Week 4 Summer Semester (May 24 and 26) – Busy at the Orchard!

By Leanne Ejack

KPU AGRI 3390 student

After a blitz day of spreading compost, transplanting, thinning, and harvesting on the terraces on last Thursday’s class, we decided to devote both class days this week to the Orchard.

We started off Tuesday’s class by doing a check on the emergence of the crops we had planted over the last few weeks (carrots, scallions, Swiss chard, golden beets, pole beans, and potatoes), as well as the emergence of weeds. Last week the flame-weeder was taken through some of the rows, so we wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of this. There was good emergence on the potatoes and the crop is mature enough that we should be able to weed in the potato rows next class (lucky us!). There was still not much emergence on the other crop plantings, and we were having to scout around the rows trying to find any little plants that had popped through. We did see some good areas of emergence on the scallions, as well as the carrots, but less so on the beets, chard, and pole beans. 

"Baby" scallions just poking through the soil - the characteristic "crook" in the first leaves tells us it's a scallion and not a weedy grass.

We assessed the aftermath of last week’s flame weeding, but much to our chagrin it appeared that, while some of the weeds were in fact singed, they were still strong and growing. Foiled! The crop is too mature now to do any more flaming weeding, so we will have to wait until the crop is more established before we can go in and start hoeing and hand weeding.

 This little guy looks a bit crispy, but notice the fresh green growth just emerging.

Dr. Bomford also informed us that he had spotted potato tuber flea beetle (Epitrix spp.) damage on the potatoes growing in the adjacent community garden plots. While our potatoes do not show any signs of flea beetle infestation, we know they are in the area and we should be on the look-out for them for the rest of the season.

The flea beetles themselves are hard to spot, but their feeding activity produces characteristic “shot-holes” in the leaves of the potato plants. While the plant does take a very small hit to its photosynthetic capacity from this leaf-feeding, this is not the main cause of destruction by the beetles. The problem lies in the fact that the beetle often can spread harmful viruses to the plants. The beetles also lay eggs at the base of the potato plants and once the eggs hatch the larvae will feed on the tubers, creating tunnels in the tubers that make the potatoes hard to market and also open them up to pathogenic infection. 

"Shot-hole" appearance of flea beetle feeding on potato leaves.

Here in B.C., the flea beetles usually go through three generations per growing season. The first generation is often less harmful than the alter generations that occur later in the season when tubers are more mature and the beetle populations have grown. However, like most things in life, it is better to “nip it in the bud” early and control the first generation to prevent the population from getting out of hand later in the season. Unfortunately there are no organically-approved pesticides that are effective for tuber flea beetle control, so the most effective management tool is to use row covers over the potatoes as early as possible. 

After our morning inspection, we got to work planting corn and bush beans into the remaining rows of the AB block. Some students prepped the rows by raking away the clumps and smoothing away the soil while I got to use the Earthway seeder to plant the seeds. The corn seeds worked very well with the Earthway seeder and progress was fast. However, we decided to inoculate the bush bean seeds with Rhizobium immediately before planting, which made the seeds very wet as they went into the Earthway seeder. We found that the Earthway was not very good at dealing with wet seeds, and the seeds kept getting gummed up and stuck in machine instead of being nicely inserted into the soil. This meant having to go back and spent time re-planting the rows of bush beans by hand. This was frustrating, but a good learning experience to know not to put wet seeds into the Earthway®!

Corn seeds in the Earthway seeder

Ready to rock'n'roll on the Earthway seeder

Prepping the beds for corn and bush bean plantings.

Wet bean seeds after inoculation

On Thursday we got a quick crash course by Anna on proper hoeing technique and maintenance, and then got to work weeding the potatoes. After that, we went over to the east section of the orchard to look at an area of land that Anna had cultivated last week in preparation for a new planting of pumpkins this summer. 

That's a fine hoe you got there, Ms Anna!

