Hello - We have a small PYO blueberry farm and transitioning to organic/eco methods. I would be interested in learning/sharing with anyone who has or is going through this process.
Thanks for the confidence, @dheraud. We’re only just a year old as farmers in general. We’re also not pursuing organic certification at this time. However, if you are just looking at organic/eco methods, then I guess I would recommend a few books:
The Market Gardener by JM Fortier. Here’s his web site: http://www.themarketgardener.com/
Gaia’s Garden: https://www.amazon.ca/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1603580298
I’ve also been inspired by some of the farming techniques in Asian countries and adopted in Hawai’i:
http://www.fftc.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=20110804162833
For me, I am planning to do a minimal tillage approach and to try to make the soil as healthy as possible, which means that I am not going to disturb the soil food web if I can help it. I’m going to try and build up the microorganisms in the soil and use preparations from nature to address issues, as the natural farming guide from Hawai’i nicely summarizes.
Hope that this helps.
Chiming in here mostly for my own interest as I hope to one day grow more berries when I have long-term land. Phil, I wonder if the Ontario Berry Growers’ association would be able to point you towards any resources on this? (You likely are already familiar with them).
Other ideas - ACORN has some online resources:
http://www.acornorganic.org/resources/library/results/search&category="Fruit+%26+Berry"/
Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada has some resources as well:
I hope you find something useful. There’s definitely less out there about organic berry production from what I can tell compared to veggies. Let us know what you find out!
Thanks everyone! I had a chat with Michael Phillips a couple of weeks ago which was quite helpful and encouraging. I needed some encouragement, because when I told one of my neighbour farmers about going organic he said “it’ll never work”!
I am going to try recycled rolled cardboard as a weed barrier (newly made, not from boxes so no inks or glues). Does anyone have any opinions on cardboard?
Not specifically, but I wouldn’t expect it to last more than a few months, depending on the thickness and quality of the cardboard.