We believe that good soil practices are a must when it comes to growing nutritious high quality produce. For plant nutrition, we prefer to use compost from a mushroom facility in Blenheim, ON as well as nitrogen fixing cover crops such as fall rye.
For our drip irrigation system, we use sulfur based soluble fertilizers to help promote healthy biological activity. We also use molasses and some other bio stimulants which promote biological activity within the soil. Healthy soil promotes healthy plants which then can allow the plants to fight off diseases and develop resistance to pests by producing glossy leaves that repel insects. If you have healthy plants, there will be no insects and there is no need for pesticides.
We have eliminated pesticide use from many of our crops and are striving to eliminate them entirely from our farm. Another advantage of healthy plants is nutritious food! These healthy foods are very high in Brix levels which is the measure of sugars in a fruit. The higher the Brix levels the more minerals and the more nutritious the food is.
It is very important to be efficient and continue to look for new ways to grow nutritious high quality produce. In the last 4 years, we have tripled our production and significantly improved the quality of the produce we grow. We have achieved this through advances in technology and improved methods of growing produce. The biggest improvements to our farm was the adaptation of the drip irrigation technology which is 95% efficient as apposed to overhead irrigation systems which is only 50% efficient. This adaptation is not only good for the environment but also good for our farm since we will not have to spend as much money on fuel to run the irrigation pumps.
In addition to this improvement, we are also are starting to use a bio-degradable plastic mulch which feeds the microbes in the soil and also it is not harmful to the environment like conventional plastic mulch. This plastic mulch also suppresses the weeds so there is no need for herbicides to be sprayed on the crop. This plastic mulch also provides extra heat for the crop and allows it to keep heat by the roots and continue to grow throughout the night. A new adaptation is also the use of raised beds covered by plastic mulch. The raised beds prevent the roots of the crop from being waterlogged and stunted. The raised beds also concentrate the fertile topsoil enabling the crop to have access to more nutrients and produce healthy fruit.
DEALING WITH PESTS
Since we strive for healthy soils at our farm, our crops are usually quite healthy and these healthy plants can usually resist pest and make the plant undesirable to the insects. However, we occasionally have pest problems where action is required to control the pests. When action is required on our part we typically like to practice Biological Control method. This method consists of using beneficial predatory insects that feed on the undesirable insect and control the population.
Depending on the crop there may be no insects to control a particular pest. When biological control is not an option we must decide if the crop is going to be severely affected by this particular pest. If the pest is going to greatly effect our yields or quality this is when we must take chemical action. When we choose a chemical to use we look for the least harmful pesticide possible to apply and generally wash the vegetables before sale to ensure all residue is gone. There are, however, very few crops on our farm that we use pesticides on. We do our best to promote healthy soils at our farm. This produces healthy plants which are typically much more nutritious than our competitors.