From sgipm@mail.ccsinet.net Fri Jun 9 10:39:37 2000 Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 08:23:03 -0400 From: David Stanley To: Roberto Verzola , sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: RE: Organic cotton growing [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Roberto: Texas and California have the most acreage. I think there may be some in the eastern deep south, which might be more relevant to your situation. I will try to find links this week end. If you do not mind, I will try to find you some biocontrol information, even though your pests are probably a little different, and your natural enemies more so; the discussions might be useful. In Charles Benbrook's book, PM @ the Crossroads, there is a good telling of the Boll worm eradication mess ups (occurred in 1995, I think), due to the destruction of natural enemies of the beat army worm. (not a pest until the widespread adoption of organophosphates). In Robert van den Bosch's book, The Pesticide Conspiracy, he outlines similar stories of secondary pest out breaks, mostly due to plant bug control efforts. If you want a less scathing telling of the same events (well written to convince skeptics), read his textbook, Introduction to Biological Control, which he wrote with P.S. Messenger and A.P. Gutierrez (Posthumous edition, 1982, Plenum Press, NY). I believe Texas has an organic directory from which you might contact growers directly. Good luck, cotton is uniquely adapted to atract pollinators and natural enemies (some are both) because it has extensive extrafloral nectaries (unless they've managed to breed them out in some varieties, I do not know). Sincerely, David Stanley Stanley Gardens IPM 44 Paige Hill Rd Brimfield MA 01010 (413)245-9701 sgipm@mail.ccsinet.net -----Original Message----- From: owner-sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu [mailto:owner-sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu]On Behalf Of Roberto Verzola Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 6:36 AM To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: Organic cotton growing I'm looking for success stories in organic cotton production. I'd appreciate URLs or case studies (pls email me privately if too long). Roberto Verzola Philippines To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@cals.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail