Small Fruits: blueberries, raspberries, muscadine grapes and figs

Sybil Mays of Paradise Nursery in Virginia Beach gave two excellent and well-attended workshops on production of small fruits such as rabbiteye blueberries, raspberries, muscadine grapes, and figs. She covered variety choices, production methods, site selection, soil and pest management, and economic aspects. She recommended a "pro-active" approach in organic production, with careful site selection (soil fertility and pH, drainage, accessible to irrigation, weed levels, slope and aspect of site, air flow, sun exposure, avoiding frost pockets). Blueberries and raspberries require good soil drainage. Preparation should start a year before planting - clearing and weed control; adding compost, peat moss and soil amendments. Planting can be done in late fall. Pine needles, or fairly coarse aged sawdust are good mulches (fine sawdust may become impermeable to water). Coffee grounds are a good ingredient for compost for these crops.

Sybil offered several handouts with lots of resources to help the new grower get started on blueberries, grapes and other small fruit. For more info, visit www.paradisenursery.com. Other resources include North Carolina State University (visit www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort), and the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium (www.smallfruits.org). Davoncrest berry breeders are at DAVON-CREST-FARMS.com, 1-800-207-9862.

Alternative Methods of Weed Control

David Stern of Rose Valley Farm gave an excellent session on weed control without chemicals, based on his 30 years experience growing up to 40 acres of organic vegetables. He started by noting that weeds are part of the natural process, and urged us to seek a harmonious relationship with the volunteer plants rather than a stressful oppositionist approach. The first thing to ask is: does this weed compete seriously for water, nutrients or light, or will it interfere with maturation and harvest? If not, it is not a problem.

David uses crop rotation, cover crops, mulches, and ingenious cultivation strategies to keep his crops ahead of the weeds. For sowing cover crops, he has a wheel-barrow seeder than can sow a 20-ft wide swath, giving very even plantings. Buckwheat is a good "smother" crop to suppress weeds, though it does not produce as much organic matter as fall planted rye + vetch. He mows the rye + vetch in the spring with a flail chopper (the vetch can tangle in a rotary bush-hog) then either tills it in or plants through the mulch. To build organic matter and suppress summer weeds on his sandier soils, David obtains out-of-date corn seed for free, and drills it in rows 7 inches apart (200 lb/acre) to grow a dense cover crop.

David plants oats in the late summer or early fall at 150 lb//acre. It winterkills, forming a mulch through which he plants spring broccoli, and gets good early-season weed control. He has also planted the oats into fall broccoli after the final cultivation. Mammoth red clover is shade-tolerant and can be overseeded into spring-planted oats. When the oats get tall, he flail-chops them and removes them to mulch his blueberries, and the clover then grows rapidly. The blueberries are a high-value crop grossing $18,000 per acre, so this labor pays for itself.

For crops like tomatoes, winter squash, sweet potatoes or tall peas that are grown in wide-spaced rows, David plants either cover crops (buckwheat, oats) or fast-maturing greens in the spaces between rows. For the vining crops, the cover crops are mowed, and greens harvested just before vines spread. Clove or soybeans planted between rows of sweet corn will grow rapidly after corn harvest if the stalks are mowed.

David also showed some ingenious equipment and techniques for precision cultivation, including a double rolling basket cultivator, Danish shank, and a tractor-mounted rototiller with tine positions adjusted for precision cultivation. He bolted a truck mirror onto his cultivating tractor so he can see precisely where the tool is in relation to crop rows, and thus loses far fewer crop seedlings. To control weeds in asparagus, he tills between the rows, and if the weeds get bad, he mows and lightly disks (1-2 inch depth), then plants a soybean cover crop.

For some of the slower-sprouting vegetable crops, David uses a rotary hoe or a flame weeder. Parsnips take four weeks to come up, so he marks rows with radishes, and then flames-off the radishes to let the parsnips grow in, walking fast down the row so that weeds and radishes receive just enough heat to be killed. When he plants a field of carrots, he either sows a few feet of beets or props a pane of glass over part of one carrot row to hasten germination. When these seeds come up, he knows that the rest of the field will emerge in another day or two; thus it is time to rotary-hoe the field.

Sustaining Family Farms and the Organic Certification Issue - a Panel Discussion

Four panelists addressed questions from the audience on what is needed to better support family farming in Virginia and elsewhere. The four were: Margaret Merrill, agricultural reference librarian at Virginia Tech; Tom Slate from the Marketing Division of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS); David Stern of Rose Valley Farm in New York; and John Burns, an independent certification inspector in Virginia.

The discussion focused primarily on the new National Organic Program (NOP), and its potential impact on smaller farms and on the organic movement as a whole. John and David observed that "organic" has become big business, and that the NOP has given us something quite different from the original ideals of the organic community. One hog farmer in the audience noted that even Smithfield, the nation's largest corporate pork producer, is developing an antibiotic/hormone-free line, and asked, "how can the small grower compete?" John and Margaret urged small producers to focus on local markets and on maintaining the farmer-customer connection. The cognizance of the buyer in direct sales can be the best "inspection" or "certification," though Margaret also noted that the NOP label allows inner-city folks to know what is organic.

When asked what the State of Virginia can do to help, Tom Slate noted that Virginia has accessed Federal funds for organic certification cost-share at 75% up to $500. However, only $30,000 is available to Virginia farmers this year on a first come first served basis. David Stern noted that New York faces a similar situation, having already committed all of its cost-share funds for 2003. Tom emphasized that the VDACS marketing division wants to help small and organic growers to thrive and to expand their direct marketing opportunities, but that a severe state budget crunch has curtailed funding for such efforts. VDACS has initiated three different programs to promote locally-grown foods: Virginia's Finest (processed foods), Virginia Grown (point-of-sale materials at farmers' markets) and Savor Virginia, a food exposition connecting growers with restaurant chefs in northern Virginia.

At least one participant noted that VDACS regulatory barriers to on-farm and farmers' market sales of dairy and certain other value-added products, and other regulations regarding packaging, etc., have become the source of much frustration among small scale producers in Virginia. For example, requirements that pasture-raised beef sold at farmers' markets be pre-packaged, weighed and labeled by the processor increases processing costs from $0.36 to $0.61/lb. Tom noted that VDACS is well aware of the growth of the organic sector and of the needs of smaller farmers, but also that these regulations are outside the purview of the VDACS marketing division. VABF President Katherine Smith appreciated Tom and other allies within VDACS, to communicate our concerns clearly, and to do what we can. She added, "let's focus on local, let's create the scene we want, not just complain as this will give no positive result."

John noted that the costs of organic certification are not limited to direct fees, but includes the work of maintaining an audit trail for each crop. This can create a strong disincentive to farm diversification, as each new enterprise entails a whole set of records to keep. CSA farmer Charlie Maloney added that he is not certified, and will probably never become certified because he produces some 40 different vegetables, several fruit and eggs. "I already keep records and like doing so, but the extra work for certification could be too much. People out there want our stuff, and the personal connection. When a new customer calls up to say, 'I understand you are an organic farmer,' I tell them that I am not certified organic, but I grow in accord with organic principles. I answer any question and invite them to visit the farm. Customers are pleased and they join up."

In their concluding remarks, Margaret and Tom urged growers to contact Virginia Tech, Virginia State University and VDACS to ask questions and let them know what the needs are. David Stern noted that organic and conventional farmers are brothers and sisters trying to survive within the same larger system. "When the price of oil rises to where it is headed, small local farms will feed us."