How are we managing devastating populations of voles, ground squirrels, and gophers? Literally feels like that is going to crush my dreams- damn critters!!! I grow dahlias so this is a particular concern with the dahlia tubers, as well as managing the rodents in perennial beds. Where I till and do annuals it's a bit less of an issue.

Things I've tried: bucket traps with water and seeds floating on top with a little ramp up to it,(mildly effective for ground squirrels and voles), baited traps (surprisingly not effective, didn't see any bait get taken), and I have a dog who gets maybe 5% of the voles.

I don't live there and there are other residents so getting a friend to shoot the squirrels is not an option. I have never actually seen a fresh gopher mound despite seeing the characteristic volcano shape around so I'm at a loss on how to set the gopher traps effectively.

Any suggestions welcome 🫠🫠🫠

10 lbs worth!! We initially thought it was a dahlia bulb and then quickly realized it definitely was not a dahlia bulb haha. Once it flowered it was easy to tell what it was but for a good while it was our mystery plant on the farm.

How do you deal with nutrient deficiencies in organic farming? How do you a) identify that there is a nutrient deficiency, and b) figure out what nutrient is deficient?

I'm especially interested in the element P, which I've heard can be either overabundant or deficient in organic fertilizers. If it's deficient, what do you do to bring it back up to desired levels?

I sell Pinon on eBay I am from New Mexico if anyone interested in buying wholesale or a couple pounds give me a shout.

I have a few questions about home-made fertilizer. we use nettle manure, which works differently for different crops. next year I want to try fertilizer made from molasses. My question:

1. what do you use?

2. in which period do you fertilize

3. do you use “emergency” fertilizer for weak plants or do you get rid of it?

4. if you buy in fertilizer, what do you use?

would be very helpful for planning the coming year, in which I would like to try out a few things and am therefore currently collecting ideas. Thank you, have a nice day.

Hi there, I'm interested in starting an organic farm in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. I'm new to farming and would love some guidance on getting started.

Specifically, I'd like to know:

1. What government licenses/registrations are required to start organic farming in Haryana?
2. What are the essential steps to convert my land into an organic farm?
3. Are there any local organizations/training programs that can help me learn organic farming practices?
4. What are the market opportunities for selling organic produce in Gurgaon/NCR?
5. Are any government subsides available for taking loans or other help

Any advice/experiences shared by seasoned farmers or experts would be greatly appreciated.

Happy farming!

So my neighbor is intentionally spraying some sort of herbicide over our 6 foot privacy fence trying to kill our tree, shrubs, etc...

It's a long story, but we put up the fence to keep her from spraying her chems into our farm, since I am a beekeeper and my wife organically farms

I have already filed a vandalism complaint with the sheriff but I need to find someone to give me their opinion/quote of how much effort, time, cost it will take to mitigate the damage.

My question is, who or what type of company should I look for to achieve this?

Hello Farmers,

I would like to start by saying thank you for your hard work and for providing food to people around the world. I am a mechatronics engineer with a passion for weapon design, but I am also a proud advocate for organic produce and pasture-raised livestock. As an engineer who loves producing and consuming high-quality food (because I believe food is medicine), I would love to know: what are the daily challenges you face that I could help solve?

I am interested in making your lives easier by reducing the cost of organic produce and pasture-raised eggs while improving efficiency. I understand that organic farming often has a lower ROI for farmers, and I would like to find ways to address that.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

I recently secured 2 acres of land to start growing on and I want to make sure I prep it well.

The land used to be a horse pasture and then was left alone for a couple years. The grass and other growth is now 4-5 ft tall but other than that the land is clear.

I’m thinking I need to brush hog the land and then tarp it for a while.

Open to suggestions.

Thanks!

It is a styrofoam-ey texture. I'm based in Ontario, Canada.

https://preview.redd.it/sc0owjsotlnd1.png?width=1028&format=png&auto=webp&s=73550f3a964591da638865f528396eccb9e0c777

https://preview.redd.it/fn8bdksotlnd1.png?width=918&format=png&auto=webp&s=5a3ed794ef59f26be6ab93327b077f58431addbe

Step dad sprayed round up on pile of dirt 7-10 years old/ago. Is that dirt pile still toxic or can I grow veg in it now? Would it be called organic or still have residue of round up? Thanks

Just turned 41, and started realizing some of the harvesting that requires basically doing squats over the beds was getting difficult. My partner's been recommending yoga for awhile now for flexibility and spiritual hoo-hah, but I always said no thanks.

Started going regularly a couple months ago and HOLY HELL does my body feel better. Hips are loose, hamstrings aren't cramping after a couple minutes of bending over, shoulders aren't on fire carrying equipment around.

I'm still not much for the woo-woo namaste stuff, but gotta say I wish I'd been doing this for body preservation for awhile now. My harvesting has even gotten faster. A+ recommend trying out for older farmers like myself who are feeling those harvest days heavier now

We operate a small gourmet mushroom farm; we have a major city about 45 minutes away and another smaller but more local food focused city another 45 minutes away. We sell to about 4 restaurants right now (plus farmers markets), but we're having trouble breaking into any new restaurants lately. We've emailed 25+ in the last 3 weeks with not a single response. Calling hasn't given us great luck in the past eirher. Does anyone here have suggestions on how you get into new restaurants or work with chefs?

