Organic vs Inorganic

This piece is an attempt to make sense of the organic vs inorganic approaches to gardening. In one sense it’s an opinion piece because, it is my opinion. But I grew up on a farm, and have been a gardener for many years. There are many theories and practices being applied to gardening these days. Nearly everyone employs some practices from a variety of these approaches to gardening. Organic gardening, like many terms today, is a bit deceitful, because it assumes that only it (organic gardening) employs the principles they espouse. In fact, all gardening, and agriculture in general, employs elements of organic and inorganic agriculture.

Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preservation.
I believe organic gardening has been oversold and under-delivered. I also believe commercial agriculture has been unfairly demonized. Many false claims and accusations have been made with regard to this debate. I won’t go into all of them, but will touch on a few.

First, organic purists now declare that in order to be an “organic gardener,” you cannot use pesticides, herbicides, commercial fertilizer, or human waste.

Second, consider the fact that without commercial fertilizer, worldwide food production would be cut nearly in half; the ensuing result would be mass starvation. So can commercial fertilizer be all that evil?

Third, if you also eliminate chemical pesticides and herbicides, worldwide food production would fall by another fifty percent, relegating most of the world’s population to perpetual starvation. There is a reason commercial fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides exist, and mankind is the beneficiary.

Fourth, commercial fertilizer is not “synthetic” nor is composed of “poisons” and “harmful” stuff.
This is not to say that as a home gardener you must use commercial fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides—it isn’t necessary. But if you don’t use commercial fertilizer you must be very smart and active about replenishing your soil with manure, compost, green manure or some form of crop rotation.

Pesticides: If you don’t use some pesticides, you must accept the fact that peaches, pears, cherries, and apples will all be worm filled. Dormant oil, and other oils are effective pesticides, and they are not poison or harmful to humans or the environment. Pesticides are designed with just enough poison to kill a tiny bug. Check the percentages of active ingredients on the label, they are miniscule; meaning if the pesticide is only potent enough to kill a bug weighing less than a milligram, you could likely drink the entire bottle and it would have no effect on a human being.

But in the home garden, little if any pesticides are necessary, except on some fruit. No cool weather crops need pesticides (broccoli, onions, beets, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, etc). And melons and all cucurbits can be managed without pesticides. However, the corn borer or earworm must be dealt with or much of your corn will be ruined by worms. A little oil on the silk is effective against the earworm, or a mild pesticide is effective, and harmless to humans. It is the silk that needs the pesticide, and that pesticide never gets to the kernels we eat.
Home gardening can be successful without the use of herbicides, however; but you will have to put in a little extra time and labor in order to keep your garden from being taken over by weeds.

Fertilizer: It is important to understand that nitrogen is nitrogen, and it really does not matter where you get it. If “religiously” you refuse to use commercial fertilizer, then you must get it from some other source or accept small, spindly plant growth with reduced production. Where it rains a lot, nitrogen is not an issue because the rain pulls nitrogen out of the air and provides adequate amounts of nitrogen, in places like Washington and Oregon. But we don’t get enough rain here to even consider that option.

The next best source of nitrogen is manure, cow, horse, chicken or turkey; or any other animal manure. But most home gardeners do not have enough animals to provide enough nitrogen for their own gardens, so it must be obtained elsewhere. Throughout most of Asia, human waste is the primary source of crop fertilizer. Organic purists in the U.S. would be horrified to use human waste, but in most of the world, it is the primary source of nitrogen. Most of the rice grown in Asia is fertilized with human waste.

Commercial fertilizer is often called “synthetic” fertilizer, but that is a false characterization. There is nothing synthetic about commercial fertilizer. Is not nitrogen and phosphorus organic? Nitrogen is everywhere. Potash is mined; it’s a naturally occurring mineral. Phosphate is mined; it is a naturally occurring element—not to mention steer manure is loaded with both. “Chemically, these nutrients are identical to nutrients derived from an organic source.” (from organicauthority.com).

