MetroFarm: The Guide to Growing for Profit In or Near the City
Chapter 6 (Sample)
He began to inspect them, one by one, with great concentration, separating the good from the bad. When he had set aside a large enough pile of good acorns he counted them out by tens, meanwhile eliminating the small ones or those which were slightly cracked, for now he examined them more closely. When he had thus selected one hundred perfect acorns he stopped and went to bed. Jean Giono, The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness
Selection of a crop is the most important decision in farming. No other decision more thoroughly defines the farm enterprise; no other has more potential for generating profit or loss.
Selection is a complex and demanding task for metrofarmers because there are so many possibilities from which to select. Consider the metropolitan diet, which now consists of an eclectic blend of all the world’s foods. We eat huevos rancheros for breakfast, snow peas with shiitake mushrooms for lunch and pasta with pesto sauce for dinner. We decorate our homes with orchids from Thailand, our yards with cactuses from South America and our land with dwarf peach trees from China. We have collected the best plant and animal crops the world has to offer and are hungry for more.
The diversity of metropolitan living stimulates demand for thousands of unique plant and animal products. Metrofarmers, unrestricted by the requirements of mass production and distribution, are ideally situated to supply this demand. They can grow fresh tomatoes for local markets, lemon basil for regional gourmet markets or ginseng for international rare commodity markets. They can establish stands of apple and pineapple guava. They can farm catfish in ponds, llamas in pastures or pheasants in cages. They can grow containers of juniper and roses or flats of floribunda.
The crop is your principal weapon in the competition for consumer dollars. This chapter presents a four-step guide to help you select the right crop. The first step consists of selecting the right category of crops; the second, of selecting the right crop; the third, of selecting the right variety and strain; and the fourth, of selecting the right seeds or starts.
This selection process will help you win the competition for consumer dollars. Be deliberate in taking the four steps and you will, like “the man who planted hope and grew happiness,” be rewarded with many good nights of sleep.
Each MetroFarm chapter takes a complicated subject, such as “Selecting Crops,” and divides it into smaller, more accessible portions, such as “Select the Category, Select the Crop, Select the Variety and Select Seeds.”
Select The Crop Category
The first step toward selecting a crop consists of determining which category of crops is best. Begin this evaluation by defining your ability to invest. Are you a renter just starting out and in need of a quick turnover on your time, know-how and money? Or are you a landowner capable of making long-term investments? Do you have a full-time job elsewhere which requires most of your time and talents?
Next, read the descriptions of the crop categories offered below and ask two questions of each: How much time, know-how and money will it cost to farm this category? When will the investments be returned?
Finally, match your investment abilities with the category’s investment requirements. If you are a renter in need of a fast turnover on your investments, eliminate the tree, shrub and vine crops because they will not yield for years. If you have another job which takes a lot of your time, eliminate the animal, bird and fish crops because they require constant attention. Match “haves” and “needs” to find which crop is best.
There are many crops from which to select. More than 1,000 are listed by category in the charts which accompany this chapter. In the charts each species represents a single crop. Apples are one crop and oranges, another. Each is listed by its common name (e.g., apple) and by its Latin binomial (e.g., Malus sylvestris). This Latin binomial identifies a crop’s genus and species. Many prefer the binomial to the common name, which often will vary from location to location.
Categories of Prospective MetroFarm Crops
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Each MetroFarm Chapter Subheading takes a complicated subject, such as “Select the Crop Category,” and divides it into smaller, more accessible portions, such as “Tree, Shrub and Vine Crops.”
Tree, Shrub, and Vine Crops
This category consists of woody perennials which yield many different kinds of marketable products, including edible seeds and fruits, building and fuel woods, animal fodders, oils, chemicals, drugs and spices
Tree, shrub and vine crops are long-term investments into which a considerable amount of time, know-how and money must be invested before a return is realized. Land must be cleared, contoured and graded; seedlings planted and watered; growing plants pruned, trained, protected, watered and fed until they reach maturity; and, finally, the crop must be harvested. Though start-up costs may be amortized for tax purposes over the 15 to 75-year life span of a well-maintained project, they must still be paid.
Most tree, shrub, and vine crops are labor-intensive. Though many breakthroughs have been made in mechanization, no machine can match the intelligence of a person for the tasks of pruning, training, and harvesting. Given the prohibitive costs of labor-saving devices, many small-scale farmers still rely on labor of experienced hands to prune the right branch, train the right leader, and harvest the ripe fruit.
Since large commercial growers cannot switch from one tree, shrub, or vine crop to another without incurring a considerable loss in production, they often form grower’s associations and cooperatives to protect themselves against glutted markets and low prices. Associations can have a profound impact on a competitive marketplace. Their government-backed marketing orders, for example, can go so far as to restrict the sale of certain farm products to specific size standards.
Where conventional cultivation and marketing practices are employed, tree, shrub, and vine crops are typically not big income-producers on a per-acre basis. According to a recent report by the San Diego County Department of Agriculture, for example fruit and nut trees in the County produced only $2,372 per acre, whereas cut flowers generated $48,382 per acre.
High-density metrofarm techniques could increase per acre yield significantly. One example of this technology would be the intensive training, pruning, watering and feeding of a deciduous fruit crop on a dwarf root stock. Though expensive in terms of labor, the techniques, when combined with other sound metrofarm strategies, could increase the total production and productivity of an acre significantly, thereby providing an edge in the competition for consumer dollars.
MetroFarm’s charts and checklists, like the ones found in Chapter Six’s “Select the Crop,” are designed to help you think your way through each step in the decision-making process.
