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Re: Sustainable Vegetable Production Systems (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 07:38:31 +0600 (GMT)
From: Ernesto Mendez (G.T.Z.) <mendezer@computo>
To: Steve Groff <sgroff@epix.net>
Cc: sanet-mg@computo
Subject: Re: Sustainable Vegetable Production Systems
Dear Steve:
Use of cover crops and living mulches has been tested in California. I
know at UC Davis, there are several people working with cover crops,
including living mulches. I did my B.S. thesis on living mulches of
white and strawberry clover. A similar M.S. thesis on tomatoes was also
done at the same school. This is California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo. If you are interested I can provide
references for these two studies and a bibliography.
sincerely
Ernesto Mendez
Agroforestry Consultant
CATIE-GTZ Agroforestry Project
Turrialba, Costa Rica
On Wed, 5 Mar 1997, Steve Groff wrote:
> Last week I attended the "Integrated Sustainable Vegetable Production
> Systems" symposium at USDA's Agriculture Research Station in Beltsville
> MD. Being a fulltime farmer, it was great to see the USDA pulling
> together many researchers, scientists, and farmers to provide imput into
> the direction they should go regarding research in sustainable
> agriculture. The envirnmental impact of soil erosion, pesticide use, and
> plastic mulch were discussed in great detail. It looks as though there
> will be a 4 year project dealing with these issues and comparing a
> "Systems Approach to Assess Envirnmental Impact of Sustainable and
> Conventional Vegetable Production". Recent work at Beltsville by DR.
> Aref Abdul-Baki has shown that a no-till system of planting
> tomatoes into a cover crop of hairy vetch/rye/crimson clover reduced the
> need for nitogen, lowered insect pressure, and helped reduce early
> blight while increasing yields and quality. This study will build on the
> work that Dr. Abdul-Baki has done and compare the sustainable system
> with a high imput system of plastic, fertilizers, and pesticides. I
> personally have been waiting for researchers to "pick up the ball and
> run with this", because I've been experimenting myself with a similar
> sustainable no-till approach. Is there any other farmers or researchers
> who have results to share regarding this type of farming?
>
> Thanks!
> --
> Steve Groff
> Cedar Meadow Farm
> Holtwood PA
> http://www2.epix.net/~cmfarm/
>