OF Dec Jan 2020

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' Transportation costs can quickly devour any organic price premiums that might accompany a product, so make sure you understand what certified organic processing facilities are available for your farm products and what the transport costs are. ' Continued from Page 19 Biological Transition The biological transition of your ground generally takes a bit longer than three years. Certainly, your farm’s ecology will continue to evolve and revive as your expertise in organic practices evolves, but it also depends on how creative you are in your use of cover crops, compost and general management of the soil ecology and the above-ground ecology. You can learn a lot from talking with experienced organic growers. You can speed up this biological transition by implementing the “five principles” of healthy soil management (see ATTRA’s publication on this at attra.ncat.org/ product/manage-soil-for-water.) Equipment There’s the “equipment curve” as well. You need to figure out what equipment you should have, but don’t have right now, to be an effective organic farmer; again, talking with an experienced organic farmer will help you avoid some of the larger mistakes transitioning growers might make. For example, cover crops are an increasingly popular way to improve soil health. One-hopper grain drills can be effective, but if you’re interested in planting a more diverse mix and different seeding rates, multi-hopper, no-till drills are available. Do you have equipment to manage a cover crop? Many farmers like flail mowers to handle heavy cover crops, but make sure you have an appropriate-sized tractor which has sufficient power to handle the flail mower. Continued on Page 22 Transitioning to organic production requires a change in thinking about your soils, especially maintaining soil quality and fertility. This farmer has planted a vetch cover crop, brought up by winter rains. The vetch will protect the soil from rainfall impacts, as well as providing "free" nitrogen (photo by R. Dufour, NCAT.) 20 Organic Farmer December/January 2020
The CLEAN experience - superior fruit and higher yields 500 Table Grapes -‘Vintage Red’ - 2018 Earlimart, California 494.4 480 2018 Boxes/Acre 460 Don’t Compromise on your Organic Nutrients Grower Soil Program Organic Foliar Program Sawtooth Ag Research, Woodlake, California Consumers demand a superior taste and eating The second part of the consumer taste experience is experience from their organic table grapes – a crisp, flavor which is driven by brix, aromatics and firm bite with texture, flavor and sweetness. They flavonoids. To achieve high yields and full flavor also want long shelf life. Grocery stores want less requires the vine have large, fully functional leaves shrinkage. Growers need high marketable yields of and maximum chlorophyll. The key nutrients: superior quality fruit to maximize per acre returns. magnesium, manganese, iron, copper and zinc are Agro-K’s CLEAN line of nutritional products and needed as the leaves are forming and expanding to application program is designed to deliver – ensure sufficient leaf surface area and maximize superior eating quality consumers demand, less instore chlorophyll function to drive optimal flavor, texture shrink grocers demand and maximum and shelf life. Allowing you to put the best finish on marketable yields growers require. a quality bunch. The first part of a superior eating experience is the Agro-K’s CLEAN line of certified products gives bite. It needs to be firm and crisp on the outside organic growers the ability to meet “peak nutrient with good structural integrity on the inside. demand” in a form that goes in to tissues quickly and Maximizing calcium uptake into fruit cell walls completely, resulting in superior fruit quality and during fruit cell division is critical to maximizing yield. Plant physiology drives nutrient timing and grape skin cell-wall thickness, internal flesh firmness understanding this timing gives growers the ability and shelf life (minimizing shrink). Managing the to address peak demand timings and maximize fruit N/Ca ratio is critical to growing firm fruit that stores quality and profitability. Use the right nutrients, at well. CLEAN Cal is designed for rapid and complete the right time, in the right form for the highest yields uptake to help growers deliver that “first bite” and best quality. experience in fruit that also stores better on the grocery store shelf and longer at home. Talk to Agro-K or your authorized distributor today about how CLEAN can help you achieve higher yields of superior fruit. Product available at AGRO-K CORPORATION 8030 Main Street, NE • Minneapolis, MN 55432 • 800-328-2418 • www.agro-k.com 440 420 423 December/January 2020 www.organicfarmermag.com 21
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OF Dec Jan 2020

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