October 2021 - 1

Small grower goes
big in sustainable
packaging effort
Annual awards
program recognizes
the next generation of
leaders
6
1A
14
Can you take a
nitrogen credit
following sweet corn?
October 2021 | Volume 55 |
Issue 10
The turning
of a leaf
Virginia's Old Dominion Organic Farms has a
tobacco history. Organic produce is the future.
Jordan Brandon, owner of Old Dominion Organic Farms, has transitioned the operation from tobacco to organic produce. Photos: Old Dominion Organic Farms
By Doug Ohlemeier
VGN Correspondent
Tracing its farming heritage to the
17th century, Old Dominion Organic
Farms is one of North America's
oldest farming operations. In its 12th
generation of operation, the southeast
Virginia farm has successfully
transitioned from growing a traditional
southern crop to organic produce.
Since 1654, the Dundas, Virginia,
operation grew tobacco. Jordan Brandon,
owner, is the first generation in the last
five generations of Brandons who has
not grown tobacco.
In southern Virginia and northern
North Carolina, Old Dominion
grows on about 1,700 acres of totally
organically certified land. All of the
land is tillable, and fresh organic
produce is grown on about 500 acres.
Old Dominion's production area
includes southern Virginia northeast
to the James River, and south into
northern North Carolina near Lake
Gaston. Old Dominion's primary crops
are broccoli and cabbage during the
spring and fall, summer squash, bell
peppers and cucumbers, as well as
field corn and soybeans. It also grows
tomatoes, cauliflower, green beans,
beets, carrots, pumpkins, acorn squash,
butternut squash, pumpkins and
organic alfalfa. Parker Farms and Hollar
& Greene Produce Co. market most of
Old Dominion's organic produce.
" With half of the U.S. population within
a day's drive from the farm, organic
produce became the obvious choice as it
could be on store shelves 24 hours after
coming from the field, " said Brandon.
After graduating from Virginia Military
Institute and earning a master's degree
in mechanical engineering from Virginia
Tech, Brandon worked as a mechanical
engineer with Raytheon Systems in the
Washington, D.C., area. He designed
aerospace hardware for five years before
returning to the family farm in Dundas
in 2006 to take over tobacco production.
Trying transition
Brandon expanded acreage, but
envisioning a dimming tobacco market,
he became concerned about tobacco's
uncertainty. Brandon began to transition
land into organic tobacco and row
crops, with a focus on moving to organic
produce.
The numbers tell the story. In 2001,
Virginia produced 63 million pounds of
tobacco. In 2020, production decreased to
26 million pounds. In 2020, the average
sales price was $1.90 a pound, compared
to $2.80 in 2001 (inflation adjusted to
2020 dollars), according to Brandon.
Brandon has grown organic produce
since 2015. Organic vegetable acreage
increased from 20 acres in 2015 to 200
See ORGANIC, page 5
Pythium in cucurbits: Temperature decides species
The Clemson
By Dean Peterson
VGN Correspondent
There are more than 300 species of
pythium. Many don't harm plants, but
many do, and cucurbits are particularly
susceptible. New research at Clemson
University has identified some of the
pythium species that most commonly
cause root and stem rot in cucurbits. This
information can help researchers screen
cultivars for resistance and may help
growers tailor control programs.
Clemson's three-year study looked
at four representative cucurbits and
evaluated which pythium species were
most capable of causing the disease.
These were the watermelon variety
Sugar Baby, the cucumber Marketmore
76, the Hubbard squash Golden
Hubbard and an unnamed cultivar of
bottle gourd. Bottle gourd and winter
squash rootstocks are often used to graft
watermelon - by far the cucurbit with
the largest acreage in South Carolina.
" Cucumbers are supposed to be the
most susceptible to pythium, but we were
seeing as much or more damping off
on watermelon, " said Anthony Keinath,
research and Extension pathologist in
Clemson's Plant and Environmental
Sciences Department.
study collected 563
pythium samples
from eight fields,
and the species
were identified in
the laboratory.
The pythium
species P. spinosum,
P. myriotylum,
P. irregulare, and
P. aphanidermatum were the species most
commonly found to be causing stem and
root rot in the four cucurbits.
ANTHONY
KEINATH
See PYTHIUM, page 7

October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2021