Overview of organic gardening

OVERVIEW OF ORGANIC GARDENING:

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS:

Definition of Basic Terms
Organic
- Dictionary Definition #1
- Dictionary Definition #2
- Negative Definition
- Alternatives to "Chemicals
- Certification Standards
- Rec.gardens.ecosystems' Definition
Certified Organic Crops
Ecosystem
Integrated Pest Management
Summary of Basic Concepts
- Healthy Garden
- Pests and Weeds
- Toxicity
History of Organic Gardening
Assigned Reading

DEFINITION OF BASIC TERMS:

There are arguments over some of the terms used in organic gardening. This section attempts to clarify the definitions:

ORGANIC:

There are a number of different meanings to the term, "organic". They include:

DICTIONARY DEFINITION #1: Webster's "New World Dictionary" has 8 different definitions for "organic". The one most directly associated with organic gardening reads, "grown with only animal or vegetable fertilizers, as manure, bone meal, compost, etc."
Ammonium sulfate, Potash, Super Phosphate were found to have value as fertilizers and were introduced into agriculture in the later part of the XIX Century. Collectively, they became known as "chemical fertilizers" and they quickly dominated the market. It was not known until later that these "chemical fertilizers" caused environmental problems.
Organic gardening is sometimes defined along the lines of "that kind of gardening that only employs materials from natural sources." A problem with that definition is that it does not address the use of cultural practices such as the use of disease or pest resistant plants, crop rotation, etc. Cultural practices are considered as core issues in organic gardening.
DICTIONARY DEFINITION #2: Webster's "New World Dictionary" also defines, "organic" as "designating or of the branch of chemistry dealing with carbon compounds." Accordingly, organic gardening has been defined by some as "that kind of gardening that employs only carbon based compounds." This is an untenable definition. The purpose of organic gardening is to get away from the use of environmentally destructive and overly toxic "chemical" pesticides. Almost all of the commercial pesticides and the worst offenders are carbon based.
NEGATIVE DEFINITION: Organic gardening is sometimes defined as that kind of gardening that DOESN'T use "chemicals" which is an awkward definition in several ways. First, negative definitions are cumbersome. It's like going to store with a shopping list that says, "Don't buy milk nor a loaf of bread". The gardener needs to know what he can or should use and why. The definition to avoid the use of "chemicals" is also awkward because every gas, liquid and solid are "chemical" and subject to analysis for their chemical content.
Sulfur, for example, is one of the basic chemical elements. No material can be more "chemical" than a basic chemical element. It is also a material that is found in nature. It is mined from natural deposits. It is one of the essential plant nutrients. It has also been used in agriculture for well over a hundred years as an insecticide, fungicide and miticide. It is relatively low in toxicity and is relatively friendly to the environment. It is included in virtually every list of acceptable materials for use on Certified Organic Crops.
The better word for those man-made pesticides would be "synthetic". Generally speaking, the use of synthetic pesticides is more destructive of the ecosystem of the garden than the use of pesticides derived from natural materials. There are, however, exceptions to that and some of the materials from natural sources need to be used with care. It is better to focus on the overall performance and suitability of the materials than their source. The "don't use chemicals" definition also fails to address the use of cultural practices.
ALTERNATIVES TO "CHEMICALS": There is an understanding that organic gardening is about the use of alternative materials to commercial "chemical" pesticides. Someone suggested the use of a mixture of battery acid and salt, for example, as an alternative to the use of RoundUp to control weeds. The use of this mixture would be much more destructive to the environment than would the use of RoundUp. Finding alternatives to the use of commercial "chemical" or synthetic pesticides can be a good thing but not at any price.
One of the problems with the use of home remedies or alternative materials is that some of them clearly do work and are garden appropriate. A blanket condemnation of all home remedies is as inappropriate as a blanket condemnation of all commercial products. A classic example of a home remedy that does work is the use of a dilute solution of baking soda for the control of powdery mildew. The American Rose Society, an organization that usually recommends the use of synthetic pesticides, even recommends the use of baking soda for the control of powdery mildew on roses.
Some home gardeners are able to avoid the use of pesticides all together by doing nothing more than plain good gardening which is the best of all alternatives.
CERTIFICATION STANDARDS: A number of governmental regulatory agencies and trade associations have drafted standards for the production of organic crops. These standards are lists of materials that can or can not be used. Most of the standards are different with certain materials being allowed in one jurisdiction and prohibited in another but, in general, there is more agreement than there is disagreement and these standards do provide the home gardener with a guide towards those environmentally friendly materials considered appropriate in an organic program.
REC.GARDENS.ECOSYSTEMS' DEFINITION: We define organic gardening as that kind of gardening that employs environmentally friendly products and environmentally friendly cultural practices.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC:

