Resources, attention to soil aid in organic pest control

As organic agriculture has steadily grown to become a multi-billion-dollar industry, the sources of information for organic farmers have also steadily grown in number and sophistication.

The University of California recently published separate manuals for the organic production of strawberries, vegetables and winegrapes.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service has developed a search engine that can be used to find organically approved materials to help manage a wide range of disease and insect pests.

The search engine, titled Biologicals: Ecological Pest Management Database, can be searched beginning with the pest type, the active ingredient in the material or the organic pesticide trade name. It can be found at https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/biorationals/.

"That's a very useful tool that's available. Diseases are one of the hardest things to manage in an organic system because there aren't a lot of products," said Randy Dodds, manager of organic products at Brandt Monterey.

Dodds made his comments as growers, researchers and industry representatives discussed organic pest management during the Northern California chapter of the California Association of Pest Control Advisors seminar on organic production in Chico this July.

Monterey AgOrganics, which was acquired by Brandt Consolidated in 2009, also provides a database of organic materials that can be searched online at www.montereyagorganics.com/.

But farmers and researchers at the seminar emphasized that in organic production, knowledge of pest control materials is secondary to the primary emphasis on experience in building healthy soil.

"I put a lot of emphasis on building up the soil, which drives everything we do, and on crop rotation. I think you can farm organically and have yields comparable to conventional after enough time," said Scott Park, who farms 1,500 acres organically as Park Farming Organics in Meridian.

Rotation, and timing to avoid peak pest pressure months, form the foundation of Park's insect pest control program, which is one reason he grows a wide range of crops including processing tomatoes, rice, wheat, oats, flax, field corn, safflower, seed crops and many varieties of dry beans.

"A lot of the insect control I get is from rotation and timing of planting," Park said.

But, he cautioned, "The learning curve on growing organically never ends."

Other farmers at the seminar also emphasized the long learning curve and the long process involved in building organic soil.

"It takes time to build up an organic profile. It's going to take years to build the organic matter in the soil profile to get yields comparable to conventional," said Cindy Daley, California State University, Chico, professor.

Since Daley started the organic dairy unit on the Chico campus, she has found that building the organic pasture soil is the single most important investment in the program.

"I make money by paying attention to my soil, so I am producing rocket fuel in my pasture," Daley said.

Other farmers at the seminar agreed that paying attention to their organic soil has brought a substantial economic benefit.

"I was disappointed in the returns my father and I were making on conventional crops. Now, we don't have a production loan, which I think is pretty rare in agriculture," said Ed Sills, who farms 3,000 acres of organic rice, dry beans, wheat and other crops as Pleasant Grove Farms.

"I think the most important things are crop rotation, which is a key to pest control, cover crops and crop residue, so everything is going back into the ground," Sills said.

In addition to building organic matter in the soil, there can also be benefits from adding biological agents that control soilborne diseases.

"If we feed the soil, if we make it friendly to beneficial organisms, we will have healthier plants. We also have biocontrol agents like Contans, which parasitizes sclerotinia to help eradicate it," Dodds said.

There are also other management resources in the organic pest control toolbox.

Disease-resistant varieties are even more important to organic production, and Dodds advised taking the time to research what's available before making a planting decision.

"There's quite a list of diseases we have crop resistance to, so it pays to research before you choose an annual crop variety. And don't double-crop with the same plant family," Dodds said.

Solarization can be an effective organic weed control technique, according to John Roncoroni, a University of California Cooperative Extension weed farm advisor based in Napa.

"You fill the soil profile with water and cover it with clear tarp for six weeks. You want the longest days, so you start three weeks before June 21, and keep the tarp on until three weeks after June 21," Roncoroni said.

There is a little more margin for error when soil solarization is used to control disease pathogens.

"With soil solarization, the temperature doesn't have to be quite as high for disease control, because most of the disease pathogens die at lower temperatures than weeds," Dodds said.

These cultural practices are also used in conventional farming, but they have to be used effectively in organic farming.

"When we think about organic pest management, the concepts are the same, we just have fewer tools in the box so you have to be more conscientious about your program," said Tom Quick, global sales manager for Grow More, a small fertilizer company outside of Los Angeles.

But just as the available information about organic pest management continues to grow, so does the list of organically acceptable pest management materials.

"The good news is we have organically approved pest control materials. We've had them for years, but now we have a lot more of them," Quick said.

(Bob Johnson is a reporter in Magalia. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@aol.com.)