Starting steps for greenhouse organic certification
John Biernbaum ,
Horticulture
Tom Dudek, MSU Extension,
The demand and shelf space allotted to organically grown fruits and vegetables has been growing and overall organic sales increases are generally listed at 20% per year over the past eight to ten years. We are also seeing an increasing demand from consumers for organically grown herbs, vegetable transplants and even flowers. For those greenhouses that wish to capture part of the market opportunity, there are some steps you need to follow to insure your plant products can be certified organic and you need to understand organic production practices
We have put together some starting steps. This is by no means the complete article on how to convert over to a new growing system, but it is a starting point. For additional information, contact your local MSU Extension Greenhouse Educator.
1. Start the process of finding a certifier
early. You need to to have a certificate in hand before you start marketing and since the crop time
is often short, you should have the certificate at the start of production.
The process of application, inspection, review and final notification takes months,
and with the increased demand for certification, there can be a shortage of
inspectors and possible delays.
When not growing in ground beds or soil, there will not be a three-year
transition period. A new greenhouse can be certified immediately.
We are not sure of the time requirement for a greenhouse where pesticides have
been used. It may be a year, perhaps less.
The application for certification includes providing a “farm plan” that
outlines cultural methods and practices. To our knowledge, there is not
currently a farm plan template for certifying only a greenhouse. The
information needed is imbedded in the vegetable and specialty crop farm plan
template in the transplant production section. (example
available at www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/cropsworkbook.pdf). For a greenhouse, the plan would include
describing how fertility and plant health (i.e. pest management) are
managed. A list of any products used
would be submitted with the plan.
Organic seed is required if available, and lack of organic seed needs to
be demonstrated. It is reasonable to
assume that many times organic seeds will not be available. A listing of organic seed suppliers is
available at www.attra.org, and a new database
is in development for the OMRI website.
Vegetative material would have to come from organically managed stock
plants.
A list of possible certifiers is provided in the Michigan Department of Agriculture
website www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-1567_1600_21619-55175--,00.html
2. Learn how to handle media and
fertility. This is covered in the Organic Transplant Production
article written by Dr. Biernbaum. See below.
Option 1.
Buy a certified mix. Many media companies are now offering mixes that have been
certified as organic.
Option 2.
Make a certifiable mix with organic fertilizers
Option 3. Make a certifiable
mix using compost. (This is the preferred method.)
3. Learn about pest management
options for all greenhouse diseases and insects that may impact the crops
you are growing.
What strategies reduce these pests?
What spray materials are allowed and
how to use them?
A list of allowable materials is available from www.OMRI.org
and from www.ATTRA.org as resources.
4. More Resources. An excellent article on Producing Greenhouse Transplants was written by Dr. Biernbaum and is available at http://www.ipm.msu.edu/pdf/Biernbaum-Transplants.pdf
Also an article on the same subject is available at the
ATTRA website: www.attra.org/attra-pub/summaries/plugs.html