matter back into the soil, too. Weve got different soil types everything between sand and clay right there in a really small area, and sand and clay have to be managed differently. But as far as nutrients, we buy chicken litter. We have to time it because it has to be down 120 days before harvest. Thats hard this time of year, because we can put it down and wait that period of time, and ammonia can run off. Or, if we get a tropical storm, it leaches out, so thats more difficult this time of year. We use the chicken litter more in the winter because it has less opportunity to leach.
Here, because of the heat and humidity, things mineralize a lot faster. The cost of the fertilizer is about $1,000 an acre a lot more than conventional, but if you try to be cheap with the fertilizers, youll have problems.
Q4: How do you handle pest and disease management?
Brown: The biggest thing is timing what you plant and having an understanding of the area and what pests come at what time. When I first got here, I just planted tomatoes in the fall because in Florida we can, and we got whiteflies really bad. So we have to work around that. Right now I have a little patch of tomatoes, but its a new virus-resistant type, so knowing what to plant and having a good disease resistance package, thats more important for organic growers than anything else. The best approach, I think, is planting the right thing at the right time. Not spraying all the time is a big help, too, having cover crops, and having places for the good bugs to hide out is a good thing.
Q5: Have you had any challenges when it comes to organic certification?
Brown: Not really. You just have to keep fairly simple records. Its not super in-depth. Other than that, you just fill out the papers, and if there are any problems, just put in the application and talk to [the certifying agency]. You might have to get someone on the phone, but its not as bad, I dont think, as Ive heard people making it out to be.
Q6: Do you have any advice for growers who are not currently growing organically but are considering it?
Brown: I think if theres any way they could spend time either working for or learning directly from somebody whos doing it in their area, that would be the best benefit, because just jumping into it you can lose all your money. For vegetable growers, if youre just trying to substitute this fertilizer for organic fertilizer, or this spray for that spray, it usually doesnt work out.
Not my article,
Chris