Commercial fertilizer is also demonized by environmentalists because, they say, it leaches into the ground water and into rivers and lakes and poisons or contaminates them. This is blatantly untrue. It is true that all fertilizer, commercial, natural, organic, or otherwise, leach into ground water; but so what? What is the difference of nitrogen leaching into the streams and lakes, and rain dropping tons of nitrogen into rivers and lakes? Nitrogen is not a poison, and neither is phosphorous or potash, they are everywhere in the earth and they end up in the water whether man has anything to do with it or not.

Environmentalists are now attempting to demonize carbon…of all things. Carbon is essential to life; it is not a poison, or a pollutant. Increase the amount of carbon in the air and all plants will have more growth, and food crops will have greater production—why is that bad? And for that matter, raise the overall temperature of the earth, and food production goes up, disease goes down, and people are healthier and happier. And some people are freaking out because the earth’s temperature might be rising? We should hope it is.

Not too much goes to waste in today’s world, almond hulls are made into feed for animals, cottonseed is processed for feed for dairy cattle; and…the contents of sewer sludge is used in a variety of ways, including making commercial fertilizer—all organic stuff.

Plowing and tilling: Plants need air to grow, above ground, and below ground. The notion that plowing or tilling the soil is destructive or “kills the soil” is nonsense. If soil is never turned or plowed or tilled, it becomes so compact the roots get no air, bacteria do poorly, the soil becomes sluggish or dead (sterile), and plants don’t grow or produce well. The notion that soil should not be disturbed, that farming damages the soil and the environment is a false environmental notion driven by another false notion that we would all be better if man was not here at all.

Pecans, Pecans, Pecans

My pecans trees had a heavy set this year, and our harvest reflects that. My experience with pecans is limited, but here are my observations.

The 2010 Spring was cold and wet, summer was late arriving; consequently, I believe the pecans were late maturing as well, at least that is my observation. In past years, the pecans filled out, began opening up, and falling to the ground 2-3 weeks earlier than they did in 2010. My first harvest was November 15th, 2-3 weeks later than previous years.

We also had an early, hard freeze in mid-October. Then in December we had days and days of rain, plus snow, followed by extremely cold weather. We had a few days when the daytime high did not get above freezing--while the pecans on the ground lay on wet ground and covered by snow. I'm sure this was not good for the pecans.

A large number of my pecans came down in a strong wind, following much rain, the night before it snowed. In mid-January, the tree shaker came and brought down the rest of them. Clearly, those that stayed on the trees and came down with the shaker, were of better quality.

As a result, many of my pecans did not fully open up, or did not open up at all. Still, I harvested 165 gallons of pecans in the shell, this is more than double my previous largest harvest. Even so, I'm certain there were at least twice that many pecans that I discarded, that were moldy, black, not opened, or with only partially opened husks. So I believe I could have easily had 300 to 350 gallons of pecans, had the weather been more favorable, and they all opened up properly.

I have already shelled 33 gallons (85 pounds) of pecans. I have given pecans away to our kids, neighbors and friends. Still, I have about 25 more gallons of pecans to shell.

In shelling the pecans this year, I make the following observations:

1. The shells are harder, thicker, and more difficult to break.
2. The shells did not break free of the meat, as in previous years, consequently, I have a lot more pieces and broken halves than in the past. These pecans are good, tasty and of good quality, just not nice full halves.
3. The pecans that remained wet, under the snow, etc; had thinner shells, black in color (mold?), and a smaller, poorer quality meat. I think shells that remain wet, become porous and the meat dries out and shrinks in size.
4. The pecans that remained on the trees were not affected by the rain and snow, those on the ground were. Because of the snow covering the pecans on the ground, I was not able to harvest them for nearly a week, once the pecans were on the ground.
5. Even with the significantly heavier set of pecans, I did not notice a reduction in the size of the pecans (as with other fruit), pecan size was excellent.

Still, it's kind of amazing how tough pecans are, even with all the adverse weather, rain and snow, and lying on the ground, the meat is pretty darn good.

