APRIL 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
Research farm showcases small projects
Compost and cover crops key areas of research activity
by RONDA PAYNE RICHMOND – Kwantlen
Polytechnic University’s teaching and research farm on 20 acres of the Garden City Lands in the heart of Richmond hosted a small farm education day March 2 in partnership with Vancouver’s Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) that explored how to apply ancient farming practices in modern ways. Composting, cover
cropping and an innovative greenhouse were highlights of the day. Cody Alba, a graduate student in UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems and a SPEC volunteer, recapped SPEC’s annual review of Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley compost products. “We looked at what was
available, how much it would cost and where you could purchase it,” she says. “Overall, there hasn’t been a significant increase in price.” Alba explained that compost applications are a good way to increase soil nitrogen, but this comes with the risk of increasing other nutrients, such as phosphorus, too quickly. She recommends looking to cover crops and crop rotation to increase nitrogen, while maintaining phosphorus at adequate levels. It’s a balancing act that is best managed through soil testing. “You’re looking for
something with less than 20 carbon [to nitrogen ratio] so nitrogen is available to plants,” she explains. She recommends composts with 2% nitrogen, and avoiding products that include sand. “You don’t really want sand
in your compost for farms,” she says. SPEC director Art Bomke, an associate professor emeritus in applied biology at UBC, explained that the cover crops trialed at the farm aim to identify “practical solutions to issues that we think are important to urban and small- scale farmers.” He feels many soils have
below-optimal nitrogen levels. Cover crops on the Garden City Lands may fix nitrogen in the soil.
One blend, called SPEC Mix, is 46% winter triticale, 42%
winter pea, 7% hairy vetch and 5% organic balansa clover. He describes hairy vetch as one of the most reliable over-winter nitrogen fixers. “You can plant this one as early as August all the way into October,” he says. By letting it grow into April, it has more time to fix nitrogen for plants to use. A cereal grain component
to cover crops helps with weed control. Cutting it down in spring creates a beneficial mulch. The small amount of cereal also helps prevent dense roots which are hard to break up without the machinery used on larger farms.
Grace Augustinowicz, a
research associate with the Institute of Sustainable Food Systems at KPU, is also working on cover crops. She notes that getting them planted in August or early September is ideal to create more biomass and nutrients. “If pushed to the end of
October, they almost never make it,” she says. For those with late-harvest
crops like squash, underplanting cover crops is one possible solution. Solar greenhouses in China
have been a fascination for KPU faculty member Mike Bomford. They led him to mimic the structures’ properties in a dome-shaped greenhouse which was built on the farm in October 2018. “We’re trying another technology. You can see our north wall isn’t a solid thermal mass [like a Chinese solar greenhouse],” he says. “It’s designed as an off-grid structure.”
The dome uses a pond on
the north side to store thermal energy; wax cylinders operate ventilation panels and solar panels supply power to an air pump that pulls air from around the pond to push it through the air hose running beneath the exterior wall beds. It allows for heat levels of 11° Celsius on frost days, but he anticipates cooling will be necessary in the summer months. He will be adding fish, frogs and plants to the pond so it doesn’t become “mosquito habitat.” “The whole point of this
structure is short-term storage of radiation,” he explains. “We
SPEC director Art Bomke led a discussion of cover crops at a small farm workshop at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s research farm on Richmond’s Garden City lands. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO
needed a place where we can grow transplants.” The kit for the dome cost $30,000 including the water tank and having a building supervisor to help with construction.
Deborah Henderson,
director for KPU’s Institute of Sustainable Horticulture, spoke about integrated pest management practices for small farmers. She suggests getting to know the difference between pests and beneficial predators to make use of what nature already provides for control. “One of the first predators
in the spring is the [green] lacewing,” she says. “They are voracious; they are called aphid lions. Respect them. You don’t have to give them a paycheque, but at least let them live.”
This means not using pest
control material that could kill them. Suitable complements to bolster aphid control include Safer’s Soap with a bit of Orange TKO. “You need to hit [aphids]
directly; they have to be wet,” she explains. Cutworms are another pest that comes out in the spring. Because they can’t climb,
Henderson recommends installing stiff, durable material four inches below the surface and six inches above ground to prevent cutworms from getting at seedlings or older crops. “Even tin cans around
plants work,” she suggested. “Or an angry rooster squad or amphibians.”
She advised that as climate change continues, new pests will become problematic. Her advice is to know the pests, monitor for them, be comfortable when control isn’t 100% eradication, keep records and evaluate.
The Youth Development Programwhere CHO CES
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