We also got a lesson from our resident soil expert and newest faculty member, Dr. Aimee Taylor about evaluating soil texture in field using a soil texture flow chart. We found the soil to be a “silty-clay-loam”. 

Characteristic smearing pattern in clay soil that has been cultivated when wet.

 Without having to do an official soil analysis, it was obvious that this newly-plowed soil for the pumpkin patch was severely lacking in organic matter. The soil was very grey and cloddy, which indicates a high mineral content and lack of soil organic matter. Before we would be able to plant anything in it, we would need to add some organic matter to the soil by adding more compost. The issue was whether or not we should till the compost in or not. The benefit of tilling is that it would help control the weeds that were already overtaking the little field. However, tilling would negatively impact the already-compromised soil structure of the field. So it was decided that we would apply enough compost to hopefully choke out the weeds without having to cultivate the soil again.

 Site of the future "pumpkin patch" in serious need of some organic matter amendment.

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This “to cultivate or not to cultivate?” discussion got me thinking about the nature of agriculture on a more reflective level. It is important to remember that even in “sustainable” agroecosystem-based farming, we are ultimately disrupting the natural cycles of the ecosystem on a continual basis. Every year we remove biomass from the agricultural system through harvesting, and therefore must replenish the soil with biomass and nutrients from external inputs (whether these be synthetic fertilizer or organically-sourced compost).

Cultivation is one of the most disruptive activities we perform on the soil and the surrounding environment. However, because of the need to continually replenish the soil with nutrients, as well as plant new crops every year (as in the case of annual vegetable production), it is difficult to insist on 100% no-till agriculture. No-till farming is especially difficult for organic farmers that rely on cover cropping to replenish nutrients and biomass. Eventually the cover crop will have to be destroyed in order to make space for planting a cash crop, as well as to make the nutrients stored in the roots and vegetative structures of the cover crop available to whatever crop is planted next. The only effective way to avoid using herbicides to kill the cover crop is to mechanically incorporate the cover crop into the soil. This is difficult to do without some kind of disturbance to the underlying soil.

Unfortunately, as mentioned, this act of cultivating can have a very destructive impact on the soil ecosystem. Continual cultivation can create layers of compaction (“plow pan”) that disrupt soil aeration, water infiltration, and root penetration by plants. Continual cultivation can also destroy soil aggregates and increase the decomposition of soil organic matter, leading to declines in both soil structure and organic matter content. But also affected by cultivation is the little critters that make their home in the soil. These soil critters extend far beyond the earthworms, beetles, and other creepy crawlies we visibly see in the soil. In fact, the organisms you ­cannot see (the microorganisms) make up the vast majority of the soil biota. Soil microorganisms include bacteria, fungi, yeast, and actinomycetes. These microbes play a key role in the growth, development, and health of crop plants because of the essential activities these microbes perform in the soil environment. Some of these essential activities include the decomposition of organic matter, conversion of organic nutrients into mineral forms available for plant uptake, the cycling of essential elements such as nitrogen, building of soil structure, and specific mutual relationship such as plant-mycorrhizae interactions that help plants access nutrients

However, according to Dr. Taylor, we only know about 17% (or less!) of what biological organisms actually live in soil communities. “Classical” soil science used to give “three hoots” about soil organisms – soil chemistry and soil texture dominated the research and interest among soil scientists. However, in recent years more and more attention is being focused on the living nature of the soil. Last year (2015), the United Nations deemed it to be the “International Year of Soil”. The efforts of this campaign was to educate the public about the importance of soil and to expose them to the knowledge that the soil is an environment teeming with life. The main message was that all life on earth depends on healthy soil. A healthy soil with abundant, diverse microbial community is ultimately what puts food on everyone's table every single day. So before the next meal you sit down and enjoy today, I would invite you to give a little nod of gratitude and recognition to the microbial powerhouses that keep you, me, and the rest of the world, fed and happy each and every day of our lives.

For a more thorough and informative review of the importance of soil biology and how further research into soil biology may help solve critical issues such as soil degradation and climate change, please check out this paper published last year in Sustainability. 

