Carrots Without
Chemicals
Being Explored
Carrot Country
Spring 2007
By Kathy Birt
Growing carrots without chemicals and using green manure
for organic matter are experiments being put into practice by
at least two operations on Canada’s Prince Edward Island.
The two are Brookfield Gardens and Sweet Clover Farm.
Sweet Clover Farm, owned by Gary Claushiede, is a small
organic farm in Valleyfi eld. Brookfi eld Gardens, located in Brookfield,
is owned by two brothers, Gerald and Eddy Dykerman.
Clausheide, who claims his interseeding is all theory, plants
blue grass and white clover between his carrot rows. The practice
protects the land from erosion; the grasses act as a cover crop
throughout the winter.
The organic grower says he started out using annual rye grass
and crimson clover, but found both were subject to winterkill.
“About four years ago, I decided to use perennials. I’m trying
to develop a system that is sustainable,” explains Clausheide.
By interseeding in the 20-inch carrot isles about a month after
planting the crop, the organic farmer can have the isles filled with
blue grass and white clover by mid-September.
“Interplanting is not suppressing my crops,” Clausheide says,
noting that the carrot tops are left to provide additional fertilizer to
the soil. “ I know it’s erosion control, and it’s also green
manure
that I can plow down in the spring.”
In the spring, he seeds down last year’s vegetable rows with
blue grass and white clover. The new carrot crop is planted in the
isles “fed” all winter by the green manure.“
Green manure is the crop you grow to feed your soil,” he explains,
adding that in order to have a healthy soil, it has to be fed.
In fact, Clausheide, who has been experimenting with perennials
as cover crops for some time, says any organic matter (carrot tops,
for example) put back into the soil is natural fertility.
Initially, Clausheide followed the idea of using annuals as
cover crops from a book entitled, The New Organic Grower, by
Eliot Coleman, a U.S. writer. Later, he decided to experiment with
perennials. The experiment will take time to test completely, Clausheide
acknowledges, adding that he does not recommend the practice for
conventional growers.
“Farmers, for the most part, can’t take chances. They have
to make a living, and I fully understand why they resorted to
chemicals,” he acknowledges, admitting that he does not think
critically about individual farmers unwilling to gamble on organic
techniques.
“Organic agriculture doesn’t offer a solution for every
problem,” he says.
Brookfield Gardens owners Gerald
and Eddy Dykerman, who farm in the Brookfield
area, have grown 150 acres of carrots conventionally for 20 years
but are toying around with becoming more involved in organic
farming.
“We are taking a glimpse at organics in response to market
demand,” says Eddy.
Last year, the vegetable growers worked with Kevin
Sanderson, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada at the Charlottetown Research Station, and planted about
four acres of their crop without the use of chemicals.
“We used a method called the ‘flamer’ to burn off weeds,” Eddy
explains. The experimental field in which they planted their
carrots was infested with grass. By harvest time, only 50 percent
were picked up due to the heavy infestation.
“We did control the broadleaf fairly well,” he says.
This year, the experiment was conducted in a less grassy area.
Sanderson, he says, has helped them come up with better ways to
control the grass.
“We are exploring several possibilities and are also looking at
non-chemical ways of controlling weeds and insects,” the grower
explains. “Right now, the experiment is very basic and we seem to
be spending more time cultivating and, at the same time, are burning
more diesel.”
So, wonders Eddy, is the environment benefiting?
One answer to that question is that Sanderson is working with
them to control carrot diseases without using fungicides, Eddy
answers. A four-row machine with disks on both sides has been
designed. It trims the side leaves off the carrot plants without cutting away
the canopy. The benefi t is increased air fl ow which
seems to reduce the disease level in carrots.
Throughout the winter storage period, a researcher working
with Sanderson will be monitoring the carrots. This experimental
acreage also was grown without fertilizer. Last year, the carrots
grew fine, and this year it also is looking good, he says.
Sanderson points out that the Dykermans heard about the
experimental work in weed control and approached him for
suggestions and possible assistance. The samples will be harvested
and evaluated for yield and quality, he noted.
The four-row piece of machinery Eddy Dykerman talked about
is a mechanical (foliage) trimmer developed by the department.
One purpose of the machine,
Sanderson explains, is to control
sclerotinia rot of carrots.His colleague, Jerry Ivany,
speaks to the success of the weed
control in the test plots at Brookfield
Gardens with the flamer.
“Timing is crucial when using the
flamer,” Ivany stresses. There is only a
two- to three-day window to get the weeds.“ We have to get the weeds
when they are
just up and small,” he says, before the carrots
show through the ground. Unlike the technique being used by
Clausheide, here the carrots are planted just three inches apart on
raised hills.
During the fi rst week following fl aming, close monitoring of
the fi eld is also essential.
The Dykermans’ plots give us an opportunity to see the research
at work in a commercial setting, Ivany says. The flamer is
a well-designed piece of equipment brought in from the U.S. It
can do four rows at a time.
While the cost of controlling weeds this way has yet to be
determined, Ivany says they are hoping it will be comparable to
using herbicides.
Overall, Eddie believes this experiment with organics is encouraging
practices.
© 2007
Columbia Publishing