4. Organic vegetable production

4.4 Soil fertility and crop nutrition 24
4.4.1 Organic soil conversion 24
4.4.2 Improvements to soil structure 27
4.4.3 Correcting deficiencies organically 28
4.4.4 Livestock and soil nutrition 28
4.4.5 Determining crop nutrient requirements 28
4.4.6 Seasonal nutrient requirements 28
4.5 Soil preparation and planting 29
4.5.1 Ground preparation 29
4.5.2 Pre-irrigation 30
4.5.3 Planting 30
4.5.4 Post-planting operations 31
4.6 Irrigation 31
4.7 Weeds 32
4.7.1 Planning a weed management program 32
4.7.2 Reducing the bank of weed seed 33
4.7.3 Management practices 33
4.7.4 Managing problematic weeds 38
4.8 Managing pests 38
4.8.1 Planning an organic pest management program 38
4.9 Disease management 44
4.9.1 Causes of plant disease 44
4.9.2 Diagnosis 44
4.9.3 Reducing plant diseases organically 44
4.10 Economics 46
5. Organic vegetable case studies 49
5.1 Organic production of asparagus 50
5.2 Organic production of pumpkin 55
5.3 Organic production of processing tomatoes 59
6. Post-harvest management and marketing 69
6.1 Quality assurance 69
6.1.2 Quality 69
6.2 Environmental management systems 75
6.3 Marketing 77
6.3.1 Marketing alliances 77
6.3.2 Defining production and supply pathways 78
6.3.3 Supply chain management: the key to successful marketing 79
6.4 Product promotion, packaging and presentation 80
6.5 Export help 84
6.6 Processing requirements 86
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