Lehman, R.M.; Cambardella, C.A.; Stott, D.E.; Acosta-Martinez, V.; Manter, D.K.; Buyer, J.S.; Maul, J.E.; Smith, J.L.; Collins, H.P.; Halvorson, J.J.; Kremer, R.J.; Lundgren, J.G.; Ducey, T.F.; Jin, V.L.; Karlen, D.L. Understanding and Enhancing Soil Biological Health: The Solution for Reversing Soil Degradation. Sustainability 2015, 7, 988-1027.

Next week, we will be busy harvesting and preparing for the first week of the Kwantlen Street Farmers Market. This will be the first time we will actually start selling our produce and my colleague, Kathy, will tell you all about it how the first market goes.

Week 3, Work at the Orchard and Harvest on the Terraces

Week 3 of the Summer 2016 semester (May 17th and May 19th) consisted of work being done on both the Orchard (on the Tuesday) and the Terraces at Richmond Campus (on the Thursday).

On the Tuesday our little group of people accomplished a lot of work, starting with the sorting of yet to be planted strawberry plants. We were fortunate that most of the plants were still healthy enough for planting, but it was most certainly time to put them into the ground.

The students then went on a quick tour of the fields in which we had planted carrots, onions and beans the previous week. There were some irrigations issues that had needed correcting (such as location of drip tape) and it was observed that some weeds had germinated ahead of the crop seeds. In the carrots it was discovered that there was a healthy population of recently germinated lambs quarters. We briefly discussed the fact that some people cultivate lambs quarters as we pulled them up and consumed them which much eagerness. Identification of this most delectable weed was made through the waxy coating that exists upon the first leaves at and just after emergence. This blogger would agree with others in saying that it does taste like a 'wild' spinach. In the onions it was found that the previous year's squash had reseeded itself and those seeds had just germinated. Even though a few students made the attempt to consume these as well, it was agreed that they certainly did not taste as good as the young lambs quarters. We then moved over to the beans and found that the Earthway seeder had not done a great job at covering up the beans that had been seeded the week previous. In fact, almost all of them were still above ground, looking very much like they just came out of storage.  Luckily for them we spent some time sinking them back into the ground while the irrigation was running, giving them the best  restart possible. Mike (one of our professors and companion planting wizard) made a comment at that point that considering the amount of weed emergence that had occurred (and lack of crop emergence) that it would be the perfect time to do some flame weeding. It was much to his delight that we discovered a flame weeder, in working order, at the Orchard.

The students then went over to the fruit trees and spent some time thinning out the pear trees. The trees were pretty full of fruit, about the size of the end of a thumb. Some were already damaged though, and needed to be removed, along with those who heavily populated an area. We were instructed to remove fruits so that the ones left looked healthy, and that only about one fruit was left per 5 inches of branch. It made some of us feel bad to remove fruit that would have tasted great in a short period of time, but knowing that by thinning the tree we would spare it the chance of injuring itself by being overburdened with fruit made the process more bearable.

While Mike worked on flame weeding the students then moved over to helping get the plastic down (laid by the blue tractor and the row cover layer) for plating the 120 strawberry plants into. For this blogger, it was probably the most entertaining part of the day since all hands were needed to get the recycled plastic to feed through the implement and hold down the plastic so the momentum of the tractor did not pull it out of place. As can be seen in this video, once we knew what we were doing, the row creation with plastic covering didn't take too long.

Rebecca (another of our professors and resident cranberry expert) then showed the students how to plant the strawberries into the plastic. Two rows of strawberries were planted, staggered at 6 inches apart from each other between rows and 12 inches apart within rows. Two people, one person on either side, cut the appropriately placed holes, while two others planted. Rebecca recommended that each plant should be planted with the crown just above ground. The video below describes nicely the game plan that was laid before us before we started our task.

