Next issue will be posted May 28. Read previous issues through our calendar of issues.

Below is an update on the organic projects that we are involved in this year at Michigan State University’s W. K. Kellogg Biological Station (MSU/KBS).

A 30 dry bean variety trial is being conducted by Master’s (M.S.) student Jim Heilig, whose major professor is Dr. Jim Kelly, MSU Crop and Soil Sciences dry bean plant breeder. There is currently a great market for dry beans and Jim and Dr. Kelly are looking for varieties that perform well in organic production systems. They are evaluating dry beans for quality and yield and we are evaluating them for tolerance to potato leafhoppers. This is the second year for this evaluation.

Todd Martin (cover crop technician) and I are evaluating different seeding times of red clover into wheat. These red clover seeding times are at planting with the crop in the fall, frost seeding red clover in March and no-till drilling red clover in early April into standing wheat. The last treatment is seeding red clover after wheat harvest with a no-till drill. These different seeding times will be evaluated for red clover biomass production, weed control, influence on wheat yield and nitrogen contribution to corn the following season. Through an NCR-SARE grant we will compare several weed control strategies for no-till organically grown pumpkins using the roller/crimper system. Cereal rye is being used as a cover crop and we will use rye as a mat and a weed control mechanism. The roller/crimper will be used to control the rye.

No-till seeding of red clover into rye on April 17, 2008.

At left, rototilling zones for no-till organic pumpkin study at MSU/KBS.  Picture taken on April 25, 2008.

Prices for organic corn have skyrocketed over the past three years. Several of the farmers we work with have asked us to evaluate organic nitrogen sources for growing corn. We are comparing four different organic nitrogen sources for organic corn and comparing these sources with and without a cover crop. Soil nitrogen, corn yield and stalk nitrate will be collected for this study.

As part of the NCR-SARE grant we are evaluating four different rye varieties. We want to compare several physiological characteristics of these ryes. For example, rye growth rate, maturity dates, weed suppression and how well they mat after being rolled and crimped. Having an earlier maturing rye will enhance our ability to grow crops with the roller/crimper no-till system.
We will also be studying use of a flamer to control weeds in corn again this year. Along with Drs. Renner, Sprague and Erin Taylor of MSU’s Crop and Soil Sciences Department, we will evaluate the effectiveness of flaming at four different relative humidity levels and temperatures throughout a single day. We will flame weeds at 8 a.m., noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and rate these treatments for weed control.	Above, several rye varieties will be evaluated for physiological characteristics. Picture taken May 5, 2008. Below, rye was planted for the nitrogen study for organic tomatoes at SWMREC. Picture taken May 1, 2008.
Three projects this year have been funded through the Southwest Michigan Research and Education Center (SWMREC): 1. Evaluation of organic nitrogen sources for tomatoes following a cover crop of either cereal rye or hairy vetch. Five organic nitrogen sources will be compared. Tomato yield and quality will be compared across these treatments. 2. Conducting the same no-till pumpkin study that we are doing at MSU/KBS.

We will have three organic on-farm projects that are funded by Michigan’s Project GREEEN. Each on-farm trial will compare the no-till roller/crimper system to conventional high tillage organic soybean production. These four on-farm sites will evaluate the roller/crimper on real fields and farms. Data will be collected on weed control, soybean yield and the economics of these systems.

This summer should be an exciting one for the MSU/KBS Cover Crop Team. As the season progresses, we will update you on these projects.

Michigan State University and C.S. Mott Group host first Michigan Organic Reporting Session
Nicole Schaendorf, MSU student in Ag Communications, and
Vicki Morrone, C.S. Mott Group Organic Vegetables and Field Crop Outreach

Michigan’s Organic Agriculture Research Reporting Session held on March 5, 2008, at the Kellogg Center during ANR Week, was initiated by MSU researchers and educators interested in sharing and learning about current organic research being conducted in Michigan. The C.S. Mott Group was a major supporter of this event, hoping to stimulate interest in expanding research in organic production and marketing. The program promoted research projects and will hopefully create research and outreach opportunities for MSU and on farms. Next year this event will encourage more farmers to present and participate, hopefully promoting on-farm research. Session topics included:

• Organic marketing for Michigan,
• Outreach to promote organic agriculture in Michigan,
• Cropping systems
• Organic soil building systems
• Pest management.

Dr. Jim Bingen set the stage for the morning with his presentation Toward a Great Lakes Regional Model of Organic Food Production and Marketing. He presented demographics of organic agriculture in the Great Lakes, much different from the California paradox because it is very much a family farm and small farm-based system. The findings were based on the Michigan Organic Food and Farming Alliance survey and the results can be used to better advocate for Michigan’s organic producers. Dr. Bingen’s graduate students Taylor Reid and Lourdes Martinez continued to discuss impacts that the organic producer may face with Reid’s overview of the science and values of Michigan’s first organic certifier and Martinez’s presentation on the opportunities and barriers of Michigan’s markets.

