Even though most of us are getting comfortable with the term “organic” and how that applies to produce we can purchase at the store, it’s still easy to be confused about what “organic” actually means. Plus, if you ask around, you are liable to get different or possibly conflicting definitions. So, let’s see if we can clear some of that up today.

Many of us if we were asked what it meant for a product to be “organic” we would probably say that it was produced without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. But that is only partially correct.

Here’s how the USDA defines organic. “Organic products must be produced using agricultural production practices that foster resource cycling, promote ecological balance, maintain and improve soil and water quality, minimize the use of synthetic materials, and conserve biodiversity.” So, from this, we can see that for a product to be considered organic, it actually involves a series of practices rather than just fertilizer and pesticide choices and if you want to become organic certified to claim that for your production, this process can take three years to accomplish. For those of us who just want to adopt organic practices at home, here are some practices we will need to embrace in our garden.

A good place to start is by working to improve your soil quality since the success of any home garden whether organic or not begins with the soil. One way to do this is by adding organic matter to your soil. Organic matter is basically anything that used to be alive, and a good place to start is by adding compost from your home compost pile. Don’t have a compost pile? That’s the topic for another article, but let’s just say that most of us are likely throwing away a lot of kitchen waste and yard clippings that could be composted at home and used as a natural soil amendment.

In our area, soils have an organic content of about 1%. We want our garden soil to have an organic matter content of between 3 and 5 percent. Why does organic content matter? They say that for every 1% increase in organic matter content in your soil you can increase your production by up to 10%. So, if you want more vegetable production, this is a great place to start and completely in line with organic growing practices. Composted manure is another good way to add organic manure to your garden soil.

Organic matter can also be amended by your growing cover cops during the off season. Cover crops are plants you can grow for the sole purpose of tilling them into the soil before the spring garden season starts. Cover crops would include winter rye, annual ryegrass, clovers, winter peas, or hairy vetch. Legumes are an interesting cover crop in that they actually pull nitrogen from the air and move it into the soil. For the highest nitrogen content from legumes, be sure to till them into the soil before they start to flower.

Next up, you will need to transition to organic fertilizers such as bone meal or blood meal. The downside to organic fertilizers is that they typically have a lower nutrient content than synthetic fertilizers. However, organic fertilizers also add micronutrients to the soil which you won’t get from synthetic fertilizers.

Disease management is typically where we find out if we really want to grow organically. There are a lot of synthetic insecticides that do a good job of pest removal, the problem is that they also do a good job of getting rid of the beneficial insects we want in our gardens. Fortunately, there are some good organic insecticides we can use to target specific pests with a minimal amount of damage to the good insects if you will…not that an insect is good or bad, they are just causing us trouble.

Another way to minimize the need for pesticides in your garden is to use disease resistant varieties when they are available. Disease resistant varieties are the result of cross-pollinating two similar varieties to increase production and improve disease resistance. For example, they will take a tomato that is a good producer and cross it with another tomato that has shown to be resistant to disease. So if you’ve had a problem with a particular disease in the past, see if there is a variety of your favorite crop that brings with it a certain degree of disease resistance. You typically find this information on seed packets.

This also carries over into the transplants you purchase for your garden. To minimize disease, purchase transplants from a dependable grower and don’t be afraid to pull that plant out of its little pot and look at the roots. Healthy roots are lighter in color. If the roots are dark, it’s best to put that one back and continue the quest. When purchasing seeds, be sure to purchase your seeds from a reliable vendor as well.

Crop rotation is another good way to help minimize pesticide use by minimizing disease. Here’s the challenge. Most of us probably have a preferred way to lay out our garden which may tempt us to plant the same crops in the same place year after year. But, when we do this, we are encouraging soil borne diseases to build up over time by providing them with just what they want to thrive. But crop rotation can be tricky.

Let’s say we rotate crops in our garden by rotating the location we plant our tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants. Believe it or not, all of these are in the same plant family, making them susceptible to the same diseases. So, even though we are moving these plants to different parts of our garden, this will not be an effective way to rotate crops because they are in the same plant family. Instead, we would need to rotate with something in the cucurbit family such as cantaloupe, squash, cucumber, or watermelons. Plant families can get confusing, so we have a good information sheet on our website in the Vegetable portion of the Lawn and Garden Help section (www.tulsamastergardeners.org)

Even if you can’t go “full organic” in the way you do your home garden, any step you take in that direction will be an improvement. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Phto courtesu OSU Agricultural Communications