Just before the end of class Mike called us back over to show us what he had been able to accomplish with the flame weeding. Although some of the cover crop had been well singed, the squash germinants looked untouched. That was, until we squeezed the leaves between our fingers. The leaves were left with a dark green impression, a good sign that the flame weeding had done its job of bursting the leaf cells.

On the Thursday we spent our time at the Terraces in front of the Richmond KPU Campus. Two weeks previous harvesting had occurred on this site and when looking at the crops it was apparent that harvesting had to occur again.

However, before harvesting happened, we took a walk through some of the garden to observe and note what had been happening in the garden since the last visit. Insect damage on the chard was observed, as well as on the cabbage. Most of the lettuce looked like it had come back nicely from being harvested two weeks previous, however, it was noted that one plant had been harvested more recently than that, located behind the sign. A second theft of goods, already, this year. It is hoped by this blogger that the person who took it really needed it. We did find an encouraging sight on the back of a cabbage leaf, though, a mummified aphid. A sure sign of the presence of parasitic wasps. A friend on our side in our quest to grow food.

After some more inspection, a few students went over to unload a truckload of compost onto a part of the terrace that had not been previously worked. Others went over to start harvesting lettuce, radishes, kale and peas. Harvesting took most of the rest of class since all of the harvest was weighed out and washed before it was brought inside. The most impressive collection of vegetables occurred with the radishes as 45 pounds was harvested in total! WOW!

Philosophical portion:
Mike had asked each student to write, in their blog posting, a small philosophical paragraph about something related to what we have been doing the last three weeks. Since this blogger is also taking a crop physiology class, and some of what we have been talking about is philosophical, it would only seem appropriate that some crossover should occur.

The latest copy of "Modern Agriculture" landed in my the mailbox at the start of the long weekend. It was quickly argued over by myself and other members of my family (can't you tell we are all involved in agriculture) and I made the argument that "My name is on the sticker, so I get first read of it!". Reluctantly, I was allowed to browse through it first. Reaching the middle of the volume I snarled at the magazine and rather angrily tossed it aside. My mother leaned in and asked if I was finished with the magazine, I didn't answer. Page 23 contained a quote from Dave Smardon, the moderate for this year's BC Tech Summit that took place in Vancouver. Unfortunate for my quick temper, the quote had been taken out of context, but I will repeat it to you as it is presented on the page and let you decide if I was rightly annoyed. He states, "As we approach 2050, we are going to have to produce more food in one year than we have produced in the entire history of the planet." My first thoughts of rebuttal went back to our most recent crop physiology class when we discussed the capacity of production by modern varieties. About the only variable that humans have not been able to 'rev up' when it comes to plant efficiency had been photosynthesis. We seem to have reached our capacity with most if not all of the other variables that go into plant production. And its not that we have done it without consequences; Figure 20.4 in "Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainability" compares different agroecosystems on their returns on energy invested. The below picture is that figure, and I do believe it speaks for itself. Note how inefficient modern production methods are.

It was words just as Mr. Smardon spoke them that started the green revolution, and look what it produced. The green revolution produced more food, inefficiently. Not only that, but if one was to look at Figure 20.10 from the same textbook, it would appear that part of that inefficiency comes from our obsession with oil. That figure (see below) nicely displays the components of the 10 million kilocalories of cultural energy used for corn production in the USA,  and shows that 35.7% of the pie that is taken up by nitrogen fertilizer. That same nitrogen fertilizer contains commercially produced, ammonia nitrate from crude oil. We cannot produce more food with the methods we have, and we cannot afford to be more inefficient in producing it either.

