With help from University of Georgia experts, Georgia farmers
think they may have found a simple replacement for a chemical
they hoped they’d never lose.

Farmers would keep on using methyl bromide to control
soil-borne
diseases of vegetable crops if they could. But they can’t. Now
defined as a chemical that depletes the ozone layer, methyl
bromide
will be phased out by 2005, a government ruling that worries
farmers.

Replacing Methyl Bromide

“Methyl bromide is very important to us,” said Bill
Brim, a Tifton, Ga., farmer. “Right now, we’re just trying
to figure out what we’re going to do when they take it away from
us.”

In a joint effort with the UGA Coastal Plain Experiment
Station
in Tifton, Ga., Brim and other farmers believe they’ve found a
safer replacement: compost.

A high-quality compost of the perfect mixture of yard waste,
gin trash, culled vegetables and poultry litter, they say, could
help protect plants from disease. The compost could make
fertilizer
and irrigation more effective and help the environment, too.

Because of the warm climate and long growing seasons in the
Southeast, vegetable crops are highly susceptible to disease.
If vegetable growers can’t control those diseases, they can’t
continue to farm, said David Langston, an Extension plant
pathologist with the UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences.

Composting to Increase Beneficial Organisms

Soil in the Southeast, particularly in south Georgia, is
extremely
sandy. Nutrients can leach quickly through this soil.

The sandy soils have little organic matter. And intensive
tilling
speeds the breakdown of the little there is. “Most soil in
this area has less than 1 percent organic matter,” said
Keith
Rucker, a Tift County extension agent.

Soil contains microscopic pathogens that can damage plants,
Rucker said. But it also contains beneficial organisms that can
suppress the pathogens. Research has shown that compost can
increase
the number of beneficial organisms, improve the soil and suppress
diseases.

“Compost increases the organic matter and
nutrient-holding
capacity of sandy soil,” said Darbie Granberry, a UGA Extension
Service vegetable horticulturist. “And it helps stretch the
farmer’s
fertilizer dollars.”

Granberry said compost also extends the use of waste material,
such as municipal waste and poultry litter, that would otherwise
be a burden on the environment.

Two years ago, Brim and other farmers around Tifton, Ga.,
became
interested in the benefits of applying compost to vegetables
grown
on plastic-film mulch. They can now produce as much as 8,000 tons
of compost annually, at a cost of $30 per ton.

On-Farm Research Plots

Brim allocated part of his land to create research plots. CAES
scientists will collect data from these plots and help in further
studies to find economical ways farmers can manage to their
crops.

Early data shows that transplants grown in greenhouses with
compost tend to be larger and more robust. By using compost, Brim
said he has reduced irrigation by as much as 30 percent and
increased
the fertility of his soil.

With help from UGA, Brim applied for a Southern Region
Sustainable
Agriculture Research Education (SARE) grant to fund the
research
on the farm.

The federal grant allows farmers to develop their ideas into
viable practices and technologies with the help of CAES faculty.
Information from the research is then shared with other
farmers.

“It’s an opportunity for researchers and extension people
to work with the farmer,” Granberry said, “and to help
solve a particular problem he has on the farm.”

“We’ve worked really close with the researchers and the
extension office with this,” Brim said. “Research is
the most important thing that can happen to agriculture right
now. We’re just trying to find a way to keep a positive cash
flow.”

A field day Oct. 24 will showcase the on-farm plots. For more
information, call the Tift County Extension Service office at
(229) 391-7980. Or e-mail ksrucker@uga.edu.