Commerical Veg - Exam 1

U.S. is the

5th largest producer and exporter of vegteables

Top 5 vegetables (Cash receipts)

Potatoes, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Onions

Commercial vegetable production is one of

the most diverse, least subsidized, and most financially successful components of U.S. agriculture.

The U.S. generates

10% of all U.S. crop cash receipts

Vegetable production systems

Small-Large

Organic-Coventional

Diversified-Focused

Soil-Soil-less

Rural-Urban

Home gradening

Market gardening

Truck farming

Vegetable forcing

Stages of vegetable production

Pre-planting (Field preperation)

Planting (Crop Establishment)

Planting-harvest (Crop managment)

Harvest

Post-harvest

Planning

Site selection

Crop selection

Decide on a production system to use

Decide on a tillage system to use

Crop slection - things to consider

Light

Temperature (cool-season and warm-season temps differs)

Soil

Slope

Access to water, roads, markets , labor

Market (Fresh, processed, wholesale, retail)

Companion Planting

Crop rotation

Southern slopes

Warm up faster in spring- earlier crop

Companion planting benefits

Repels insects

Attract beneficial insects

Efficient space usage

Enhance plant growth

Crop Rotation benefits

Reduce insects

Reduce disease

Reduce weed

Improve soil fertility

Prevent nutrient depletion

Tillage systems

Traditonal tillage

Reduced tillage

Conventional Tillage Systems

Involves clean tillage i.e. bare soil/no O.M. coverage

Used for a lot of vegetables

Deep tillage

such as plowing

Disking, Feild cultivator

Overcome compaction and high weed pressures

Increased erosion potential

Used for crops that are : Harvested where debris is a problem, such as spinach and brassica greens

Coventional Tillage Equipment

Moldboard plow

Offset disk-harrow

Rototiller

Spring tooth-harrow

Peg tooth harrow

Reduced Tillage Systems

Minimum-till

No-till

Living mulches

Redcues loss of O.M. in the soil

Usually requires use of herbicides

Will work for hand-picked fruit

Beans, tomato, melons, fruit and nut crops

Field Preparation for Annual Crops

Soil prep steps

Tillage as needed

Sanitation, soil solarization

Addition of pre-plant soil amendments

Beds and bulching

Installation of irriagtion

Field prep for Perennial crops

Soil prep steps

Tillage as needed

Sanitation, soil solarization

Addition of pre-plant soil admendments

Weed control

Free-standing raised beds

Deep ripping of plant beds

Grassy strips between rows

Installtion of irrigation

Direct Seeding

Pros: Simple, less $$, suitable for large scale/high density/taproot.

Cons: Less uniform/poor stands, thinning (labor), more seed is needed

Transplanting

Pros: Establishes faster in the field, more uniform, good for season extension, weed control, fewer seeds needed

Cons: More complex, more $$, Disrupts roots

Ease of Transplanting

Easy: Efficient in water absorption and quick to form new roots. Includes broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, tomato.

Moderate: Young plants do not absorb water as efficiently, but new roots form quickly. Cauliflower, eggplant, onion and peppers.

Difficult: Plants resume growth slowly after root system injured; require special handling and care. Cucumber, melon, squash, okra and corn.

Why is it important to plant it right the first time?

Uneven emergence-seed priming

Thinning (more overall labor)

Direct seeding equipment

Requires 2 things : seed metering and open and closing seed furrow

Flut-feed seed metering

Planet jr seed metering

Air-planter

Hand-push planter

Transplanting

Think through the process

Scope of operation

Labor, machinery

When will you need plants

Where will you get them

Commerically produced or grown at yout farm

How many are needed

Depends on population

Will they need to be held before planting

Growing Structures

Greenhouse (use electricty)

Cold Frame (Use solar radiation)

Hotbed (used manure or electricty)

No structure (bare-root transplants)

How to grow transplants

How many seed?