Certified Organic Crops are crops that are certified by an independent agency confirming that they have been grown and processed in compliance with a recognized standard. Growers of commercial organic crops often have problems complying with the Certification Standards. The growers are required to keep detailed records confirming their compliance to a strict standard, they must submit to and pay for an on-site inspection and pay an additional fee for the certification. In some cases, the grower is required to get certifications from multiple agencies meaning keeping even more records, dealing with more restrictions, and paying for even more inspections and certification fees.

The marketing of these crops can also be a problem. Certification in one State, District or market may or may not extend to a different jurisdiction. Nicotine sulfate, for example, is allowed for use as an insecticide in some jurisdictions but not in others. The issue is that it is a very toxic material even to the point of threatening the safety of the farm worker. On the other hand, it can also be considered environmentally friendly because it bio-degrades so quickly and completely. Some jurisdictions give more priority to safety to the farm workers while others give more priority to the way the material bio-degrades. The grower, caught in the middle, ends up in a situation in which he can ship and market his nicotine treated crops to some places but not to others.

Some growers simply get around the certification process and market their produce as "no spray" which also means un-supervised.

The USDA is in the process of drafting a National Standard that would apply to all States and, presumably, to all growers marketing organic crops in the US. A proposed National Standard was published recently but it contained a number of controversial provisions and has generated wide spread opposition. It may never become adopted in its present form. One of the most controversial is the provisions to allow the use of genetically engineered materials in an organic crop program. Another controversy is the provision to allow the use of composted sewer sludge as a soil amendment.

In terms of the home garden, the present OCIA's International Certification Standard, as cited in Appendix A, should be considered simply as a guide as to which materials are environmentally friendly.

ECOSYSTEM:

Ecosystem is defined in Section A of the FAQ as, "The way the community of all of the living things in a specific space interrelate with each other and with the physical and chemical environment that they share."

"Common-Sense Pest Control" by Olkowski, Daar and Olkowski adds, "By ecosystem, we mean any system that has at least one living component that fixes energy from the sun. For example, if a specific green plant is at the core of a particular ecosystem, that ecosystem includes the animals, fungi and microbes that feed upon that plant and upon each other, as well as the minerals in various forms that cycle through and around these organisms".

About a hundred years before the term "ecosystems" was coined, John Muir said simply , "Everything is connected to everything else". It is this 'interconnectiveness" that makes an environment and the life of its inhabitants an ecosystem.

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT:

"Common-Sense Pest Control" by Olkowski, Daar and Olkowski says, "Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is an approach to pest control that utilizes regular monitoring to determine if and when treatments are needed and employs physical, mechanical, cultural, biological and educational tactics to keep pest numbers low enough to prevent intolerable damage or annoyance. Least-toxic chemical controls are used as a last resort."

The purpose of IPM is to give the best control of pests and disease with the least amount of environmentally damaging pesticides.

