Chemical Agriculture 203: Ecological Diseases

A number of ecoloogical diseases have lead to undesirable consequences in agriculture. This was a surprise to some as it was thought that monocultures would not negatively affect society.

The technical terms for these diseases are "diseases of the ecotope" and "diseases of the biocoenosis".

Chemical Agricuture 202: Monoculture - Limited Crop Rotation

A monoculture is the human agricultural practice of growing a single species crop over a wide area and for many consecutive years. The most common monoculture is field corn, where millions of acres per year are grown and sometimes in the same place for many years.

At face value this would seem very efficient as specialized corn planting and harvesting equipment can allow one farmer to grow thousands of acres per year. However the monoculture has a dark side which we will explore in this post.

Chemical Agriculture 200: Elucidation

When I was in high school I was the poster child for modern chemical agriculture. I grew up on a chemical agriculture farm and spent the first 25 years of my life being "educated" by a system that brought us the "green revolution" and I don't mean recycling. I was FFA (Future Farmers of America) chapter president for three years and took 4 years of Ag training while in high school. I was an avid reader (still am) and read every book I could get my hands on how to grow corn, soybeans, oats, sorghum, alfalfa, and clover.

I also studied livestock husbandry. I wrote a 50 page thesis on bacterial diseases of livestock for my high school biology class. I was so interested in this that I borrowed all the books our local veterinary (a recent graduate of Iowa State University) had on bacteriology, biology, and livestock diseases. I read them cover to cover and then asked if I could use his micro scopes, centrifuge, stains and antibiotic sensitivity disks to identify various livestock bacteria. What newly minted PhD in veterinary science could turn down such a wannabe disciple. He and I had a great time my sophomore year in high school reviewing the basics of veterinary bacteriology. Looking back on it was probably a good review for him too. He was a very talented surgeon and was very good at diagnosing problems. By the time I was off to college I had inoculated and vaccinated thousands of head of livestock (on our farm) for various common and minor maladies.

I share this with the reader so you understand I'm not just an organic zealot (yes I am that), but I understand the other side of the coin pretty well.

Elucidation is a verb meaning to explain and make a subject that is hard to understand clear or easy to understand. The root of the word is from the Latin "lucid" to make clear. Let's look deeper...

1491 - America Before Columbus

Last week we had several history lessons, we are transitioning from the history of several world changing plants to considering how several civilizations "bio-engineered" their soils. Charles Mann in his book 1491 talks about what America was like before Columbus. It is a very interesting read and has much food for thought. He says the Native American populations were vast. To feed their civilization they were able to grow massive crops through highly advanced agriculture.

At the same time that the North American Natives were building their civilization with temperate soils the cultures of the central Amazon were building their civilization in rain forest soils with extremely low fertility. Thousands of years later the soils they engineered are some of the most fertile in the world. These soils are so persistent that they actually grow back when the top layer is removed.

Both civilizations sustained hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions with their ancient growing techniques. I think there is a lot to learn from what they did.

So how does this apply to Market Gardening in Minnesota?

Fish Like the Pilgrims

One of the fertilizers used by the pilgrims when the native americans taught them to grow corn was to put a fish in each hill of corn.

Fish is still one of the best organic fertilizers in an organic production system. But instead of putting a whole fish in the hole, today's fish is an emulsion from the parts of the fresh water fish that is left after the filet is removed.

The reason fish is such a good fertilizer is that it has a widely diverse set of nutrients and all are in an organic form. The calcium from the bones of the fish are especially good an countering blossum end rot in growing tomatoes. A dilute solution of fish works very well on both foliage and roots. It is mild enough that it will never burn. Just don't apply to the fruit.

Fish is somewhat expensive for the commercial grower but isn't to bad for the home grower. You can pick up a gallon at Sargents or Fleet Farm here in Rochester, MN.