Growing medium

Growing containers

Transplant maintence

water, temperature, fertilzier, light

Transplant holding

Use benches, shelves or floor-ground

Watering needs (not too dry, not too wet)

Protection (temperature, disease, insects, animals)

Getting transplants in the ground

About 4-6 weeks old

Plant orginal depth in the flat plus soil coverage

Row width and in-row proper spacing

Transplant by hand or with mechanical transplanter

Transplanting equipment

Requires 2 things : Opening and closing planting hole and spacing transplants

Finger transplanter

On plastic

Water-wheel transplanter

What to do about not so perfect transplants

Use trench planting method

Planting depth

Deeper in drier soils

Deeper when hotter (but not too deep, 3 x seed size)

Epigeous vs. hypogeous

Epigeous pulls seed up, hypo keeps seeds under

Planting arrangements

In straight lines

In staggered straigh lines

Interplanting

Soils

Sand, Silt, and Clay

Sans, loams, clays, mucks

Mucks

Important in veg production; high in OM; in several veg states such as NY, FL,MI,WI

Whats in soil?

Minerals 45% (Sand, silt, clay)

Water 25%

Air 25%

Organic matter 5%

Topsoil 1-6% OM

Microbes break down plants and animals to form

Soilless media/Substrate

Sphagnum peat moss

Bark

Perlite, vermiculite

17 Essential elements

C HOPKNS CaFe Mg B Mn CuZn Mo Ni Cl

C Hopkins Cafe managed by my cousins Mo, Nigel and Clyde

C, H, O

Come from air and water plants take in

More than 95% of plant dry weight

14 Mineral Nutrients

Macro: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfure

Mirco: Iron, Maganese, Boron, Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum, Nickel, Chlorine

Soil pH

It affects the availability of nutrients

How to make pH go down

Sulfur (increases acidity)

How to raise pH?

Lime (reduces acidity)

Mobile Nutrients

Able to move out of older leaves to younger plant parts when supplies are inadequate

N,P,K,Cl,Mg,Mo

Immobile nutrients

Not able to move from one plant part to another

B, Ca, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, S

Where do deficiency symptoms first appear

First appear in younger leaves and are localized

Partially immobile nutrients

Deficiency symptoms initally in middle leaves then affects both older and younger leaves.

Nitrogen

Functions

78% of atmosphere, low availability in soil

Nitrogen deficiency symptoms

Overall yellowing (chlorosis) of lower leaves

Stunted growth with continuing

Phosophorus Deficiency symptoms

Lower leaves dark greem and red or purplish

Spindly plants

Potassium (highly mobile) Deficiency symptoms

Dicots (lower leaves) show chlorosis as well as browning (necrosis)

Monocots - Tip chlorosis that spreads along margins

Prolonged deficiency involves whole leaf and younger leaves in both monocots and dicots

Calcium (2nd macro) Deficiency Symptoms

Tissues collapse, become soft and rot, tipburn of lettuce, blossom end of rot of tomato

Top of plant may be twisted and distorted

Magnesium deficiency symptoms

Interveinal chlorosis of lower leaves

Iron deficiency symptoms

Intervienal chlorosis of upper leaves

Fertilizer

Organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic orgin added to a soil to supply elemnts essential to the growth of plants

Types of fertilizers

Organic-natural materials of plant or animal orgin

Green manures, crop residues, seaweed

Livestock manure, bat guano, worm castings, bone meal, fish

Compost

Inorganic or mineral- Fertilizers mined from minerals deposits with little processing, or industrially manufactured through chemical processes.