Michigan State University offers an organic farming certificate program and a student organic farm with a community-supported agriculture component. John Biernbaum and Jeremy Moghtader gave reports on what these programs have to offer and what the production yields were for the first few years at the MSU Student Organic Farm. The program is a great success and is expanding as it enters its second year.

A major part of organic production is soil building. Using cover crops can help increase production yields while enhancing soil quality. Practices such as polyculture, monoculture or composting were looked at more in-depth with Dr. Mathieu Ngouajio’s research on Organic Fresh Market Tomato Yield Response to Rye and Hairy Vetch Cover Crops with or without Compost. A wide variety of research on cropping systems from perennial wheat, adding extra rotations of cover crops and cover crops in turf grass were also presented.

The workshop was well attended with more than 80 participants and plans are to continue the program next year as part of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Week. The committee hopes to connect this session with the Michigan Organic Conference that typically kicks off ANR week.

If you would like to be included in the planning or want to receive an announcement of this event for 2009, send an email to Vicki Morrone at sorrone@msu.edu. If you would like to see additional presentations from the Organic Reporting Session, visit www.michiganorganic.msu.edu. You will find the presentations within the respective subject areas on the left of the screen.

Advice for certifying research sites and facilities
Joy Landis
MSU IPM Program Communications

Workshop: Cover crops for vegetable systems
Vicki Morrone, C.S. Mott Group Organic Vegetables and Field Crop Outreach

Use of cover crops in all agricultural systems is growing, especially with the rising cost of fertilizers. More farmers are seeking alternatives to grow healthy plants and build soil quality while recycling nitrogen to reduce loss of this valuable resource. Cover crops contribute in multiple ways to the farming system, over the short and long term. One of the major challenges of using a cover crop is to find a window of time when a cash crop is not growing. A wide variety of cover crops are available that provide a sustainable foundation for organic production of field crops or vegetables and fit into various windows.

The Michigan State University Vegetable Area of Expertise Team invites you to participate in a day-long workshop on Cover Cropping in Vegetable Systems-An essential tool for sustainable and organic farmers. The day will offer farmers and educators an opportunity to learn about cover crop systems that work for this region with practical advice and the latest research. Anyone interested in optimizing production of healthy crops will find this workshop useful. This field workshop will be held on June 12 from 9:00 to 5:00 PM at the Kellogg Biological Station in Gull Lake, Michigan located about 30 minutes west of Battle Creek, Michigan. The workshop will feature Dr. Anne VerHallen, who is a soil management specialist for Horticulture Technology with Ontario Ministry of Ag and Food. She works with farmers to investigate opportunities afforded by cover crops in vegetable systems and their ability to contribute to soil quality. The other keynote speaker will be Dr. George Abawi, professor in Plant Pathology & International Agriculture from Cornell University located at the New York Agriculture Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. He will present information on how cover crops impact crop health, including how to use cover crops to control soil borne pathogens such as nematodes and root rots and how to implement this type of system on your farm.

Cost of this workshop is $25.00 for the day including lunch, a copy of Managing Cover Crops Profitably published by SARE in 2007 and a tour of the research fields at Kellogg Biological Station that demonstrate cover crop systems including pumpkins intercropped with rye and hairy vetch grown as a source of nitrogen for corn. For registration and the agenda please go to http://www.michiganorganic.msu.edu or call MSU Extension Oceana County office and ask for Kathy at 231-873-2129. Registration must be received by June 6 and after this date walk-in registration is $40.00 and can be paid the day of the event.

Reports from organic growers

Indiana
West Central Indiana, Tippecanoe County – Kevin Cooley
Over the last few weeks we’ve had excellent weather for getting field work in. Several days of dry weather at the end of April and the beginning of May allowed us to catch up with spring. More recently we received a couple inches of rain spread out over four days, which helped to replenish the soil moisture and aid in the germination of spring plantings. Currently we are experiencing 10 to 15 degrees below average for both the high and low temperatures. These low temperatures have slowed the growth of newly germinated seedlings.

Since the last NAN update we have been quite busy with planting the following crops: second field planting of potatoes, green beans, peas, sweet corn, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and spinach. We completed the third plantings of lettuce mixes, green onions and beets. Tomatoes were also planted as well as a new planting of strawberries. We successfully tilled in two plots of winter rye. These plantings were our late fall plantings and had only reached about eight inches in height before we tilled them in (the timing was near perfect, following the advice of other growers on the NAN). We tilled it in using our PTO-driven rototiller and then had four days of good dry, sunny weather to help kill it off. A week later, after a light shower and a couple dry days, we disked in it. Just last week we planted part of one plot to sweet corn, we had good soil to seed contact and nearly 100 percent rye kill. Other activities include harvesting tunnel crops for selling at two farmer’s markets and prepping a new market trailer. Daily asparagus picking consumes a good amount of our mornings.

