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Sept 6 , 2006

War of the Worms - Thaddeus

Sept 6 , 2006

Imagine beginning your existence on earth as a larva. Hatching, you realize you are hungry and begin chewing on the tender young plant that you happen to be on – so oblivious to the world that you don’t even appreciate that your egg was carefully placed on this plant and not in the middle of the bare dirt that surrounds you. The day comes when you are much larger than you used to be and the plant you have been eating is gone. Slowly, you being to inch your way, one squiggle at a time, across the bare land, navigating the harsh terrain in search of a new plant to eat.

This is the problem we are dealing with in our chard field. The neighbor’s conventional alfalfa field is a haven for several types of moths that have put their babies in the chard field that we seeded two weeks ago. The poor little plants don’t have enough energy to grow and fight off being the diet for the little worms that have hatched and are eating their way to their wings.

A plant is most vulnerable to insect pressure when it is just emerging from the ground. The seed has exerted all of its stored energy to push roots down in search of water and to push a couple of tender leaves up in search of sunlight. If the roots find water and the leaves sunlight – the plant has what it needs to produce more roots and leaves and eventually the end goal is to make some seeds. If the first leaves get eaten before they can gather enough energy from the sun to make new leaves the game is over – the plant dies and the worm moves on to the next.

The farmer is really the only one who loses when bugs eat a chard planting. The plants are doomed from the beginning; if they make it past the stage of being worm food they surely will not pass the stage of being people food. Since I am a farmer, I obviously worry about my chard plants making it to the stage of being people food. Not only do I want the plant to get big enough to harvest, it needs to look good too. Sure, the pure food value of chard with a few holes chewed into the leaves by worms does not change, but try to tell that to a wholesaler! To a farmer, chard with wormholes is worthless also.

So Chris and I are launching a full attack on the worms using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt is a naturally occurring bacterium common in soils throughout the world. Several strains can infect and kill some insects – including our little worm friends in the chard. Because Bt is not chemically altered from its natural state in nature – it is permitted for organic use. Interestingly enough, Bt is one of the only insecticides that both conventional and organic farms use for worm control. This is also the bacterium that Monsanto has genetically altered corn plants to produce – so any worm that takes a bite out of Monsanto’s corn eats Bt. One can’t help but notice how clever that is on an operational level.

Enjoy your box this week – Thaddeus

Farm Tour Update
Fall 2006
Get ready! We'll be hosting a work party on the farm in the fall. We
hope to see new faces along with familiar folks getting their hands
mucky in Capay dirt. Stay tuned...

We look forward to seeing you!

Please contact: Georgette at Georgette@farmfreshtoyou.com or call 800.796.6009 to
reserve space for you, family and friends.

Plan on arriving at the farm early in the morning, as close to 8am as possible. There will be actvities and walks planned for the whole family.

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