Market Farming

["Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>]

I hold a (New York) state commercial nursery license as well as working my 
six acres of diversified organic gardens and twelve acres of wildcrafting 
areas.

I start about 10,000 seedlings every year on my back porch and under lights 
in the basement, also buy in another 20,000 in 512 plug flats from a local 
greenhouse, which I pot up into six-packs and grow on in unheated cold 
frames.

On hot sunny days in August/September we hold a community farm washing party 
in the driveway.  All containers are washed in soapy water and we disinfect 
them with a rinsing dip in a tub containing 1 tablespoon Clorox per five 
gallons of water.  They are laid out to dry on clean old sheets on the 
driveway, taken out of the sun as soon as they're completely dry (usually 
less than half an hour), stacked and stored for the next season.  All done, 
and everybody has a good time.  Kids love it.

I treat bleach as a hazardous substance and would never use it in a stronger 
solution.  One teaspoon per gallon was the ratio recommended for rinsing 
dishes on campouts when I was a Girl Scout leader; that was determined to be 
enough to kill almost all bacteria but not enough to harm people.

The water comes from my household system, treated with a super charcoal 
filter and UV light instead of salt or chemicals.  Water from the well has 
tested clean on both sides of this system but I have a delicate digestive 
system and there's lots of new construction going on nearby and I have 
animals.  I guess I'm paranoid about safe water, maybe it comes from the 
realization that I could live for only about 4 days without it. <G>

I use bleach sparingly, and dilute in accordance with the published 
guidelines for organic farm certification.  A practical note - always add 
bleach to the water, never pour water into a bucket containing bleach.  This 
ensures that undiluted bleach is not splashed onto your skin or into your 
eyes.

Before I added the nursery business I did not wash flats and did not have a 
problem -- probably because I use lots of compost in my mix.  At this more 
commercial level bleach does the job for me; one instance of passing a 
serious disease along to customers might or might not be enough enough to 
put me out of business forever but it sure wouldn't help the rep of my 
budding business!

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm
Corning, NY

http://www.ic.org/agrove

Intentional Community with local and long-distance members
Chemical-free fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers
Dairy and pack and draft goats
Free-range chickens, ducks, and geese
Affordable housing cooperative
Regional farmer's marketing cooperative
Partnerships
Dried herbs and American-grown Black Tea by mail-order

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