Steve is the real deal! He's SO passionate about what he does but seeing this happen in his community. He's a real champion for growers in his area, including those from minority backgrounds. If you know Steve you know a guy that would literally give the shirt off his back for you. Blessed to know you Steve!
This is so impressive and, frankly, touching. Id like to express my appreciation for this kind of effort and expansion. Thank you for growing and showing the world what's true❤
Can be tricky with livestock around food crops.. for Steve's operation he uses Mo'N'Blow very well, especially as he needs clean aisles for harvest, so cover crop timing and management is hugely important
11 vintages of Zero Pesticides. I’m glad to finally hear of another vineyard. In that category. We have 15 cultivars for wine. No till since planting started in 2005. 1/4% SOM in low moisture environments is great! According to the EPA, “Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest. Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant. Any nitrogen stabilizer.” By this definition a jet of water to wash aphids off your plant is a pesticide. I approve this definition. When I say we have 11 vintages of making wine from grapes with Zero Pesticide use, I mean zero. None of this subterfuge of “no synthetic pesticides”, “only natural pesticides”, only pesticides approved by… Organic and Biodynamics both have long lists of approved pesticides. Some are highly controversial. Except for water, pesticides are in some manner synthesized by humans. Soap? Yup we make it. Oils? Yes we process and refine them. An argument can be made that sulfur does naturally occur and is mined. It still gets significant processing. Throwing chunks at a vine won’t ameliorate fungus pressure!
Have you tried using weeds as cover crops ? Local, native weeds that grow naturally ? They started doing that in Europe, and it works better than a cover crop because you don't have to sow anything... Also, since it's natives, they'll increase your organic matter content better than anything else, because they can produce biomass in whatever climate you got, and because there'll be like 5-10 different species of grasses, flowers etc... which also speeds up the biomass production. The only issue is management : those weeds can be tough perennials like quack grass, and if farmers see only that the first year or two, they often freak out. They don't realize that after a couple of years of quackgrass, the soil is decompacted and it's mostly annuals that'll take over. It sure takes patience and trust to use those methods...
Generally weeds are exactly that and will rob and take away nutrients from your crop (compete with). Selected species as cover crops are used because they compliment and are beneficial to the crop they are planted with and selected for that purpose. If you research it weeds can be very quick to deplete certain nutrients important to your crop and could be described as robbers and not complementary
Great thoughts.. With operations that are specific in building humification or mineralization it's often easier to use a specific cover crop or cover crop blend.. also management can be timed well given the aisles need to be clean for harvest time. Thanks for the comments !
Steve is the real deal! He's SO passionate about what he does but seeing this happen in his community. He's a real champion for growers in his area, including those from minority backgrounds. If you know Steve you know a guy that would literally give the shirt off his back for you. Blessed to know you Steve!
Steven, you are an organic rockstar! Keep on brotha!!!!!
Beautifully done! Hoping this video gets mega views. Commenting for the algorithm.
Awesome! Would love to see more content like this from AEA
This is so impressive and, frankly, touching. Id like to express my appreciation for this kind of effort and expansion. Thank you for growing and showing the world what's true❤
So happy to see this happening.. thank you..
Could you actually graze the cover crop? It would be tough to manage but could be possible.
Can be tricky with livestock around food crops.. for Steve's operation he uses Mo'N'Blow very well, especially as he needs clean aisles for harvest, so cover crop timing and management is hugely important
So encouraging! I hope your success inspires others.
But I can see presence of lot of fungal infestation. Can you explain that please
AEA ✅💨🌱
👍
So no powdery mildew? Interesting
11 vintages of Zero Pesticides. I’m glad to finally hear of another vineyard. In that category. We have 15 cultivars for wine. No till since planting started in 2005. 1/4% SOM in low moisture environments is great!
According to the EPA,
“Any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest. Any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant. Any nitrogen stabilizer.”
By this definition a jet of water to wash aphids off your plant is a pesticide. I approve this definition.
When I say we have 11 vintages of making wine from grapes with Zero Pesticide use, I mean zero. None of this subterfuge of “no synthetic pesticides”, “only natural pesticides”, only pesticides approved by… Organic and Biodynamics both have long lists of approved pesticides. Some are highly controversial.
Except for water, pesticides are in some manner synthesized by humans. Soap? Yup we make it. Oils? Yes we process and refine them. An argument can be made that sulfur does naturally occur and is mined. It still gets significant processing. Throwing chunks at a vine won’t ameliorate fungus pressure!
Have you tried using weeds as cover crops ? Local, native weeds that grow naturally ? They started doing that in Europe, and it works better than a cover crop because you don't have to sow anything... Also, since it's natives, they'll increase your organic matter content better than anything else, because they can produce biomass in whatever climate you got, and because there'll be like 5-10 different species of grasses, flowers etc... which also speeds up the biomass production. The only issue is management : those weeds can be tough perennials like quack grass, and if farmers see only that the first year or two, they often freak out. They don't realize that after a couple of years of quackgrass, the soil is decompacted and it's mostly annuals that'll take over. It sure takes patience and trust to use those methods...
Generally weeds are exactly that and will rob and take away nutrients from your crop (compete with). Selected species as cover crops are used because they compliment and are beneficial to the crop they are planted with and selected for that purpose.
If you research it weeds can be very quick to deplete certain nutrients important to your crop and could be described as robbers and not complementary
Great thoughts.. With operations that are specific in building humification or mineralization it's often easier to use a specific cover crop or cover crop blend.. also management can be timed well given the aisles need to be clean for harvest time. Thanks for the comments !