Hawaii Organic Farmers Association

We see lots of air time given to the use of cover crops in agriculture and rightly so as they have a myriad of potential applications including building soil organic matter, protecting soil from erosion during fallow periods, reducing weed populations, building soil nitrogen, and suppressing certain pests such as root knot nematodes. For the last year we have been using cover crops to help rebuild our soil fertility as we try and recover from 15 years of conventional farming and start the journey towards a sustainable organic farm.

We have experimented with different cover crops to see which ones do the best in our microclimate (1900’ on the dry side of Maui…only 20-24” of rainfall a year and supplemental with irrigation). There are many good resources available but each farmer will have to experiment to find what works best in their setting. For example, some legume mixes with beans don’t work well here as we have lots of pressure from birds who seem to like bean sprouts as well as any of us. We broadcast seed our fields by hand in quarter acre fields and then cover them with a chain harrow; that is technically the cheapest way although the well prepared farm can use a drill seeder or modified fertilizer spreader for seeding. Killing and incorporating cover crops can be a challenge in our climate as we do not get cold winter kills. We use a flail mower (40 HP tractor) first to reduce particle size, then till in the residue with a rototiller which also kills the plants. We will let the residue sit for 2 weeks before reseeding with another crop or planting a cash crop. To aid decomposition of organic matter and build soil microbial populations we spray 50 gallons of compost tea on the residue and then work that in with a disc harrow. We try and rotate the cover crops to provide a range of food sources for soil microbes.

We found that sunn hemp, a mustard mix and annual rye grass worked the best with the least amount of irrigation. Annual alfalfa, clovers, and vetch (which seemed to be a slow grower) were less satisfactory due to poor competition with weeds or limited drought tolerance. We had to irrigate the cover crops enough to get them started and once a shade canopy formed then both soil moisture losses decreased and the weeds started to lose out as well. Sunn hemp is a vigorous plant that fixes nitrogen(N) and when ready to be cut down it is covered with yellow flowers that attract lots of insects. If you are going to use a legume be sure to apply the innoculant (easy and inexpensive) to maximize N fixation. Legumes fix N and we have found that either mixing them in with nonleguminous crops such as rye, buckwheat and oats or rotating a legume-nonlegume cover crop is a good idea. We found that mustard mix, while not leguminous, generates an amazing fast growing canopy of plants that really chokes weeds; like the sunn hemp, mature mustard is coved with flowers and attracts an amazing amount of insects. We estimate that in our corn fields we have reduced weed problems by 80% simply by using cover crops. Typically in a dense planting of cover crops the weeds are able to germinate but not go to seed. By rotating 3 sets of cover crops through our fields we have severely dented the weed seed bank left over from the years of conventional approaches. Annual rye grass worked very well once established and creates a dense mat of fibrous roots and organic matter. If weeds were able to make their way through the cover crop we would go through the field with a weed eater and take out the tops once the seeds heads had started to form but were not mature (timing is everything).

We have had great success so far with cover crops. In the past, our 4 acre farm has suffered from dramatic erosion problems during the winter Kona rains with an NRCS estimate of 6T/acre/year of soil loss. With the heavy rains this winter we were able to reduce our runoff and erosion by 95%; cover crops played a key role in this as we had essentially no bare soil exposed during the rainy season. I would encourage more farmers to try cover crops: they are inexpensive (our quarter acre fields cost us about $25-50 in seed depending on plant type and about the same in water usage) and the return you get is more than worth it. Properly grown sunn hemp for example should be able to fix all of the N that sweet corn requires in a growing season (providing you have healthy microbe populations in your soil!!) Be sure to get some reading under your belt and especially research which crops might present problems with weediness. If you are interested in seeing Gerry’s success at Kupa’a Farm or want more information about his story please contact:

Gerry Ross, Kupa'a Farm, Box 458, Kula HI 96790 Phone: (808) 876-0678 lavaboy@hawaiiantel.net

Some Resources:

Managing Cover Crops Profitably

An excellent and easy to read book with lots of practical information.

Available from SARE web site:

www.sare.org/publications/index.htm or ACRES USA.

CTAHR website

This website is pretty comprehensive and includes the results of trials in Hawaii at Waimanolo.

www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/Database.asp

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply

They are a good source of cover crop seeds and inoculants and have lots of information about specific crops.

http://www.groworganic.com

Ko’olau Seed on Oahu is a great source of sunn hemp seed which is proving hard to find unfortunately.

