Organic vegetables have more flavor and pack a higher vitamin content.
But there's more to growing chemical-free corn and carrots than laying off pesticides and weedkillers. Recent discoveries about soil, plant disease and insect behavior have re-written the rules about organic gardening. It's not just about "plant food" and "insect control" anymore.
What are these rules?
1. It is imperative that you have your soil tested at least annually. In labs around the world, scientists are delving into ways to make soil more productive - and cure world hunger. Order a test run from a soil scientist with high tech training and equipment at your local Extension Service. They'll do a complete, state-of-the-art analysis for a modest fee.
2. Study "Green Mulches" - and use them. Green Mulches begin as chlorophyll-colored organic matter - straw and grass clippings. What's new about mulch? Even after a Green Mulch turns brown, it still contains sugars that important soil microbes thrive on. Recently discovered: Avoid wood based mulches for vegetable plots; they cultivate the wrong kinds of microbes.
3. Got Earthworms? These wiggly Oligochaetes are a big key to soil fertility. Scientists just learned in 2001 that Humic substances boost Iron uptake in some crops - and digestive enzymes in an earthworm generate Humic acids by the mega-ton. Keep your earthworms happy.
4. Topdress with compost. Not only do you pour nutrients into your soil, but you build bigger, better microbes: beneficial fungi, nematodes, bacteria, which scientists have found are skilled disease-fighters. For vegetable-growing, avoid twigs and woody stems and focus on kitchen scraps, grass clippings and dead leaves instead for best results.
5. Switch to organic "fertilizers". In the organic world, you don't fertilize - you "amend". Champion amendment: Alfalfa meal, ideal for jump-starting vegetable-friendly microorganisms. Other favored choices: Humus, kelp, cottonseed meal.
6. Grow lots of birdfood. When University of Florida researchers planted sunflowers at organic farms, they had a surprise. Insect-eating birds flew in all season, with little interest in crops. Reason: Most birds are strict carnivores in summer months, hungry for aphids, beetles, grasshoppers and other pests. Give your birds a water source and a place to perch, and watch them flock to your garden.
7. Discover your insect friends. Integrated Pest Management ("IPM") lures - or imports - natural enemies to the front lines. You can attract some just by growing the right companion plants. Ladybugs and Lacewings are attracted to Cornflower, Dills and Mints. They both devour aphids and other bad bugs by the bucket.
8. Resist tilling. Odd, but totally true: Scientists know now that traditional turning-over of soil compacts it. Dormant weed seeds rise to the surface. Tilling also stresses earthworms and wrecks soil structure. We didn't know that too long ago. Now we do. Want to lighten your soil? Till roughly, and add organic matter.
9. Avoid chemical fertilizers. Friendly fauna in your soil head for the hills when you pour on man-made plant food all over them. Who needs them? You do! Build up your soil from the bottom of the food chain, and you simply won't need concentrated, old-fashioned plant food. A healthy population of microbes fights diseases, too, and generates a constant supply of plant superfoods right next to roots in perfect doses.
10. Rotate your crops. This time-honored rule is one of the most important steps you can take when it comes to disease management. Scientists have proof that crop rotation stops nutrients from being wiped out by a single crop. You also avoid being host year after to year to the same bad bugs. Insect pests are rarely a problem during their first year.
Research over and over finds crops grown organically win taste tests hands down. They also boast significantly more vitamins and minerals - with none of the side effects of dangerous chemicals. With all the things we know now, it makes no sense to grow vegetables any other way.