Plans for the next couple of weeks include transplanting raspberries, caging tomatoes, setting out first melons and cucumbers, starting fall squash, working the pumpkin plots for the first time this spring, attending twice-a-week markets and attempting to roll two additional plots of winter rye that are starting to head out.

South Central Indiana, Brown County – Dale Rhoads
I think in this era of strange global warming and unpredictable weather, we are experiencing the first normal spring in 15 to 17 years, and my body, checkbook and work schedule are not quite sure how to react to it. It should be hammering us with 80-90 degree days, but instead it just keeps on being 40-65 degrees with lots of rain.

It continues to be a cool, slow, wet spring. We have all the cooler season crops transplanted in the field. Everything is growing slow. We are holding the warmer season crops like basil and squash in the greenhouse waiting for the weather to warm up. We are barely staying ahead with ground preparation, which continues to be an issue making sure to work soil in between rains and it drying enough, etc. It has been cool, but we’ve had no frost, which has made for a heavy fruit set on all varieties of tree fruits with little insect pressure yet. Plum curculio has only had a few days warm enough to work so damage is slight at this point.

We are currently planting tomatoes in the greenhouse; harvesting salad greens from the greenhouse; prepping basil and squash areas outside; prepping succession planting of salad greens areas; weeding the transplanted and mulched kale, onions and leeks areas; and keeping fruit trees sprayed.

In the next two weeks we will start to transplant warmer season crops, thinning and spraying fruit trees and should begin harvesting salad greens and green onions from outside. I think it is going to be a bad year for cabbage looper and the weather should be warm enough to start hatching their eggs, so that will need addressing with Bt sprays.

Illinois
Northern Illinois, Kane County – David Campbell of Lily Lake Organic Farm
Much rain and cold weather has delayed corn planting in my area. All of my oats and clover seeding are out of the ground and look fairly good. Warm weather would be very helpful at this point, although the forecast is for a little below normal temperatures for the next week or two. 

I finished plowing down alfalfa ground this past Saturday evening (May 10), and will plant it to corn. We received 1.5 inches of rain during the past weekend’s storm. The ground plowed well considering soils were wetter than normal.

I plan to disk some plowed ground going to corn and will moldboard plow cornstalk ground that will be planted to soybeans. I hope to start planting corn sometime around May 20, if conditions are to my liking. The soil is still too wet and cold to seriously consider planting organic corn, in my opinion. All fields planted to corn and soybeans will be shallow field-cultivated immediately before planting.

West Central Illinois, Fulton County – Anne Patterson of Living Earth Farm
Last week (May 5) things dried out. I finally got into all my fields before the rain came with severe winds on Mother’s Day (May 11). We planted and transplanted most of the remaining spring crops that we had not been able to get in. I don’t remember planting snow peas so late (May 2), nor potatoes. I am behind in field prep for transplanting summer crops; however, I’m glad I didn’t plant them earlier with the horrible wind and rain we received on Mother’s Day and the hail this afternoon.

Currently we are harvesting twice a week for e-customers. Today (May 13), we finished planting all of the onion plants, our third crop of head lettuces, the third crop of pac choi and a third crop of cabbage on raised beds, which dried out with the wind before the next anticipated round of storms. The first crop of green beans was also planted. I launched our new web-based order system (Zen Cart) for e-customers, which went well last week.

Weeding is behind due to this season’s rainy start. Fields must be prepared for tomato, eggplant, pepper, melon, cucumber and watermelon. A few more fruit trees need to be planted. I will continue with twice-a-week harvesting and I hope things start growing more for my customers.
       
Question
Tiller vs. spader – which do the market vegetable growers prefer? I keep hearing tilling is not good for soil structure in the long term.

Chicago, Will County – Nathan Hutt-Tiwald of Green Earth Institute
After a brief warm-up, we continue to see temperatures a bit below normal and high amounts of rainfall. Since May 3, we have received more than 3.5 inches of rain, which makes field work very difficult and is putting us severely behind in tillage, seeding and mechanical cultivation. I am also concerned that the cold nights may cause bolting in some of the more finicky crops (e.g. Chinese cabbage).
 
Currently, we are waiting for the fields to dry to continue our primary and secondary tillage. We are also doing a combination of direct seeding as the field conditions allow (lettuce, spinach, carrots and beets) and tray seeding (summer squash, cucumbers, winter squash and watermelon).

We will be tilling with our spader, cultivating with our Williams Tool system and continuing to seed both directly into the field and into trays. We will be transplanting another round of summer squash and our first tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers. We will install a series of electric fences to try and dissuade deer, a perennial problem in our lettuce.

Question
Do other tomato growers use an OMRI-approved fungicide and, if so, what is it and how often do you spray?

Michigan
South Central Michigan, Calhoun County—Anthony Cinzoni
We’ve had dry weather conditions. On Sunday, May 11, we received about one-half to three-quarters inch of rain, which helped.

Currently we are selling plants from the greenhouse, transplanting and harvesting greenhouse vegetables. We planted cole crops last week and onions two weeks ago.