Horticulture

Mendocino is a wonderful place to grow fruit, vegetables, flowers and landscapes. On this page you will find information and links to other websites that contain information for many different crops.

Here is a link to Paul Vossen's presentation used in his SRJC class. This covers a wide variety of crops and businesses. Keep in mind that the file is over 20mb and will require a little time to completely download.
http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/files/49962.pdf

This link will take you to the Vegetable Research & Information Center. (VRIC)
Here is information by crop and by topic.
http://vric.ucdavis.edu/index.htm

Direct Marketed Produce...this presentation was developed by Shermain D. Hardesty,Ph.D., Extension Economist Agricultural & Resource Economics. This was shared at the Farmer's Market / Gardeners Workshop in Finley, CA.
Lake Co Direct Marketing quality

Marita Cantwell, PhD. Postharvest Specialist contributed these links to answer the following questions.

Use of uncomposted manure for ovive trees: this link mentions need for well rotted manure but does not address the food safety issue: http://www.santacruzolive.com/planting.asp?page=fertilizing. An authoritative source would be the Organic Olive Production manual by Paul Vossen 2007:
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/product/3505.aspx.

Chickens and vegetable planting; the FDA guidelines emphasize exclusion of animals during the growing season (see pg 24 of http://www.fda.gov/downloads/food/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidancedocuments/producandplanproducts/ucm169112.pdf

Bartlett pear storage; use of modified atmospheres where currently have plastic liners in the bins; ethylene absorbers can be purchased at Ethylene Control (http://ethylenecontrol.com/products/. The current plastic bags could be sealed to create a modified atmosphere that could be beneficial, especially if combined with the ethylene scrubbing. Recommended atmospheres for Bartlett pears are described at http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/produce/producefacts/fruit/pear.shtml

Strawberry packaging: discussion with 1 grower of strawberries who is currently putting them in punnets and having short shelf-life (lots of dehydration when put into commercial refrigerator). I suggest clamshells as a viable option since they will cause less damage and also help retard water loss. A Californial supplier of clamshells for berries is Robert Mann Packaging http://www.rmp.com