Next issue will be posted June 25, 2008. Read previous issues through our calendar of issues.

Greenhouse grower and consumer perception of sustainably grown floriculture crops
During the past few years the floriculture industry has been forced to review and change its production, marketing and social practices due to negative publicity from books and the media. This and increasing environmental awareness by consumers has led to an industry-wide sustainability movement and to the development and current evaluation of the Draft American National Standard for Trial Use for Sustainable Agriculture. Consequently, the evaluation of alternative cultural methods and products that leads to sustainable poinsettia production is essential to meet the increasing demand of today’s retailers and consumers.

Cover crops, if managed properly, can be an effective alternative to external fertilizer as a nutrient source for field crops. Our research over the past two years has investigated the use of several cover crops to determine their suitability for use as nutrient sources for horticulture crops. Below is a summary of the first year of a two-year research project being conducted at the Purdue University Meigs Horticulture Research Facility investigating cover crop use in vegetable crop rotations. The project was conducted in 2007 and is being repeated in 2008.

Figure 1. Comparison of our rotation wheat where no nitrogen has been applied since red clover incorporation and wheat that had 8.5 tons of cattle manure/acre applied prior to planting.

Figure 2. Soil inorganic nitrogen levels following incorporation of various cover crops at cover crop planting, incorporation and 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks after incorporation. (Click on image for larger graph.)

Hairy vetch, winter rye, annual ryegrass and buckwheat grew well in 2007 despite lack of moisture and are growing well so far this year despite the late planting date in mid-April. Red clover and alfalfa were difficult to establish and a poor stand was obtained in both 2007 and in 2008.

The 2008 Farm Sustainability Tour continues on July 24 at Langeland Farms in Decatur County, Indiana with a workshop on organic food production. Participants will visit different farms in Decatur County that use organic practices. One of the keynote speakers will be Gary Reding, who will talk about the organic practices used on Langeland Farms including the transition of the farm from non-organic to a certified organic farm.

1. To support time and efforts of staff in organic professional development, service delivery, and outreach efforts, both on behalf of the Partner itself and in collaboration with other MOU Partners.
2. To formally notify all employees about the organizations status as an MOU Partner.
3. To prominently acknowledge the organizations status as an Organic MOU Partner on its organizational web site.
4. To encourage and support organic research, demonstrations, and field days to showcase production practices, conservation measures, economic performance, and other considerations related to organic production.
5. To support an annual Minnesota Organic Conference by providing funds, speakers, and/or other resources, and to encourage selected staff to attend the conference for professional development.
6. To share information about organic conferences, newsletters, and training opportunities.
7. To appoint and empower one staff person to participate in MOU-related discussions and decision-making on behalf of the Partner and attend an annual meeting of Partner organizations.
8. To contribute a summary of the Partners MOU-related activities and other topical content, as appropriate to the Partners technical expertise, for inclusion in the Status of Organic Agriculture in Minnesota report to the Minnesota Legislature, which is compiled by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture on a biennial basis.

Eight on-farm trials focusing on integrated weed management were conducted in 2007 to further explore topics from the MSU Extension bulletin, “Integrated Weed Management ‘One year’s seeding…’.” The following trials were conducted on certified organic farms across the North Central Region from Michigan to Iowa.
Intercropping for weed control in corn (Alma, Michigan).
Intercropping with buckwheat and oat in corn (North Branch, Michigan).
Mulches for common purslane control in tomato (Urbana, Illinios).
Ridge-till vs. conventional-till in soybean (Harlan, Iowa).
Cultivator comparisons for weed management (Schoolcraft, Michigan).
Flaming and rotary hoeing in corn (Creston, Iowa).
Flaming and rotary hoeing in soybean (Alma, Michigan).
Non-synthetic herbicide for weed control in soybean (West Bend, Wisconsin).

The results of these trials (including color photos) can be found at http://www.msuweeds.com/publications/ in the Integrated Weed Management section.

Indiana
South Central Indiana, Brown County—Dale Rhoads
We have continued to experience a lot of rain and cooler weather. Just in the past several days, temperatures have begun to be above 80ºF during the day. This has finally started all crops to grow more vigorously. We have had to hit the right times to work ground when it is dry enough.

The wet, cool weather has made fire blight of some concern on the fruit trees, but not as bad as some prior years when it was wet and warm. We have heavy fruit set on all the trees and fruit thinning has been and is still an issue. It appears that the June drop is going to be heavy, which will help some.

