March 2020 - 36

GROWER'S POSTCARD
Broccoli knowledge yields host of wise strategies
SAM HITCHCOCK
TILTON
rcvcfarm@gmail.com
Hello, dear reader. I wonder if I find
you sunken deep into your favorite chair
as the greenhouse heater has recently
begun to fire away outside. Have you been
attending any conferences this winter? I
have been getting to a few, and I must say
that I find them very invigorating - being
around new ideas and enthusiastic people.
I had heard about the Practical Farmers
of Iowa organization for many years,
and just this January I was able to attend
their conference for the first time. In this
postcard I will share with you what I
learned about broccoli production during
a snowy day in Ames, Iowa.
Abby Benson works at Featherstone
farm in Minnesota and directs the farm's
14 acres of organic broccoli. She was
joined at the podium by professor Ajay
Nair of Iowa State University Horticulture
Department. Nair has been studying
broccoli production for a few years. I was
happy to sit back and hear from these top
brains in the broccoli business.
Both Abby and Ajay agreed that
due to temperatures spring broccoli
production presents more problems
than fall growing. As a result, the bulk of
Featherstone's broccoli is grown in the fall.
Abby described her broccoli production
beginning with choosing varieties for
spring; although in the past she used
several varieties of different maturities
planted at the same time, the harvest
windows were never right.
So now she has settled on two
successions of Green Magic in the spring.
She has come to prefer the Green Magic
variety for its uniformity and smooth
beads. They will make two plantings, one
seeded April 1 and the other on April 15.
After giving the seeds a hot water
treatment (112˚ K for 20 minutes) Abby
dries the seeds and plants them in 128
plug trays. She will cover the seeds with
vermiculite as it helps moderate uneven
watering. Ideally the broccoli will go into
a field of winter-killed oats and peas.
Abby will flail-mow, chisel plow, then disc
before forming beds.
Ajay Nair of Iowa State University has been studying broccoli for several years. Photo: Christopher Gannon/ISU
In the fall, Abby plants into bare ground
with her Mechanical Transplanter 5000
because it is faster and more precise than
planting into plastic. When planting on
bare ground she will form her beds early
so that she can fit in two or three stale seed
beddings before planting. To make a stale
seedbed she uses a belly-mounted basket
weeder and rear-mounted flex-tine.
Black plastic benefits
However, Abby plants all spring
broccoli into plastic mulch. I was
interested to hear that for her the biggest
benefit of black plastic in the spring is
that when she gets heavy spring rains
the plastic will shed the water off the bed
and avoid water-logged roots. Both Ajay
and Abby agreed that black plastic really
benefits spring broccoli by warming the
soil. Although Ajay uses white on black
plastic because with his row-covers the
soil temperate could get too high with
plastic mulch.
Alternaria is Abby's biggest disease
problem in broccoli, but headrot will be
an issue in wet weather. A few years ago,
the farm almost went under due to black
rot throughout their brassicas. Abby's
response to that black rot debacle has
been to hot water treat all of her broccoli
seeds and to stretch out their rotations to
four or five years.
Practices that have also helped to
reduce disease are: not going through the
field in wet weather, and working diseased
areas last so that they do not transfer
propagules to healthy plants. Also, for
disease prevention, Abby generally does
not overhead irrigate any brassicas. Spring
broccoli on plastic gets drip and fall
broccoli in bare ground is generally not
irrigated at all.
Overall, Abby finds that healthy plants
are the best disease prevention.
Control nitrogen intake
Abby and Ajay made a great duo -
because hearing the latest research
from Ajay and his field experiments
complimented Abby's years of field
experience. Ajay told us that he
had been putting down 120 pounds
of nitrogen per acre. But whereas
conventional wisdom is that misshapen
heads are a result of heat, new research
is pointing to high N as a cause.
As a result, Ajay is considering lowering
his nitrogen rate to 80 pounds per acre.
Ajay also talked about black rot and told
us that planting into too much actively
decaying organic matter can be a cause, as
well as short rotations.
" A one- to two-year rotation is not good
enough for black rot, you need rotations
of at least three to four years to prevent
black rot, " Ajay said.
Like many growers, Ajay has been
using row-covers to exclude insects from
his broccoli. But being a researcher, he
has also been taking measurements. Ajay
has found that using Agribon 19, when
the average air temperature was 78˚ F
the temperature for the plants under the
row-cover was 120˚ F! Also, Agribon 19
reduces light by 28%.
He tried a more porous cover, 60
gram Proteknet - when the outside air
temperature was 75˚ F the temperature
underneath was 108˚ F - better, but
still hot. Sixty-gram Proteknet reduced
incoming light by 11%. The lesson that
Ajay took from this is to remove your
row-cover as soon as it is not needed.
Ajay also raised an interesting point
about pest control: It turns out that many
common weeds and cover crops are
habitat for cabbage loopers and cabbage
worm. These are purslane, pigweed, red
clover, mustard, red fescue and white
clover. As such, he suggested that growers
try to keep these plants removed from
their broccoli fields.
Now, having burnished your brains
with beads of broccoli knowledge, I bid
you farewell until next time. VGN
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34 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
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automation, H-2A
growth
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raise strawberries
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8
12
26
Tree Fruit Variety
Showcase
November 2019 | Volume 58 |
Issue 11
GRAPE
EXPECTATIONS
Napa grower's enterprise,
sustainability efforts honored
Andrew Hoxsey, a Napa Valley grower of organic winegrapes, is a strong advocate of sustainability. Photos: Joanna Salazar/Snapped With Love Photography
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
A career of enterprise and
advocating for sustainable growing
led to Andrew Hoxsey being named
Grower of the Year.
Hoxsey, a fourth-generation
grower, and part owner of Yount Mill
Vineyards, Yountville, California,
and Napa Wine Co. in Oakville,
is credited for his work on the
California Sustainable Winegrowing
Alliance in its formative years, and
also for launching the Napa Valley's
first custom-crush operation, which
gives winegrape growers more
options for their crop.
The Grower of the Year award is
the highest award bestowed by the
California Association of Winegrape
Growers (CAWG). It recognizes an
" efficient and successful producer of
quality winegrapes " who is a leader
and innovator in the industry.
" Over a period of three decades,
Andy has exemplified the best in
grape growing with his commitment
to sustainable winegrowing,
agricultural preservation, habitat
See HOXSEY, page 5
Anderson to lead Michigan Hort Society
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
For more than a century, the
Anderson family has grown apples on
a ridge in west Michigan, and in 2020,
the farm's current leader will serve
as president of the Michigan State
Horticultural Society (MSHS).
Brett Anderson of AB Orchards will
take a turn in leading the industry
group that represents 1,600 growers in
the Great Lakes State.
AB Orchards itself has more than 150
acres in the Sparta, Michigan, area, in
addition to an orchard in neighboring
Oceana County. The Anderson Farm
settled in west Michigan in 1908, and
Brett's grandfather and great-uncles
studied agriculture at Michigan State
University (MSU) during the Great
Depression.
" It was during the Depression era
that they decided to focus mainly on
tree fruits and get rid of the cows, " he
said. Anderson Brothers Orchards first
grew stone fruit in addition to apples,
but when Brett's father took over in
the early 1980s, he focused the farm
mostly on apples.
Today, Brett grows only apples. He has
transitioned his family farm away from
growing varieties meant for processing
- Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Ida Red,
Rome and Red Delicious.
In the late 1990s, with the Chinese
dumping apple juice concentrate into the
American market, Brett began tearing
out old orchards and selling applewood
to Grand Rapids-area restaurants
See ANDERSON, page 6
BRETT ANDERSON

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March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2020