When I stumbled upon the JADAM liquid fertilizer method, I immidietly started thinking if it's possible to use it instead of a commercial fertilizer in my farm.
I grow wheat and rapeseed each season on a 10 ha (25 acres) area.
Recently, the commercial fertilizer's price shot through the roof, further decreasing the viability of the whole endeavour.

It also just so happened, that I have quite a big lawn that gives me a lot of grass each year. Needless to say I made the link there.

After doing some math I realized that I could be making easily 3000-6000 liters (800-1600 gallons) of JLF from grass clippings each season. I'd probably be making very highly fermented JLF, over the whole year, so that everything decomposes.

Here comes the math of the amount that is sprayed per area. On average I spray 250 liters per hectare (26 gallons per acre). That's 0,025 liters per meter (0,002 gallons per square foot, or 2 gallons per 1000 square feet).

My question is - with such a low spray-rate, could JLF provide enough nutrition for the wheat to justify replacing the commercial fertilizer with it? Even if I spray double that amount, the rate is still relatively low.
My guess is that without diluting it, maybe it will be enough.

Another idea I have is replacing traditional tillage with strip-till, which will greatly stop the erosion and destruction of the micro-biology in the soil, but that's a separate topic...

So, what do you guys think? Is my crazy idea too crazy? Or maybe it could work? If you would change/modify something in my master plan, please give me your insights.

Does anyone work for a research farm, or work with a university to conduct experiments?
If you do, what are you researching what are you goals?

Owning an organic research farm is something that really interests me. I love doing various plant trials to figure out how to improve older cultivars, or research the viability of different specialty crops in my climate.

My wife and I converted our front yard into an organic food garden four years ago. We ripped out the lawn, built eight large beds, and bought three truckloads of organic compost and soil amendment to fill the beds. We tended the garden fairly consistently, growing various fruits and vegetables, but recently we have been away from home and decided to let the beds sit fallow. Last week, we cleared and prepped the beds to plant, tilling the soil to assist us in removing crabgrass roots (and other weeds) that had grown in and around our beds. This morning, our gardeners sprayed RoundUp around the perimeters of the beds and in at least one garden bed (possibly all of them). We have never used pesticides or herbicides and are looking for advice on how to counteract the herbicide. Do we need to clear all of the soil from in and around our garden and start again? Can I use activated charcoal to inactivate the herbicide (if so, should I apply it now)? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

We have dogs who eat soil (weird, I know, but I think they are looking for worms or something), and I'd like to limit their exposure to chemicals.

I don't know if this post will be allowed here, but we are looking for help wherever we can get it. UGArden (the University of Georgia's student community farm) is in the running to win $50k from Kubota and needs your vote. Over 90% of the produce grown on the farm is donated back into the surrounding community through hunger relief and food security programs. The farm serves as a local food hub that houses multiple nonprofits focused on food security, food gleaning, and food waste reduction. UGArden doesn't actually receive any direct operational funding from the university where it is located so this money would go a very long way at the farm. As a sustainable and (not certified) organic farm, it is not a funding priority for a traditional agricultural school. With the $10k the farm has already won through this grant they will be building a pay-what-you-can farm stand to help fill in some of the gaps in food distribution programs around town. Athens, GA has a relatively high rate of food insecurity (25-30% depending on where you are getting your stats) and many programs like the local food bank struggle to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to people. So, the farm needs your vote! I think that voting may only be open to people in the US. You can vote once per day, per email through August 14th. The grand prizes are by region and the prize for the South Atlantic division is just between UGArden and a non-profit in Eastman, GA focused on community infrastructure that wants to put in artificial turf if they win ☹️. With all the students currently gone for the summer, the vote has been super close and the farm needs all the votes they can get before the final vote tally at the end of the day on August 14th. If you are willing to help, you can vote here: https://www.kubotausa.com/hometown-proud/vote Remember you can vote everyday from each of your email addresses through the 14th and thanks for the support!! Bonus: Voting also enters you to win a small tractor or zero turn mower.

Hi guys so I’ve recently become responsible for a plot of land that’s been my family’s for many generations. I loveeee this land and the area and it has a big sentimental value to me but unfortunately I just don’t have the resources to keep it up myself :( I have listed it for sale but I was also wondering if any of you know how I could go about finding an organic farmer to rent it to? Even to sell to because I cringe at the thought of selling it to someone who’ll destroy it even if it won’t be mine at that point…

The local farmers it seems they don’t really do fully organic… I’ve asked the only organic farmer and the area and he has enough already.

If anyone happens to be personally interested in this sub please message me….

Hi all, I'm at my in-laws in West Germany and they have this flower in their market garden - can anybody identify, and possibly say if this is a disease on it?

Pic #1. Bought these eggs at a local farm. Was told they're pasture raised, and organic non gmo. Usually eggs like these are supposed to be orange but why are these so yellow? Some are even almost white. Can someone please explain? Did i get ripped off?

In picture #2, I showcase two different sets of eggs. Vital Farms(left side with orange yolks), and Farmers Hen(right side with yellow yolks)