We just experienced 11 inches of rain, but because it was spread over 10 hours, it did minimal soil erosion damage. We experienced no flooding. We have more rain coming tonight, which could be heavy again. The only crop it has delayed getting into the ground has been sweet corn.

Currently, we are finishing up the outside plantings of basil, squash, etc. We mulched everything heavily before planting and have had minimal weeding to do except for head lettuce, which we sterile seed-bedded and hoed only twice, which makes for a good return on the labor we put in. We are harvesting salad greens, head lettuce, kale, chard and green onions.

We are trying to find a dry spell to get the rest of and majority of the corn planted. We have a bit of mulching to do around tomatoes in the greenhouse. We are mowing around field edges, etc., to keep grass seeding into growing areas to a minimum. We are keeping up with fruit tree sprays and fruit thinning. We are doing some weeding on mulched areas. We are harvesting a lot now, just not summer things like squash and basil yet.

Illinois
Northern Illinois, Kane County – David Campbell of Lily Lake Organic Farm
We received two inches of rain during the past two days. I’m hoping to get back into the fields later this week, although there is more rain in the forecast. Recent warm weather, along with more than adequate moisture, has helped early growth of corn.

All of my cornfields were rotary-hoed for the second time this past week. I was very fortunate on the timing of hoeing; able to hoe all three fields just after spiking, and just before more rain. Weed pressure isn’t too bad at this time, and corn is growing fast. No other fieldwork has taken place in the past four days. Emphasis this week will be working on servicing hay equipment so that once the rains shut off, I can spend as much time in the field as possible.

I will plan to start planting soybeans as soon as fields dry out, followed by rotary hoeing beans twice, weather permitting. I would like to start harvesting hay as soon as possible, although the ground needs to dry out first. Alfalfa is presently at 10 percent bloom. I most likely will need to tedder all of my first cutting hay, because of wet soil surface. Corn will also need to be cultivated for the first time as soon as possible.

West Central Illinois, Fulton County—Anne Patterson of Living Earth Farm
This is getting rather repetitive. I poured out another one-half inch from the gauge last night after returning from a quick trip to Iowa. I have had 4.6 inches of rain over the past week. At least it wasn’t in two hours time! I will not complain as folks in Iowa are begging for more sandbaggers. My prayers go out to all those affected by floods, hail and tornadoes. We will start mowing weeds if it ever dries out. I doubt we will ever be able to catch up with all the hoeing now at this time of year with so many other things needing to be done in a day. I don’t have a crew of workers, volunteers or family. It’s me and one part-time worker of 30 hours per week. Sometimes I call in another college student on harvest days. We can’t wheel hoe, but must hand pull weeds due to conditions. The several days of 90ºF weather has promoted early greens, bok choi and spinach to bolt.

Currently, I am harvesting twice a week for e-customers, weeding and mulching.  All second crop summer crops were transplanted this past Sunday in a marathon day of putting everything I could in a field. Maybe not the bed I had planned on, but in the ground before the next rains.

Activities planned over the next two weeks include:

• Clear and prep old bed to plant buckwheat.
• Plant mammoth red clover plus oats between rows of winter and summer squash for weed suppression and nutrient replenishment, that is if I can ever get a wheel hoe down the areas to rid small weeds.
• First tie-up of tomatoes must happen.
• Mulch tomatoes, pepper, eggplant and cucumbers. 
• Still need to transplant brussel sprouts.
• Continue with my every 10-day tray seeding of lettuce.
• Start on all transplants that will need to go out in early July for fall/early winter.
• Replant 200 feet of sweet potatoes and more bush beans due to crop failures.
• Start selling at a new farmer’s market in Peoria Heights along with e-customers.

Question
How are other producers faring with their battle of weeds under these extreme weather conditions?

Michigan
South Central Michigan, Calhoun County—Anthony Cinzoni
We went from cold, windy and dry to hot, windy and wet.  Crops look a little beat up, but should come around.  We just got power back last night around 11:00 PM, it had been out since Sunday afternoon.  Along with the power, a tree branch went through my newest greenhouse.

We are done planting the first planting of all the summer crops.  We need to do some cultivating, and it looks like a lot of hand weeding in the early cole crops, onions and potatoes.

In the next weeks, we will plant winter squash and pumpkins.  Plant the second batch of cole crops, and try to catch up on the weeds.