Bio-Intensive Sustainable Mini Farming with John Jeavons by Margi Gomez

John Jeavons is, in turns warm, blunt, deadly serious, and twinkling with humor. Author and mega gardener, Jeavons, at the Mendocino Community Garden in Mendocino, recently gave a diverse coastal audience a hands on opportunity to take advantage of his nearly forty years of experience in growing soil as a path to feeding the world.

Jeavons teachings embrace the efficient use of physical labor. “Properly performed, labor is not tedious or enervating, but strengthening and rewarding.” In his Mendocino workshop, he engaged an audience member in a bit of “garden Aikido” to make his point.

Statistician turned farmer, Jeavons is best known for the classic book, How to Grow More Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine, which was first published in 1974. Now in it’s sixth printing, it is a detailed how-to guide to high yield gardening methods that Jeavons says have been used by successful traditional societies for thousands of years. Premier among these techniques is the “Double Dig” method of soil preparation, which emphasizes proper aeration of the soil, and which produces, according to Jeavons, yields up to 4 times the amount of food as conventional modern methods of agriculture. Looking more like a college professor than a farmer, Jeavons kept the interested crowd chuckling as he walked them through his world-renowned method of ultra efficient high-yield mini-farming. Jeavons’ GROW BIOINTENSIVE Sustainable Mini-Farming Program sponsored by the non-profit organization Ecology Action, grew out of Jeavons’ curiosity and idealism.

Jeavons said, “I asked the question, ‘How much land would it take to feed one person for a year?’” When Jeavons went to the San Joaquin Valley to ask this, he was told, “…with roughly 1,000 acres of wheat in a good year you can break even. In a bad year you can go broke.” He knew then, he says, that it was up to him to find the answer to his question.

In the early seventies, Jeavons says he was, “lucky enough to run into Alan Chadwick at his fledgling organic biodynamic/French intensive gardening site in the hills above the University of California-Santa Cruz. “The soil was way too rocky, there was limited water used and many said it would not work,” Jeavons recalls. He adds, “He was very successful there. He never answered phone calls, but he answered mine. He knew I was serious. He was a very special person.”

With roots in the Palo Alto area, Jeavons and his colleagues at his research garden based in Willits, stress a simple, low tech but highly sophisticated approach to raising food sustainably. Jeavons says the site in the Willits eastern highlands, with what he describes as its’ “soil rated only fair for grazing, marginal water, and steep slopes,” is perfectly suited to Ecology Action’s need for a demonstration site that would replicate an average growing situation in many places on the planet. He emphasizes the scientific principles which underlie traditional agricultural systems, including those of China, Japan, Guatemala, Greece, Peru, Russia, and others. These systems, says Jeavons, developed independently of one another, but all managed to address the critical task of feeding growing populations with minimal resource consumption.

Jeavons’ mission is no less than that of feeding the world. He is a master at producing the sobering statistics sufficient to make his point, including the recent breakdown in agriculture in the United States. “In the 1980’s 100,000 farmers went bankrupt each year for ten years. By the end of that decade, this totaled 1,000,000 less farms. Did you know that “farmer” is no longer a category in the U.S. Census? That’s what’s happened.

The mini-farming system, which Jeavons has developed over the years, is known as GROW BIOINTENSIVE^®The method focuses on soil

preparation and aeration in order to create an optimal environment for growth. It emphasizes 8 major points: Double dug, raised beds, in which the gardener digs 12 inches down and then loosens the soil an additional 12 inches, which retains moisture and minimizes erosion, Composting, to provide the elements necessary for the biological cycles needed to build the soil that provides nutrients needed for higher yields, Intensive Planting, which places seeds or seedlings the same distance from other plants around it in order to create a mini climate which protects macrobiotic life, retards weed growth, and facilitates higher yields, Companion planting, useful in repelling some pests and attracting other beneficial insect life, Carbon-and-Calorie Farming, which uses dual purpose seed and grain crops in 60% of the growing area, planted both for edible consumption as well as for the large amount of carbonaceous material used to build compost, Calorie Farming, which provides for the production of sufficient calories by using special high-calorie-producing root crops such as potatoes, garlic, leeks and parsnips in 30% of the growing area, (the remaining 10% of the area is used to grow vegetable crops for additional vitamins and minerals plus income), Open-Pollinated Seeds, which avoid the use of so-called Green Revolution or genetically modified seeds, which compromise the world’s critical genetic diversity, and a Whole Gardening Method, which emphasizes the stricture that GROW INTENSIVE as a whole system and that its components must be used together for optimum effect. The use of some of these techniques without the use of the others can rapidly deplete soil because of the method’s high yields.