I have read that pecans have an alternating pattern of heavy yield, then light, then heavy. Other gardeners in this area dispute that. My 2008 harvest was heavy, my 2009 harvest was very light, and my 2010 harvest was very heavy. I have Mahan soft shell pecans. Maybe the variety makes a difference, but so far my trees are on the alternating cycle.

2010 Gardening Review

Gardening for this year is about finished. But it was an outstanding gardening year, a cool, wet spring, and little evidence of curlytop, provided us with an abundant harvest.

I just finished a great green bean harvest, we ate, canned, and gave many away to family and friends. I planted the beans on August 15th, began harvesting the first of October, and finished the harvest on October 27th.

I finished my corn harvest on October 4th, and we canned (freezer) much of the harvest.

I still have tomatoes producing in the garden (Ropac and Columbian), along with spinach. I have been very impressed with the Ropac and Columbian tomato varieties. These varieties produced early, heavy, through the summer, and into the late fall; easily the best producer in my garden. I like their flavor, they didn't crack, and didn't contract curlytop. I will plant these varieties again next year.

The cool, wet spring made for an excellent spring and early summer garden, and the summer wasn't too bad either. The fall has also been nice. The lack of too many violent winds has helped all growing season. My pecans, maturity wise, are behind prior years, but my trees are loaded with large, plump pecans--they just took a little longer to mature due to the cool spring and early summer. But I expect a huge crop. The wind only blew off a small percentage of the pecans, so my losses are small.

I had a wonderful pomegranate crop, we juiced most, got about 5 gallons of juice. I have both sweet and sour pomegranates and I juice them all together, it makes a nice tart, but not too tart, blend of pomegranate juice that we will enjoy until next October. I have three sour pomegranates and five sweet. Three trees are the original, old Toquerville pomegrantates (whatever variety that is). They are dark red and sweet. I planted three sour varieties, and two sweet varieties. All trees produced fruit this year, though the two sweet varieties I planted are still quite small. The sour pomegranates obviously grow faster than the sweet varieties. Just interesting.

I experimented by planting some late beets and Great Lakes lettuce, in September. I don't think the beets will make. The lettuce may still make, if not, it will be ready to take off when spring comes.

We pretty much lived off our garden all summer long (June through October). It was the best eating we've had in years. I believe Americans will be forced to grow more of their food in the future--if they want to eat. Agriculture in this country is in trouble, government regulations and price controls have made agriculture marginally profitable. Most dairymen are on the verge of bankruptcy, the government continues to punish farmers, environmentalists have all but declared war on agriculture and are determined to eliminate large scale agriculture, which means there will be food shortages in the future. I don't say this to be an alarmist or to sound like a political rant; but we all need to understand that growing our own food will be critical in the next few years, at least. Gardening is not easy, you can't just throw the seeds in the ground and come back later and harvest the crop. Gardening takes a great deal of knowledge, patience, work, good timing, a little luck, and a lot of faith.

It's time now to begin preparing your garden for next year. Till in all your leaves (except for walnut leaves), grass clippings, and other compostable material. By spring, it will all be decomposed and ready to grow you a great garden.

September Gardening Report

Gardening has slowed down considerably. I did harvest my O'Henry peaches, as pictured here. I also harvested our Asian pears in September. These are wonderful, round, crisp and juicy pears. My final grapes were harvested and juiced (concord). We are currently harvesting my final corn crop. We canned (froze) about half the harvest, and continue to eat this wonderful sweet corn from the garden. My fall green beans are about ready to pick, and I still harvest some tomatoes, bell peppers and Anaheim peppers.



Because of worms in the peaches the past two years, I sprayed my peaches three times after they began showing color, and did not have a single worm. The harvest of both the Elberta and O'Henry peaches was excellent for me. The only remaining fruit for me are a few Golden Delicious apples, and pomegranates. My apple tree is small and set only a few blossoms and apples.