Lime, potash, phosphate rock

Urea

Ammonium sulfate

Advantages of organic fertilizers

Increased soil organic matter- better aeration and water holding capacity

Reduced soil erosion

Limited amounts of fossil fuels used in production

Disadvantages of organic fertilizers

Low concentration of readily available nutrients

Takes time to break down into available form

Generally costs more than synthetic fertilizer

Inorganic advantages

High concentration of nutrients readily avilable to plants

Releatively small quantities required

Can be formulated to apply appropriate ratio of nutrients

Inorganic disadvanages

Require high purchasing power, a problem in pooerer countries

Need to be applied seasonally

High risk in low and very high rainfall areas

Uses lots of fossil fuels to produce

The four Rs

Right material

Right rate

Right time

Right place

Mulches Benefits

Reduce weeds

Concerve soil moisture

Reduce/increase soil temps

Keep leaf, fruit clean

Reduce fertilizier leaching and soil compaction

Materials

Plastic

Pros: increased yeilds, earlier crop, buffers soil moisture

Cons: Expesnive, annual replacement

Black-good for warm weather crops

White-cleaner plants/fruits, fall crops

Saturation

No air space

Pores fill of water

Fidel capacity

Water that can be held by the soil against gravity

Permanet wilting point

Very little water

Water attracted to tightly to the soil that it is no longer plant available

Total available water

Between field capacity and permanet wilting point

Managment of allowable depletion

Availiable water holding capacity is based on

Soil texture

Soil infiltration rates are based on

Soil texture

Water is required for

Structure and support

Biological processes

Nutrient and metabolite transport

Temperature control in plants

Site of water uptake

Root hairs

Water transport

Bulk Flow (xylem)

Force-transpiration

Irrigation program 4 R’s

Water quality

Amount of water

Timing

Irrigation methods

How to determine the right amount of water

Soil water monitoring

Evapotranspiration

Crop indicators

Soil ‘feel’ or apperance method

Timing for irrigation

Plant growth stage

Time of the day

Frquency : soil, crop, weather

Irrigation methods

Surface

Overhead

Drip

Surface irriagtion pros

Smaller capital investment

Less maintenance

Less sensitive to weather variables and water quality

Surface irrigation cons

Less efficient

More labor for operation

Require land grading

Require lateral spread of water

Overhead irrigation pros

Can be applied at low rates

Can combine fertigation and chemigation

Can be automatic (center pivot)

Can be used to protect plants from heat/cold

Overhead irrigation cons

Wet foliage

Less uniform when windy

Careful control of droplet size and application rate to prevent runoff, drifting, plant damage and soil crusting

Drip irrigation pros

Efficient and unfiorm

Disease prevention

Weed control

Precise amount of water and nutrients

Limit oversuse of agricultural chemicals

Little labor to opperate

Can be automatic

Lower operatin cost

Drip irriagtion cons

Higher initial investment cost

Higher level of managment and maintenance

Smaller soil reserve for plants

Limited moisture distribution

Why weed control?

Compete with crops for light, water, nutrients

Harbor insects, diseases, nematodes

Interfere with harvest and pesticide application

Weed control strategies

Mechanical control- Field preparation

Field preparation

Durning growth season (cultivation when weeds are small)

At the end of the season - sanitation

Weed control strategies prevention

Fence, ditch

Clean equipment

Irrigation method

Remove weeds prior to see maturation

Herbicides

Crop rotaion

Can disrupt pest and disease pressure

Weed control in Organic production systems

Mechanical control

Prevention

Crop rotation

Mulching

Crop competition (cover crops)

Approved weed control materials

Enviormental Factors

Water

Nutrition

Gases

Light

Temperature

Wind

Oxygen

21% of atmosphere

Needed in respiration

Availability to roots can be a problem in flooded or compacted soils

Carbon dioxide

INcreasing C02 increases photosynethesis

Light intensity

Summer-mid-day more intense

Winter, sunrise and sunet less intense

90 degree angle - more light peneration

Less than 90 more light reflected and less light pentrates the leaf

Increase light quantity

Supplemental light

Reflective materials

Locate away from trees

Time of year

Plant spacing and pruning

Reduce light quanity

Shade/lath cloth

Shade cloth/canopy Light

Blue light

Vegetative

Red light

Flowering

Purple led = red and blue

HPS

High pressure sodium

More redm used for flowering/fruiting

MH

Metallic halide, more blue used for vegetative

Critical daylength

Duration of light period that dtermines when a photoperodic plant will show response

3 Basic response types releative to CDL

Long-day plant - response induced when days are longer than CDL

Short-day plant - response induced when days are shorter than CDL

Day-neutral plant - response not affected by day lengh