A32-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 27, 1991
Drought Brings Out Tobacco
(Continued from Pag* A 1)
severely damaged and black in col
or. When the stalk of the plant is
cut in half, the pith or center part of
the stem is black and and will usu
ally separate into discs similar to
those found in a bamboo plant.
Black shank is very difficult to
treat after an infestation is found in
the field.
If an infestation is found, is it
*>
l e
Bob Anderson, Lancaster County extension agent, checks this tobacco field for a
resurgence of a tobacco disease which began showing itself again in area fields. The
wilted diseased plants Anderson kneels beside are obvious, compared to the healthy
plants surrounding him.
(Continued from Page A 25)
He sees himself as the agricul
tural conscience that brings per
spective. On the farm, the Bay
Foundation learns to understand
farm problems on the field scale
rather than on the big picture scale.
“In the past, the environmental
ists identified the problem and saw
it as tons of nitrogen floating into
the bay and pounds of phosphorus,
and millions of pesticides, and
never looked at the other side as to
what farmers need to do on a daily
basis to make a living,” Heller
said.
To get a balanced perspective,
Heller said, people must look at the
bay’s problems from both the far
mer’s and the environmentalist’s
end.
The Clagget Farm is good place
for environmentalists to leam the
farmer’s problems. For example,
the farm has a plot of com growing
that has been planted with no-till
methods without using herbicides.
The weeds are so tall that you can’t
find the com. During student tours
Heller sends the students into the
com to find a well that is located in
it. The idea is to show the students
the problems farmers face without
the use of pesticides.
“It teaches visitors that farmers
do the things they do because they
need to get food on the table and
sneakers on the kids and there is no
mean or nastiness there,” Heller
said. “If we (the Bay Foundation)
want things to change, we must
provide farmers with tools that are
more sensibly and economically
sound.”
One experimental plot shows
com planted on hills with a con
tainer to capture amounts of runoff
and sediments from contour strips,
suggested that the affected
plants including the roots and
soil attached to the roots be
removed and destroyed in a non
crop area.
This treatment is not very practi
cal and is of unknown effective
ness in stopping the spread of the
disease.
The best control suggestions
include long rotations and planting
JHfl
Farmers Observe Effects Of Bay Contaminents
convention, and no-till com plots.
About 4,500 visitors tour the
farm annually. In addition to the
research and demonstration
acreage, the farm has a 150-acre
commercial operation where they
use fanning methods they have
experimented with on their test
plots.
Research done on the Clagget
Farm is done in cooperation with
the University of Maryland (grants
pay for graduate students), the
United States Department of Agri
culture, and the Environmental
Protection Agency. “We take ideas
that farmers and other research
centers have found to be effective
and we try them.”
For three years the farm has
focused on developing a no-till
system without the use of any
chemicals. “That would be the ide
al,” Heller said.
After three years of working
with it, Heller is not comfortable
with the results, but the University
said that it has enough to publish a
paper on the project and they want
to try something new.
One of the ways that they have
tried to control weeds is to plant
com into legumes. They have had
success and problems. The experi
ment showed that crops planted
into legumes when it is half in
flowers will kill the legumes.
Heller and his workers have also
tried overseeding soybeans into
wheat. Heller said, “The advan
tages are reduction in use of herbi
cides and full-season bean and
wheat, but then you lose straw.”
Many of the experiments have
different results dependent upon
the weather. This spring, soybeans
came up beautifully, but there was
not enough moisture for both soy-
resistant tobacco varieties
None of the Pennsylvania type
41 varieties are resistant and only
one Maryland variety, Maryland
609, is resistant In periods of
heavy rain, Maryland 609 may
also show black shank symptoms
and die.
Even a long rotation may have
limited effect One field where the
disease has be identified this year
1
I
beans and wheat, and the soybeans
dried up.
With methods like these, Heller
said that it takes more management
on the part of farmers and the
results tend to be riskier at this
point”
One Amish farmer said of these
projects, “We can’t afford to take a
chance when experimenting. We’d
go down the tube in one year if
we’d get weeds in our com like
they did in the test plot”
Heller agreed. “You guys face
problems that we don’t have
answers for at this point We must
work together. We can’t solve
problems overnight. We hope that
eventually we can find good alter
natives that are economically
sound. “We only ask that you exa
mine them instead of automatical
ly writing it off.”