My pomegranates are also about ripe. Last year we juiced most of our pomegranates and have enjoyed the juice all year long. I have both sweet and sour pomegranates, and when mixed with Fresca, makes a wonderful and healthy drink. I mix both sweet and sour pomegranates together, and it makes a wonderful blend for zesty drinks.

I'm looking forward to the pecan harvest this year. My trees are loaded heavily with large pecans (my harvest was quite light last year). The winds have been light, so not many have fallen prematurely to the ground. I also noticed the pecan aphids were very light this year, very little sap and drippage from the leaves.


I am already tilling my garden, tilling in corn stubble, grass clippings, chicken manure and other compostable material. All my fall leaves will also go into the garden, if tilled in, they will be completely decomposed by spring.

August Gardening Report

August has been a heavy production month for me. Tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupes, casabas, watermelon, corn, and peaches. In terms of weight, August is easily the heaviest production month of the year (those melons add up in a hurry). My melons are about done producing, though I have a few cantaloupes and a few watermelons still on the vine.

A few observations and conclusions:
1. Moving my drip lines away from the base of the melons clearly helped keep the squash bugs down; I had some, but they were never much of a problem.
2. Placing a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the corn silk early in development, clearly keeps the bugs and worms out of the ear of corn.
3. I planted Striped Klondike, Crimson Sweet and Green River watermelons. The Striped Klondike were easily the best flavor, they were so sweet and delicious. Even the small Klondikes were tasty. The Green River melons were a disappointment, though I did plant them late.
4. The Ropac and Columbian tomatoes easily out-produced the Celebrity and Better Boy varieties--and they're still fairly loaded with tomatoes.
5. The casabas were disappointingly small, but good flavor, and we had more than we could eat.
6. In the past, I have not sprayed my fruit, but both previous years nearly all my peaches had worms. So this year I sprayed, only at the first sign of color. I sprayed three times, two weeks apart--and I have no worms this year. I used a vegetable safe Spectracide product.
7. My peaches (elberta) were a couple weeks later this year than last, but we did have a cool spring. But it's a great peach crop for a three year old tree. My OHenry variety ripens later, but they look good too, and I sprayed them also and see no signs of worms.
8. My pecans are also maturing later than last year. Last year in mid-August they were completely filled out, this year on September 1st, they are still not completely filled out. I have a heavy crop, and hope they still fill out large.

I planted spinach today (Sept 1st), planted green beans on August 9th, and fall corn on July 20th.

If you have empty space in your garden (have taken out completed crops), begin tilling in mulch, compost, manure, etc. The ground is a great place to compost, from now until Spring planting.

July Gardening Report

July has been an amazingly productive month for me this year. Let me address this by crop:

Tomato: Admittedly, curly top was very light this year. A few gardeners reported some curly top, but most had none, I had none. I planted eight tomato plants, 2 Celebrity, 2 Better Boy, 2 Ropac, and 2 Columbian. During May and June I sprayed the celebrity and the Better Boy with powdered milk. I did not spray the Ropac and Columbian plants. I also sprayed my melons (cantaloupe, casaba and watermelon) with powdered milk.

None of my tomato plants contracted curly top (nor have the melons). It’s difficult to know if it had anything to do with the powdered milk, or there just weren’t any beet leafhoppers around. I did not see any leafhoppers in my garden, but they are small and difficult to see.

Consequently, my tomato harvest has been amazing. The Ropac and Columbian varieties are touted as curly top resistant (maybe they are and maybe they aren’t), but I tried both varieties. They did not contract curly top, and they were both very heavy producers. I’ve never had a tomato plant set on as heavily as these did. The tomatoes were not large, and some were quite small, but the flavor was good, and we also used them in making salsa, so the size didn’t matter.

The Celebrity variety was a bit of a disappointment in its productivity (also disappointed last year, but curly top was such a problem I dismissed it), but the tomatoes were large and tasty. The only tomatoes in my garden that had any cracking were the Celebrity tomatoes. I may try another variety next year.

