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Organic Growing:Strawberries & Tomatoes
As a suburbanite, I go to my local markets to buy my organic produce. I know that organic farmers grow their crops without pesticides, but I never really understood what farming practices organic farmers use. I found this article about how farmers grow organic tomatoes and strawberries interesting and informative.
Date: 8/30/2005 6:11:46 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 2682 times 
Photos by Leslie Goldman, Your Enchanted Gardener http://lesliegoldman.com/
HOW DO THEY DO IT?
Strawberry and Tomato Farming without Fumigants and Other Toxic Pesticides
Strawberries and Tomatoes
One argument put forward by the pesticide industry for the continued use of high risk soil fumigants is that some crops simply can't be grown without these dangerous chemicals. Strawberries and tomatoes are two of the crops with the most intensive use of soil fumigants because they are particularly vulnerable to several types of pathogens, insects, nematodes and mites that conventional farmers largely control with fumigants. These crops also use the greatest amount of ozone depleting chemical, methyl bromide. In California alone in 2003, 3.7 million pounds of methyl bromide and 3.3 million pounds of chloropicrin were used to fumigate strawberry fields and 2.8 million pounds of metam-sodium were used on tomatoes. Yet other farmers have demonstrated that it is possible to farm strawberries and tomatoes in a cost effective way without the use of these harmful chemicals.
Economic Comparisons between fumigated and non-fumigated fields
The University of California at Davis (UC Davis) studied two strawberry farms in the same growing region in California, a conventional farm using fumigants in 2004 and an organic farm using alternative methods to control the same problems in 2003. UC Davis conducted a similar comparison of organic and conventional tomato farms in California's Sacramento Valley. The results showed that both the organic and conventional farming methods were profitable. The conventional strawberry farm made 5.4% more profit than the organic farm; the conventional tomato farm made 10% more profit than the organic farm. The profit difference between the two methods is far outweighed by the significant environmental and public health costs of releasing fumigants into the air.
Alternative methods of weed and pest control
A number of approaches have been effective in strawberry and tomato cultivation to control the entire range of commonpests without the use of dangerous fumigants; rotating crops in the fields, planting cover crops, and soil solarization to control pathogens and weeds; hand-pulling weeds to control detrimental plants in the fields, and using traps and predator species to minimize insect damage.
Crop rotation
Crop rotation, the practice of planting different croops in a field in sequence over two or more seasons, aids in the control of soil-borne pathogens, weeds, and insects and can also increase the fertility of the soil. When one crop is planted season after season in the same field, pest populations are boosted by a constant source of the same nutrients. If different crops are rotated through the field, the life cycles of pests are interrupted and pest population growth is minmized. Crop rotation also significantly improves the health of the soil, as each crop interacts differently with the various components in the soil, allowing the exchange of different nutrients. When one crop is planted repeatedly, the soil continually releases the same nutrients and develops deficiencies that necessitate the use of fertilizers.
Cover Crops
Cover crops are grown in between seasons of the regular crop to improve the soil and are plowed into the soil before planting of the desired crop. These crops are helpful in controlling nematodes or parasitic worms by interrupting the nematode food supply, while at the same time minimizing weeds and returning the nitrogen and other nutrients back to the soil.
Soil Solarization
Tomato farmers in Florida have been successful in suing soil solarization as an alternative to pre-plant fumigation. In this practice plastic is spread on the ground and is heated in Florida's ample sunshine to a temperature that kills pathogens, weeds, and insects.
Hand-pulling weeds
The practice of hand-pulling weeds is effective, although labor intensive. This close-up contact with the crop can also minimize fruit rot if the worker removes infected fruit during weeding. Fruit rot is caused by a fungus for which the only remedy is removal of the infected fruit.
Insect Control
Several techniques control insect pests in strawberry and tomato fields without the use of harmful chemicals. Wasps and predatory mites are introduced to kill the species of mites and worms that feed on tomato plants, decreasing these populations significantly. Combinations of bug traps and vacuums have also been shown to work especially well on strawberries. In this technique a trap crop is planted on the border of the field, attracting pest insects to this sweeter and more appetizing crop (alfalfa is often used around strawberries, for example). A vacuum mounted on a tractor is then used to remove the insects from the border trap crop.
Water Management
Other strategies for minimizing pests associated with strawberry and tomato farming include ensuring adequate water drainage in the field, carefully selcting the crop variety to suit the locality, anda developing proper irrigation techniques. If the drainage system in the fields does not work adequtely, pools of standing wataer can create an environment for insects, molds, and plant-and-root rot to thrive. Some varieties of strawberries and tomatoes are more resistant to pests than others; pathogen -resistant varieties grow better without fumigation than relatives not bred to be resistant to these pests. Finally, the type of irrigation system used is important for controlling mildew, especially on strawberries. Overhead irrigation systems can encourage mildew while drip irrigation, in which hoses drip water at the roots of the plants, will minimize certain types of mildew.
Conclusion These are examples of just some of the cultural and biological methods that are currently being used successfully on strawberry farms in California and tomato fields in California and Florida. Farmers using these methods to control familiar pathogens, pests, nematodes and weeds associated with these crops are demonstrating that alternative pest control methods can be successfully employed on traditionally fumigant-dependent crops. Farms using these methods are turning a profit as well as setting a precedent for the wide-scale adoption of these techniques.
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This article was summarized from "Strawberry and Tomato Farming without Fumigants and Other Toxic Pesticides", by Lucius McSherry and Katherine Mills, Global Pesticide Campaigner, August 2005, Vol. 15, #2, pubished by Pesticide Action Network (PAN)North America http://www.panna.org
To Read the whole article, go to http://www.panna.org/resources/gpc/gpc_200508.15.2.06.dv.html
Related websites and articles:
Ecological Farming Association: http://www.eco-farm.org/efc_05/workshops/successfulfarmers.html
Organic Farms Sprouting http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8992358/
Safer Pest Control Project http://www.spcpweb.org/yards/ Beautiful lawns, gardens and parks can be maintained without using pesticides.
Pesticides: Body Burden http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=61 Pricey Organics: http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=118
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