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JackE · January 17, 2011

Jonathon--

That sounds too time-consuming for your present operation- or ours Just 1/4 acre of sweet corn with 12" spacing and 24" row centers is about 5K plants - 2 ears per plant (on paper - not in real life LOL). That would be way too much to ask of your help. I fear that you are going to discover, with two-acres of vegetables, that many of the organic solutions that work in your home garden are going to be too labor-intensive for your market garden.

Organic produce brings premium prices because labor and chemical costs are so high. A 55 gal drum of 4%N fish emulsion cost a friend of mine $1200 + freight, for example , and it dpoesn't go all that far. The Neem oil insecticide he uses would be prohibitive for us.

Successful organic agriculture requires a special kind of upscale market. Organic solutions work as well as conventional (if you know what you're doing LOL) - they're just not competitive in the general marketplace. It's a niche market - and a VERY lucrative one too! But not consistent with the objectives of our projects - at least not on an economic level.

We have to mechanize as much of this as we can - otherwise we will work our volunteers to death and the project will collapse. I see on FB that y'all have a tractor - what implements do you have? What do you spread all that manure with -landscape rake? Do you have pto-driven tiller or do y'all just use discs?

We have a 60 gal trailer mounted sprayer that runs-off the pto. Couldn't get along without it. We use it for everything - fertilizer, watering new seedbeds, etc.

Jack

January 17, 2011	#13
JackE Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Woodville, Texas Posts: 520	Jonathon-- That sounds too time-consuming for your present operation- or ours Just 1/4 acre of sweet corn with 12" spacing and 24" row centers is about 5K plants - 2 ears per plant (on paper - not in real life LOL). That would be way too much to ask of your help. I fear that you are going to discover, with two-acres of vegetables, that many of the organic solutions that work in your home garden are going to be too labor-intensive for your market garden. Organic produce brings premium prices because labor and chemical costs are so high. A 55 gal drum of 4%N fish emulsion cost a friend of mine $1200 + freight, for example , and it dpoesn't go all that far. The Neem oil insecticide he uses would be prohibitive for us. Successful organic agriculture requires a special kind of upscale market. Organic solutions work as well as conventional (if you know what you're doing LOL) - they're just not competitive in the general marketplace. It's a niche market - and a VERY lucrative one too! But not consistent with the objectives of our projects - at least not on an economic level. We have to mechanize as much of this as we can - otherwise we will work our volunteers to death and the project will collapse. I see on FB that y'all have a tractor - what implements do you have? What do you spread all that manure with -landscape rake? Do you have pto-driven tiller or do y'all just use discs? We have a 60 gal trailer mounted sprayer that runs-off the pto. Couldn't get along without it. We use it for everything - fertilizer, watering new seedbeds, etc. Jack Last edited by JackE; January 17, 2011 at 08:38 AM.