Climate Check
The first thing to check is whether the crop can be grown successfully in your climate. Following are five questions which will help you make this determination.
- Has this crop been successfully grown in your neighborhood before? If not, why not?
- Is the length of your growing season sufficient to meet the needs of this crop?
- Would an early or late season frost destroy this crop?
- Will the crop tolerate high temperature extremes of your growing season?
- Is there too much or too little rainfall for this crop in your area?
Market Check
Next check whether the crop will find a profitable market. The items in this checklist require a thorough survey of the market, as discussed in Chapter Four.
- What is the current per-unit cash value of this crop in the market?
- How does current per-unit value compare with the product’s value last year? Ten years ago?
- What do experts expect this crop’s per-unit value to be next year? Ten years from now?
- Can you detect any current conditions, such as drought, disease, pesticide contamination, etc., which will create abnormal swings in supply and demand for this crop? How will conditions affect the crop’s per-unit value?
- Are there any restrictions, such as marketing orders, which set quality and quantity standards for this crop?
- How many market sectors can you reach with this crop?
- Are there wholesalers in your area who handle this crop? Will they give you a contract? How much are they willing to pay?
- How far must you transport this crop to market? How much will transportation cost?
Parcel Check
Check the crop’s compatibility with your parcel of land. Following are seven items which will help you evaluate compatibility.
- Will the crop have a value-per-unit sufficient to support the cost-per-acre of your land?
- Is the crop compatible with your tenure? (i.e., Long-term investments, like orchards, require long-term tenure, like ownership.)
- Is there enough tillable land to support a market-sized production of this crop.
- Are the texture, pH and nutrient characteristics of your soil sufficient to meet needs of this crop. How much will it cost to make corrections?
- Which competitors- weeds, insects, diseases- will threaten the crop in your area? How much will it cost to control pests?
- How much water will this crop require? How much will it cost to irrigate?
- Are there government rules and/or regulations which restrict production of this crop in your area?
Production Check
Check requirements for establishing production. The six items which follow will help you evaluate whether you have the ability to produce the crop.
- Will the crop require a beginning, intermediate or advanced level of technical expertise?
- Do you have access to a sufficient amount of technical information to produce this crop for market?
- Does the crop present any special problems, such as a difficult pollination procedure, which have prevented it from being produced commercially in your area before?
- What are the competition’s strengths and weaknesses in producing the crop for your market? Which high-density techniques could be employed to produce the crop on your small parcel of land?
- Which techniques could be employed to combat the crop’s insect, disease and weed competitors?
- Can you develop the ability to manage production of this crop?
MetroFarm’s photos and illustrations, like the one featured in Chapter Six’s “Select the Variety,” are included to help illustrate the text and to inspire creative thinking.
Select The Variety
Variety is a class subordinate to species. Though sharing basic characteristics of species, each variety differs in one or more major features. There are, for example, about 7,000 varieties of the apple (Malus sylvestris) species. Some apple varieties are good to eat, others are not. There are hundreds of varieties cultivated for their sweet taste; one such variety is called the Delicious apple.
Variety is the degree of genetic variation within a species. Some crop varieties are economically viable while others are not. Featured are some of the viable banana varieties grown at Seaside Banana Gardens near Ventura, California.
Each MetroFarm Chapter includes a short review which outlines, in very simple terms, the concepts presented.
Review
The crop is your weapon in the competition for consumer dollars. Deciding which crop can win this competition is consequently one of the most important decisions you will make as a metrofarmer. There is a simple, four-step process to making a good selection:
First, select the right category. This selection will help you stay within the confines of your ability to invest. Second, select the right crop from your category. The market will provide high and low-risk selection opportunities and each must be subjected to a thorough business analysis. Third, select the right variety. Genetic variation may help you grow outside of the normal growing season and region, sell into the market at a favorable time and earn a favorable price by providing consumers with exciting new colors, shapes and tastes. Fourth, select the right seeds. Your entire season is focused in the tiny bundles of genes called seeds, so invest the time and effort it takes to select viable seeds from viable sources.
You must select the right crop to win the competition for consumer dollars. If you select the right crop you will, like “the man who planted hope and grew happiness,” be rewarded with many good nights of sleep.
Each MetroFarm Chapter concludes with a five-step exercise designed to help you teach yourself how to make decisions.
Chapter Six Exercises
Title a fresh sheet of paper with “Crop Enterprise” and insert the sheet into the “Production” section of your metrofarm workbook. Write one paragraph describing your capacity to invest and the technical expertise you can bring to bear in a crop enterprise.
- Compare your ability to invest with each crop category’s investment requirements. Select the category which matches your ability to invest.
- Examine the crops listed in your category (Figures 6.6 to 6.9). On fresh sheets of binder paper, separate the high-risk, high-return crops- like the cherimoya- from the low-risk, low-return crops- like the apple. Decide which direction you wish to take. Survey the market for each crop. Ask about the level of consumer demand, the potential for future demand and the competition’s strengths and weaknesses in supplying the demand. Select the best crop or crops on your list.
- Title a fresh sheet of paper with the name of the crop you have selected. Below list names of the most popular varieties, like Red and Golden Delicious. Next, list varieties which offer a difference, like Winesap and Gravenstein. Finally, subject each variety to the “Production” and “Market” checks found in the chapter. Select the best variety.
- On a fresh sheet of paper list as many sources for your crop as you can find. Call or write each source and ask for a catalog and a list of references. Call or write several references and ask, “Would you buy seeds from this company again?” List the best sources in your metrofarm workbook.