Now, if one is to read farther into Mr. Smardon's quote, they would see that this gentleman is not all about just flat out producing more food, there is some logic in what he is saying, "If we have to feed 10 billion people steak, pork, poultry and fish, we would be in deep trouble. Add to that the fact that the amount of arable land we have on this planet is finite, and is going to be more degraded each year, putting downward pressure on how much productivity we get out of that land, you can see how something like a perfect storm is waiting to happen here. With climate change...the issues become more and more complex." At least he is noting that we have looming issues such as the recovery of degraded ag land and climate change to deal with. However, I still think he is missing a very crucial point. One that might get us much closer to solving the problem of feeding a large population by working backwards. Why is so much of the food we produce thrown away (often times even before it reaches the consumer)? Do we produce so much that it has become so cheap that people (anywhere in the production system) don't care if it goes bad? I know its probably a poor example, but probably a fair bit of that 50 plus pound harvest we did on Thursday at the Terraces went to waste. That small little plot of land that produced 45 pounds of radishes was far more than 8 people and their families could consume. We did give away as much as we could, but grocery stores are not allowed to do it. And there are not a lot of numbers out there talking about how much food goes bad on its way travelling to its destinations. My point is that all people should try, as supermarkets in France have done, not to throw away food that is still good, even if it is passed the expiry date on the box. I think all people should attempt this: companies that produce food, those who sell it, and all that consume it, to reduce the amount that is not consumed before it goes bad. It is at that point, when we know exactly how much is wasted, that trying to produce more again to make up the shortfall should be considered. Producing more in a system that wastes so much will not contribute to the answer; if anything it'll contribute to the problem.

References:
Gliessman, Stephen R. Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems. 3rd ed. Boca Raton: CRC, 2014. Print.
Pedersen, Cate. "Agri-Tech and the 9 Billion: Feeding the World in 2050." Modern Agriculture: British Columbia's Agriculture Magazine May 2016: 22-25. Print.

The Orchard- Summer Semester Week # 2 (May 10th & May 12th) by Stafford Richter

DOCUMENTATION- Keep yourself and your farm organized.

This is a large scale zoomed out master-plan for the 'Orchard' farm plot this summer. Our efforts in preparing  all directed in A/B Block. 

The block map for the orchard this season. A block map is a master planning tool for the farmer, it allows you to organize and visualize your crop plantings into common vegetable families on a similar planting and harvest schedule. It is an essential component of documentation. Documentation when done properly is vital for proving to an auditor that you are adhering to organic standards, as we are trying to do at the Gilbert Road Orchard site. This year we are keeping both physical paper records and digital records using an app for Android phones called Memento .

The old stand by are paper records stored in the orchard binder. These will likely be phased out almost entirely over the coming years by nifty apps such as Memento, that can be synced with personal laptops. With paper records, you have to constantly worry about rainfall and errant coffee spills making your notes practically eligible. Notice how everything is defined and divided into applicable columns; of particular interest is how certain rows are organized by family into certain planting blocks. This is an important consideration when doing crop-planning for the 2017 growing season, you do not want to plant the same crop in the same spot twice. Doing this increases crop susceptibility to soil-borne disease that has overwintered in the soil.

THE CHALLENGE OF DIRECT SEEDING:

Even after making multiple passes through the field using the threshing mower attached to the Kubota tractor, it wasn't enough to completely subdue the rye cover crop from the fall. You can see proof of this while looking over the last blog entry, some pictures show that it was almost shoulder high! 

Planting through the resulting thatch layer; thick in some places and spartan in others, became a real exercise in patience while trying to operate the EarthWay Precision Garden Seeder as it would continually get jammed.  Jean-Martin Fortier, small farming guru from the Eastern Townships area of Quebec has a great explanation about how this planting tool works in his book The Market Gardener: 

[the] push-type seeder which drills the seeds into a furrow created by an adjustable opening shoe located at the bottom of the   seed hopper. It's driven by a belt attached to the front wheel, which turns a disc called the seed plate. When pushed the seed plate separates and scoops up the seed before dropping it into the ground. The seeds are then covered by a dragging chain, and the soil is pressed down by the rear wheel. A handy built-in adjustable marker helps you achieve parallel rows when seeding. (Fortier, 65) 

While Fortier's description leads you to believe that the seeding process is mechanically flawless, it isn't without problems as we discovered. The EarthWay seeder becomes unreliable when using the machine on-top of uneven or disturbed surfaces such as we have in the orchard plots; the dragging chain becomes overladen with straw debris and jams easily. This causes the wheel to inadequately press down and cover up the seeded furrow. Today [May 17th] we as a class saw evidence of this glitch;  at the end of a bush bean row, there were about a half-dozen seeds sitting exposed at the surface. To troubleshoot, we walked up and down the rows prior to seeding and lightly raked away large clods of straw debris and additionally we would have to stop every few feet and remove debris collecting behind the chain. 