The Better Boy plants(indeterminate variety) set on late, but has produced heavily, and produced some of the largest tomatoes I’ve ever grown, consistently 8 to 12 oz size.

I was tempted to plant more tomato plants this year, but know that 8 plants is far more than we and our family can use–if curly top will leave them alone. Glad I didn’t plant more. I have harvested a large bowl of tomatoes every morning for about three weeks.

Corn: I planted three plantings of corn, four rows by about 12 feet long, about three weeks apart. I planted only Miracle Corn (I really like this corn). We have had more than we can eat and have given it away to neighbors and family. I place a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the corn silk after it emerges to eliminate worms and bugs. It was less effective this year than what I experienced in the past–not sure why. Still, most ears were worm and bug free. The third planting is just getting ripe now. I also planted four full rows of corn on July 20th, for my fall crop. Miracle Corn is a 70 day corn, so we’ll be eating this crop in October. We plan to blanche, cut off the kernels, bag and freeze much of this crop.

There is no reason, in this area, that you cannot enjoy sweet corn from your garden from about July 1st through October, if you make successive plantings.

As I harvest my corn, I take a large butcher knife with me and cut off the corn stalks low, then cut up the stalk into about 6-8" pieces, and just leave them in the corn rows. When I’m finished with the crop, I till it all back into the soil. My experience is that the corn stubble is all decomposed well before I begin tilling for the spring planting.

Cantaloupe: As some of you may know, I only plant one variety, Ambrosia, easily the best flavored cantaloupe on the market. It has a short shelf life and therefore you won’t find it in the grocery stores. I planted two rows (40 feet long), and we have been buried in sweet, tasty melons.

Casaba: I have never grown casaba before, but tried it this year (I normally plant Crenshaw Melons). Casabas are a little later maturing, and have only harvested two melons so far. The size of the casaba are a bit small for some reason.

Watermelon: I planted two rows of watermelons, a row of Striped Klondike, a half row of Crimson Sweet, and a half row of Green River. The Green River seeds came from my father in law who has been dead for 15 years, every seed sprouted, however. But I planted these a little later and they are not yet ready.

The Klondike melons are looking extremely good. We’ve only eaten a couple of smaller ones that cracked open, but the flavor, even for an immature melon, was excellent.

The Crimson Sweet are also not ready yet, but will be within a week or two.

Boysenberry: I have a small everbearing strawberry patch, and several boysenberry plants. During the month of July we have enjoyed an abundant harvest of both strawberries and large, plump boysenberries. This has been a real treat for us. The boysenberries are nearly finished, however. The strawberries have been producing since April 20th.

Green Beans: This past week I also planted two rows of bush type green beans, which are sprouting today. Beans are about a 60 day crop so they should be ready by October 1st.

I plan on planting spinach about September 1st, for a winter crop.

Finally, as I observe other gardens and talk to other gardeners, I notice a couple of things:

1) Weed Control: it’s a mistake to allow weeds to grow large. They are easy to remove when small, just a couple minutes a day will keep all your weeds out. Large weeds sap nutrients, water, and space from your garden, and if allowed to go to seed, will dump hundreds or thousands of weed seeds back into your garden–a big mistake.
2) Nutrients: many gardeners fail to understand the necessity of adding nutrients back into their garden, every year, even continuously. A successful garden will take out hundreds of pounds of produce, plus the weight of the plant that it grows on; so hundreds of pounds of nutrient must be replaced. Leaves, manure, compost, grass clippings, table scraps, or any organic material can, and should, be returned to the garden. If you have a chipper or grinder, then leaves, twigs, and other carbon based materials can be ground up and returned to the garden. This is a process I engage in year round, but especially during the dormant fall and winter period. All of the above mentioned material were completely decomposed by spring. The rule of thumb is this: it takes the same amount of time for something to decompose as it did to grow. Here is my recycling program: it goes from the garden to the table, from the table to the chickens, from the chickens to the garden.
3) Variety: many gardeners do not pay attention to the variety they plant–this is a mistake. The variety affects the flavor, production, and success of your garden. Experiment a little every year and settle on the varieties that have the best flavor, are the most productive, and do the best in this area.

