Topic: What do Commercial growers do?

[ceres]

Welcome to A4A lowdigger!

[tonybloke]

wotcha to iowdigger !!
wireworm are usual on newly turned soil, they should reduce in number as the years progress. Carrot fly on the other hand get worse as the years progress!!

[Digeroo]

slug was found in a spud

Just found this thread.  The thought of baking a potato with a slug in it is awful.  If you put them in the microwave they smell appalling.

[grannyjanny]

How did you find out that they smelled awful Digger ;).

[TonyD]

i can only add to what qahtan has posted. i lived and worked about a100 miles north of him in the Holland marsh area north of toronto. i ha d a small company designing and building machines for vegetable production
fertilizer, each field has soil samples taken on a 10 ft square grid pattern. and is analyzed in the field the info is recorded via a satellite onto a computer. later a contractor comes in with a fertilizer spreader with a 100 ft boom it drives in the grid pattern , with an on board computer connected to the satellite the machine delivers the exact amount of nitrogen, potash, phosphorus that each square on the grid that the soil needs for the crop that is to be grown. the field is disc-ed,cultivated prior to seeding.
seeding. all seeds were pelleted at one time now vacuum drills are used using raw seed. onions are seeded two rows at 17 in centres approx 9 seeds to the ft to get an 3in dia onion. a fungicide and a powdered pesticide is metered into the drill to protect the seed from the onion fly and a fungus called smut.
carrots are drilled into hills 8 in high at 28 in centres, 3 rows are drilled into each hill.28 to 40 seeds per ft depending on the diameter of the carrot you want to sell
pesticide is metered into the drill for the carrot rust fly

[TonyD]

crop spraying and irrigation usually is done at night when there is very little wind. the bugs come above the plant canopy to mate then you can get them without drenching the crop.irrigation is done at night so that the water droplets will drain off the leaves by daybreak because a little drop of water acts as a magnifying glass and burn the leaf when the sun comes up, approx 2 in of water is pumped through water cannons 2 to 3 times a week on each field.
a few facts. there are no slugs in Canada because the frost goes up to 4 ft down into the soil each winter. in February the temperature goes down to -40c with a wind chill of-60c. in the summer it is +30 to +40c
root vegetables are washed in rotating drum. they tumble and rub against each other breaking off any roots and dirt that may be left on after harvest.
if i could learn how to post picture on here i could show you some machines.

[labrat]

there are no slugs in Canada

God obviously loves Canada.

Thanks Tony for a very interested couple of posts.

For images you need to find a place where the picture can be hosted - either on your own webspace or on a free hosting company (google for it and you'll find loads).

Then you cut and paste the web address into the message space and highlight with the mouse and press the image button



which will do all the coding for you. Then preview or post the image and it should show up.