SUMMARY OF BASIC CONCEPTS:

HEALTHY GARDEN: Gardens include huge numbers of micro- organisms that have the potential to cause plant disease along with huge numbers of eggs and spores of a variety of organisms that could become major pests but these potential trouble makers are only a small part of the total living organism population. Most of the living things that inhabit the garden actively work at making and keeping the garden healthy.
It is like the old saying, "The greatest gift is the ability to cope with the ambiguities of life". Healthy gardens cope with the trouble makers using a variety of natural controls including natural resistance. Olkowski's second chapter on "Natural Pest Controls" is important reading. The health of the garden all goes back to the issues of "interconnectiveness" in the ecosystem of the garden. Specifically, the healthy garden is the garden that resists problems with pest and disease and is able to cope with the trouble makers. A healthy garden is not necessarily free of an occasional blemish or immune to damage.
The primary characteristic of the healthy garden is a wide biodiversity living in balance with nature.
PESTS AND WEEDS: Liberty Hyde Bailey, the "Father" of modern horticulture, once said "Nature ...knows no plants as weeds". Probably, the same could be said about "pests". All living plants and creatures contribute to the bio-diversity of the garden and workings of the ecosystem but it is also true that certain plants and creatures can become a nuisance or problem to the gardener.
Session #5 deals with weeds, weed prevention and weed control. Section #6 deals with pests and disease as well as their prevention and control. Generally speaking, weeds are plants that became dislocated from their natural environment and became separated from their indigenous natural controls. They are a problem in the garden because of this separation.
The same can be said of most pests. The Japanese Beetle, for example, is native to Japan and is not a particular problem in its native setting. It became a real problem in much of the U.S. after it was accidentally introduced.
TOXICITY: Some of the materials promoted for use in organic gardening programs are labeled or identified as being "non-toxic". This is a blatant overstatement. Too much of anything can be toxic to the ecosystem of the garden. Toxicity is relative and not absolute. At best, a material can be less toxic. There is an old saying in Medicine, "The toxicity is in the dose". This also applies to pesticides and fertilizers.
All of the essential plant nutrients are toxic in excessive amounts and this is particularly true relative to the micro-nutrients. The margin between feeding just the right amount and feeding too much can be very narrow. Even those insecticides or fungicides that are environmentally friendly when used as directed can become environmentally destructive when used at higher levels. Using less toxic materials in an organic gardening program is only half the story. Less toxic materials also need to be used at the right level.

HISTORY OF ORGANIC GARDENING:

J. I. Rodale was the first to use the term "organic" in the context of gardening or farming. He used the statement in a magazine article in 1940. Rodale said that the use of "chemical" fertilizers and pesticides was destructive of the environment. The article advocated the return to the use of natural materials such as composts and manures as a better way to feed the garden and the return to the traditional cultural practices such as crop rotation as a better way to prevent and control garden pests. J.I. Rodale was one of the early leaders of the environmental movement and one of the most articulate. He is most remembered for starting Rodale Press which publishes the magazine, "Organic Gardening" and for founding The Rodale Institute which gives organic gardening and farming supportive data.

The event that ignited the public's passion for organic gardening was Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", published in 1962. She painted an emotional picture of the environmental damage caused by the use of "chemical" fertilizers and pesticides. Rachel Carson became the voice against the use of "toxic chemicals" and against the chemical companies. "Silent Spring" presented the idea that materials that were derived from nature were safe or "non-toxic" and that materials derived from synthetic sources were environmentally destructive and "toxic". Rachel Carson set the stage for a lot of arguments.

Organic gardening has grown from being essentially a protest movement to being main stream. It is now the style by choice of some 15 - 20 million home gardeners just here in the United States. Organic produce has grown from being a fad item in health food stores to an established presence in many, if not most, super markets. Part of the reason for the reason for this growth is the on- going public concern for the environment. Another reason is the belief that gardening in co-operation with the ecosystem makes for a better garden and better crops.

The recent squabbles over the USDA's proposed National Standards for organic crop production will set the stage for what happens next.

ASSIGNED READING:

Section A; FAQ; "General Information, Definition of Terms, Hints & Tips"
Appendix A; FAQ; "Organic Certification Standards"
Appendix B; FAQ; "Recommended Reading"
Olkowski, Daar & Olkowski; "Common-Sense Pest Control":
Chapter 1: "Naming Living Things and Understanding their Habits and Habitats"
Chapter 2: "Natural Pest Controls"
Chapter 3: "Introduction to Integrated Pest Management"