June Gardening

A few observations about gardening this year.

1. Curly Top : I've seen no evidence of the beet leafhopper and the accompanying curly top virus in my tomatoes. Nor have I seen any evidence of it in any of my vines. My neighbor had one of about 20 plants infected with curly top. I've asked a few neighbors and none have had problems with the disease...yet. I continue to spray powdered milk on my tomatoes and vines. Renowned agronomist Sylvan Wittwer told me that milk is a known defense against curly top and other tomato diseases. It isn't 100%, but it is known to be effective. So the powdered milk thing is not just urban legend, but has a scientific basis. Still, it's difficult to know whether this is just an off year for the beet leafhopper, or if the milk is having an effect. I suspect the strong southwesterly winds we experienced most days in May and June may have blown the leafhoppers far away from Toquerville.

2. Tomatoes: I planted Celebrity, Better Boy, Rowpac, and Columbian varieties this year. Rowpac and Columbian are supposedly curly top resistant. All are doing well. The Rowpac and Columbian are heavy setters and are loaded with tomatoes, though their size is smaller than I like. But the flavor of both is good, and very little cracking. The Better Boy plants have not set many tomatoes this year. Witter recommends Champion or Superfantasic over this variety, I may try these next year.

3. Corn: I planted four rows of Miracle Corn. Last year this 70 day corn was on the table at 70 days; this year, however, it will be about an 85 day corn. The cool weather slowed down its growth. Still, the corn looks great and we look to be eating some within a week's time. I've mentioned this before, but I always place a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the corn silk shortly after it emerges. This eliminates the corn borer and keeps the ears clear of bugs. It's an inexpensive solution, and avoids the use of pesticides. This year I put the oil in a small squirt bottle and just shot a little squirt of oil onto the silk. It worked perfectly.

4. Melons: I planted Ambrosia cantaloupe, Casaba, Klondike watermelon, and Green River watermelon. The Green River melon seeds were some my wife's father had saved (he's been dead for 15 years), but every seed sprouted. The Ambrosia and Casaba are doing well, with good melon sets growing nicely. This year I gradually moved my drip lines away from the base of the melons (and squash). This keeps the squash bugs at bay (I have no squash bugs yet). The ground remains dry at the base of the plants, where squash bugs like to reside.

5. Onions: I have been harvesting onions for eight weeks, and have now taken the water off and am drying out the onion bulbs. This onion crop was impressive, probably the best onions I've grown. I'm trying to dry out the onions better this year so they will last longer through the winter.

6. Squash: I planted zucchini and scallop summer squash. All plants look great and are producing all too well. Again, I've seen no squash bugs yet. I also planted a "turban" squash given to me by a friend of mine. This is a large, winter squash. The plant is very large and has set several turbans.

7. Berries: I am now harvesting large, black, delicious boysenberries. This is a first for me. The plants have grown well, and are producing a nice crop. We have also been eating strawberries for over two months. My raspberries flowered thickly, but produced no fruit, very disappointing. I've had others tell me there's did the same this year, so not sure what that is about.

Overall, this has been a wonderful gardening year for me. All the cool weather crops were excellent; beets, carrots, broccoli, peas, onions. I have green beans growing, a great crop of grapes coming, and a nice crop of figs. The figs, however, are about a month behind last year. After a disappointing pecan crop last year, this year's crop looks to be very good, the trees are thick with young, small pecans. My apricots mostly froze, but are enjoying the few that survived.

Toquerville gardeners should appreciate the excellent gardening weather we have here. Two elements make the difference, in my opinion. First, although the days can get hot, Toquerville warms slowly in the summer mornings, and usually begin cooling by 1-2pm in the afternoon. So there is really only a few hours of hot temperatures. Second, the evening always cool (it was 66 degrees this morning), so plants do not get significantly stressed by the summer heat. This is not typical of St George and Washington, and areas south.