 Tractors! 

Getting to ride the Kubota tractor and spread manure was thrilling, but it was the brief discussion given on the BCS walk-behind tractor that really captivated my attention. The BCS tool tutorial given was given by Anna Rallings [pictured above- the educational farm site coordinator for the Sustainable Agriculture Program] this tractor is designed to be of particular benefit to the small-medium scale market gardener (operating on less than 5 acres of land).  

The tractor is self-driving and thanks to the PTO unit, located at the rear of the machine, it takes power from the engine and reallocates it to drive whatever attachment is connected through the PTO. Such attachments include flail mowers, power harrows, hay-bailers and rotary plows. It's the cost that is so alluring to me, whereas you may pay upwards of $35,000 (Canadian) for a brand new full-sized ride on Holland Work-master tractor you are looking at a fraction of that cost with the BCS at between $5,000-$6,000 brand-new. Additional attachment tools can be purchased starting at only a few hundred dollars through online retailers like Earthtools. 

The other blessing about the European made BCS tractor is lack of weight, it won't contribute to soil compaction. 

Potato Planting

Cathy (my classmate) is separating the mold potatoes from the healthy looking ones. At this point in the season it is a bit of a gambit, most seed potatoes have already gone in by now. Some as early as the 2nd week in March, so keep your eyes open for those juicy nugget sized potatoes at your farmer's market this week. 

We were trying to cull the especially moldy potatoes so as not to spread disease in the field. 

Stay tuned for my musings on the wonders of soil and also my classmate Johanna's observations on Summer work week # 3 at the Orchard and at the Terrace Gardens. 

* Fortier, J.M. The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2014. 

Agroecosystems Management Class - Spring 2016

It has been a busy spring for KPU's Agroecosystems Management class of 2016.

We started in January, by pruning the fruit trees in the orchard under Dr. Mullinix's guidance.

We conducted site assessments on the campus terraces, the Garden City Lands, the orchard, and the TFN Farm School land. We dug soil pits at each location to learn what has happening below the surface. Dr. Taylor, the newest faculty member in KPU's Sustainable Agriculture program, taught us to interpret what the soil was telling us.

In February we started growing transplants under grow lights in the campus parkade to get a jump on spring. 

The campus terraces were seeded to a winter cover crop mix of rye, wheat, and crimson clover, which was a vibrant green by the beginning of March. We cut some of it, and added locally-produced compost from Harvest Power in preparation for our first planting of the season.  

We tilled the compost and cover crop residue into the sandy soil of the terraces using a lightweight electric rototiller. 

We direct-seeded peas on March 8th.

A week later, we harvested carrots and parsnips that had overwintered from 2015.

By the end of March, our transplants were large and vigorous, so we started setting them outside during the day time to harden off.

We transplanted them into the garden on April 6th.

The terraces were a riot of colour by mid-April, with crimson clover and overwintered kale in full bloom. The students finished their spring semester exams and had a couple of weeks of much-needed vacation.

The remaining cover crop was waist-high and ready to cut before the students returned for the summer semester at the beginning of May.

There was also an impressive cover crop of rye and crimson clover at the orchard.

The beginning of the summer semester brought the first substantial harvest of spring greens at the campus terraces. The peas were thriving, and ready to stake.

We cut the cover crop at the orchard, and started spreading compost from Net Zero Waste with our little manure spreader on April 5th.

This year, I am inviting the students to continue the story of the season by contributing updates to this blog, instead of maintaining blogs of their own. Stafford Richter will write the next post, about the past week of planting at the orchard.