At the Mendocino Garden event, Jeavons smelled the soil and exhorted the large crowd to use less energy to do more in their gardens. “I want to give all you men a new definition of macho,” he joked, as he demonstrated a graceful “arabesque,” enabling painless and deep digging, which, Jeavons says, is the secret of increased yields through the creation of a living sponge cake with good soil structure as well as decreased water usage. Once the structure is developed, one only needs to loosen the upper 2 inches of the soil with a hula hoe, he said.

Ecology Action, the non-profit organization which Jeavons heads, has published about 40 books and self-teaching mini-series booklets on the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and related topics plus numerous information sheets. Bountiful Gardens, its non-profit mail order service, has a catalog which is an adventure in learning for the avid gardener, as well offering inspiration and hope for the future.

“The key to a productive, healthy garden is the preparation of the growing beds. A well prepared bed with loose soil to a depth of 24 inches allows the roots of the plants to grow evenly and to provide a steady supply of nutrients to the rest of the plant.” Healthy roots grow healthy and more productive plants.

Jeavons cites diminishing crop diversity as one of the greatest threats to mankind’s survival.

He also sings the praises of compost, encouraging gardeners to think of themselves as growing soil first, then vegetables and other food crops. He explains that compost has a dual function. “It improves the structure of the soil, making it more arable and water retentive, while also providing needed nutrients the soil’s microbial life which in turn become food for good plant growth. The humus created by the microbes ensures that those nutrients will be retained and available in the soil as they are needed. Healthy soils, in turn, enable plants to better resist disease.”

For more information about John Jeavons and Ecology Action go to:

bountifulgardens.org and growbiointensive.org.

USDA Designates Honolulu and Kauai Counties as Natural Disaster Areas

The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated Kauai and Honolulu Counties as natural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by winds, rain, and flooding that occurred from February 20, 2006 through March 26, 2006.

These counties were designated on April 24, 2006 making established farmers who suffered qualifying physical and production losses eligible for low-interest emergency (EM) loans from the Farm Service Agency (FSA). FSA will accept EM applications from farmers in Honolulu and Kauai Counties through December 26, 2006. FSA has a variety of programs available in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from natural disasters.

Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers below for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available at:

http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov

*Honolulu County FSA Office

Phone: (808) 483-8600 Ext. 2

FAX: (808) 483-8615

*Kauai County FSA Office

Phone: (808) 245-9014 Ext. 2

FAX: (808) 246-4639

Blended Fertilizers Containing Processed Manures By: Kelly Lange

The HOFA Certification Committee recently passed a unanimous vote to allow the use of some processed manure materials without the “prior to harvest” day restrictions. Previously, any blended fertilizer that contained manure not composted according to the NOP §205.203(c)(2), was considered raw and had to be applied according to the raw manure regulations; not less than 90 days prior to harvest of a product whose edible portion does not come in contact with the soil and not less than 120 days if the edible portion does contact the soil.

Based on recommendations made in May 2002 by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) Compost Task Force and congruent with many other certifiers around the country, processed manure products that adhere to the following description will be allowed for use without restrictions.

Processed manure materials must be made from manure that has been heated to a temperature in excess of 150°F for one hour or more and dried to a moisture level of 12% or less, or an equivalent heating and drying process that produces a product that is negative for pathogenic contamination by salmonella and fecal coliform material.

This NOSB recommendation is provided as guidance only and does not constitute a Federal regulation. Furthermore, this guidance is subject to change as needed by USDA pending new information and/or comments received from interested parties.

All processed manure products must be reviewed for compliance to receive prior to harvest day restriction exempt status. To date, the only products submitted for review to receive exempt status are BioFlora Organic Chicken Nuggets 4-6-3 and BioFlora Dry Organic Crumbles 7-8-4 manufactured by Global Organics.

Producers of any agricultural commodity or product certified as organic under the NOP must continue to meet the fundamental requirements for processing and applying plant and animal materials for soil fertility and crop nutrient management practices as described in §205.203(c) NOP. This section states:

The producer must manage plant and animal materials to maintain or improve soil organic matter content in a manner that does not contribute to contamination of crops, soil, or water by plant nutrients, pathogenic organisms, heavy metals, or residues of prohibited substances.

Hawaii Organic Farmers Association (HOFA)
P.O. Box 6863, Hilo, HI 96720
Phone: (808) 969-7789 Toll Free: (877) 674-4632 Fax: (808) 969-7759
Email: hofa@hawaiiorganicfarmers.org
Copyright 2002