Well, folks, my alligator mouth is about to get my hummingbird butt in trouble with this article. I will be attempting to explain to you why row-crop farmers many times have a difficult time growing vegetable crops and why South Carolina has been left behind in vegetable production — until now.
I have been repeating (screaming) over and over again for the last 30 years that vegetable crops are totally different from row crops. Sometimes I think no-one listens. Right now, I am really depressed because one of my star growers slipped back into his old row-crop ways. Because his potassium was very high, he took the “row-crop way” and did not apply any fertilizer.
Most vegetables are short-season crops and do not have time to forage for nutrients in the soil like many long-season row-crops. Nutrients must be immediately available and not tied up in the soil. His cucumber and pea yields are half what they would have been if fertilizer had been applied.
Fertigation, or the regular addition of nutrients through the irrigation, is the optimum in vegetables and most times will double your yield. Regularly applying nutrients or what I call spoon-feeding will give comparable yield to fertigation without the 3-E’s -- expense, equipment, or expertise — need to fertigate.
First, all row-crop growers think about is cutting costs. They would rather put on a $3 product that doesn’t help the situation (many salespeople take advantage of this) than a $10 product that will help the problem. I guess it makes them feel better that they tried something and if it doesn’t work, they apply for disaster or insurance payments. With vegetables most insurance and disaster payments are chump change compared with to the true value of the crop so saving the crop is of the upmost importance.
Next, if vegetables were easy to grow everyone would be doing it. You must think ahead and prepare when it comes to weeds, insects, and diseases. Most available herbicides are pre-emergent products.
I cannot count the number of times that a grower has called me with a weed infestation in his vegetables and searching for a row-crop product like Roundup or Liberty to destroy his weeds — ha, ha, ha. What we call soft insecticides work best with vegetables, are slow to work, and are costly. What we call harsh/hard (row-crop) chemicals kills beneficial insects and cause even worse insect problems.
Also, most disease products are protectants, not cures, and only protect leaves from infection. So once a plant has a disease it is there until harvest. Also, any product with vegetables on the label is always much more expensive than a row-crop product.
Finally, irrigation is a must with most vegetables, especially if you want top yields. For instance, in most years when we have drought conditions a reel-gun-type irrigation is almost useless because vegetables need to be watered with at least ½ inch of water twice a week – this will work you to death.
Many processing companies like our very own McCall Farms, Mt. Olive, Cates, and Bay Valley are looking for growers with irrigation in South Carolina, thus giving them a more dependable supply of raw product. Also, row-crop prices are in the toilet and many farmers are looking for alternatives.
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August 16, 2020 at 11:30AM
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TONY MELTON: Vegetable crops are different - SCNow
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