The research and demonstration
plots are experimenting with ridge
tillage, growing com on ridges that
are permanent ridges.
‘The ridges are never plowed up
after they are established,” Heller
said. The wheel traffic goes in val
leys so ridge areas do not become
compacted. Ridge tillage allows
reduction of herbicides and gives
better yields. Ridges warm up and
dry out 3 to 14 days earlier than in
no till methods.
In ridge tillage, a ridge-dll culti
vator is needed to build and break
down ridges. It directs soil move
ment, not destroys. The planter
sweeps off top 2-inches of ridge to
give weed free area to plant. The
cultivator pulls weeds off the sides
of ridges and throws them into val
leys. During the second cultiva
tion, soil from the valleys are
Black Shank Disease
- 'I
* * *
The Tobacco Black Shank fungus is apparently more
active and better able to penetrate into tobacco plants dur
ing drought conditions. The core of the stem, or the pith,
shown here on a cut-away of a diseased plant, becomes
black and separates into discs. The outside edge of the root
also becomes black and the root hairs are severely
damaged.
has not been planted to tobacco for
7 years or more.
The soil applied fungicide,
Ridomil is registered for suppres
sion of the disease, however, the
application rate is high and it
works best with a resistant variety.
In Pennsylvania, research has
shown that by growing a resistant
variety alone, black shank can be
thrown to the crops.
Heller displayed charts that
show pattern from 1988 until the
present that show that ridge tillage
is the least expensive method with
cost of equipment and labor
included. Although labor costs are
cheaper with no till, herbicide
costs are much higher. The con
ventional method adds high labor
costs.
Ridge tillage is popular in the
Midwest where the marjority of
fanners are changing from con
ventional tillage to ridge tillage. It
has advantages and benefits for the
Eastern Shore, which is relatively
flat and has shallow ground water.
“Although quite successful, it
has limitations. It doesn’t work in
certain farm situations,” Heller
said. It would be difficult on hilly
farmland.
“Is this farm operated at a pro
fit?” the group asked Heller.
He responded, “It is like a part
time operation. You can’t send
your kids to college on it.”
The farm community is con
cerned about environment but can
only take it so far on farm.
Finances need to be the bottom line
for changing farming practices.
While the group agreed that the
test farm was the ideal place to
experiment, they maintain that the
methods have a long way to go
before they can be successfully
implemented into Lancaster Coun
ty farming. Ridge till planting,
although impressive on flat fields,
is impractical on hilly ground.
While environmentalists have
been critical of many farming
methods, Heller said the he sees
the environmentalists maturing
and developing a deeper under
standing of the farmer’s plight.
MILK.
IT'S FITNESS
YOU CAN DRINK.
avoided without the addition of
Ridomil.
Black shank activity seems to be
accelerated in hot weather. In early
stages of the disease, the wilted
plant recovers in the cool of the
evening. The best time to check
fields is during the heat of the day,
suspected plants should be pulled
and the roots and stems checked
for symptoms described above.
‘They see the loss of farmland and
know that they were better off with
farms than development. We tell
them, “If you eat food, you’re
involved in ag.”
Heller said that he often tries to
bridge the gap between the agricul
tural and the environmental com
munity. He serves on the gover
nor’s pesticide council.
“Pesticides is a volatile issue.
There are so many gray areas
where we don’t have adequate
information. Too much informa
tion is based on emotion. We don’t
get a lot of agreement and it’s very
frustrating,” Hello* said.
“About 2% of the population are
farmers and 65% are environmen
talists. We got more leverage and
political clout and it seems dispro
portionate. But we must have
mutual respect We are each trying
to achieve the same result but are
going about it in different ways.”
The Chesapeake Bay Founda
tion is a private, non-profit conser
vation organization, founded in
1966 to promote responsible and
appropriate management of the
Bay’s resources.
The skipjack tour and the Clag
get Farm are only two of the CBF’s
educational programs that teach
more than 35,000 students each
year.
CBF now preserves and man
ages 4,000 acres of Bay land. The
land is held in its natural state and
used for educational purposes. The
Foundation has offices in Annapo
lis, Md., Richmond, Va., and
Harrisburg. *