Posted: Sunday, August 20, 2006 12:00 am
Daren Gee/On the Farm
Here it is August again and I/m starting to think about next year/s crop of strawberries, as we/re still harvesting this year/s berries. We will continue to harvest this year/s strawberry crop until November.
Unfortunately, we have to prepare and plant next year/s strawberry field in October of this year. When I think about all the operations that must take place before planting, I think of the millions of farmers before me and all of the technology and skill they passed onto us. We stand on their shoulders and we make order out of chaos.
As we changed from hunters and gatherers to societies centered on domestic animals and cultivated crops, the history of farming began. And, along with farming came man/s desire for order and natures quest for chaos.
What do I mean by chaos when talking about nature and farming? From man/s early attempts to cultivate food he has disturbed natures desires for random selection. Farmers like everything in nice neat rows, nature loves chaos, chaos and more chaos. Nature/s true beauty is her ability to take all the tools at her dispo-sal and destroy man/s farming order.
Today we have beautiful tractors and wonderful implements to loosen and rake the soil for the best of fertility. But, under the soil lies nature/s armies of destruction. From major soil diseases like verticillium, fusarium, and phytothera to root nibblers like sclarotinia, pythium and rhizoctonia. These are names right out of Greek mythology, but to a farmer, anyone of these diseases unchecked can create a living hell.
Luckily for farmers, scientists discovered methyl bromide, a product that the earth produces daily. Bromine is produced by all the oceans of the world and the largest source is the Dead Sea of Israel. This product can be put in the soil, under plastic, and will control most soil diseases up to six months and give strawberry plants a welcomed head start against nature/s greatest destroyers.
If diseases weren/t enough, nature has microscopic worms called nematodes at her disposal to destroy crops. The application of methyl bromide will control nematodes and weed seed (mother nature/s flowers), but for only a short period of time. My job as a farmer is to get these plants as big and strong as possible before these pests can regroup.
Now, let/s assume we have been successful controlling our soil problems, here comes Mother Nature/s aerial attacks. No sooner have our plants pushed leaves and the worms start their hungry push. Chomp, chomp. Today we have baits and good bacterials to slow these worms down, but in the old days, you just hoped that you had plenty of good hungry birds.
At this point, you would think we could relax and just watch our plants grow, well, that is definitely not the case. With the winter rains, we have a whole host of wonderful problems starting with leaf spot, mildew and botrytis. These are aerial fungi that attack leaves, flowers and fruit. We have chemical tools for these diseases. The timing and the products are all critical for control.
If we make it through the winter, Mother Nature introduces us to spider mites. These mites are so small you need a magnifying glass to see their colonies.
These two spotted spider mites, as we call them, can reproduce at lightening speed and suck the life/s juices out of our plants. We have a predator mite and some great chemicals, one of which was found in nature called Agri-mek. Agri-mek was discovered by Merck Chemical. This same product in a different for- mulation has saved mil- lions of children from parasitic worms, thank you Merck.
There is one more mite that can be even more de- vastating then the two spot and that is the cyclamen mite which can live deep inside strawberry plants. If this mite finds a home in your plants, it is almost impossible to control. This mite will consume your flowers and damage leaves before they form leaving you with ugly fruit that can/t be sold.
It/s March now and I/m happy to say we have big beautiful strawberries to harvest, and just think, the only issues that I have in front of me are birds, weather, white fly, lygus, thrips, mildew, botrytis and the markets. With so few concerns for the next five months, life looks like a walk in the park, wouldn/t you think.
As I look back on the many aspects of farming, it occurs to me that farming is a lot like raising children. You need good fertility, you need to immunize, and you need lots of nutritious food. Throw in some sunlight and a lot of daily care and you have a great crop, as well as great kids. And let/s hope nature/s chaos doesn/t interfere in our perfect plan.
Santa Maria Valley strawberry grower Daren Gee of DB Specialty Farms can be reached at 928-9114.
Aug. 20, 2006