{"id":24977,"date":"2018-03-26T15:26:30","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T19:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hortcouncil.ca\/?p=24977"},"modified":"2024-09-18T16:03:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T20:03:26","slug":"harrison-van-meekeren-injecting-new-ideas-into-apple-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fvgc.ca\/fr\/2018\/03\/26\/harrison-van-meekeren-injecting-new-ideas-into-apple-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrison Van Meekeren: Injecting New Ideas into Apple Farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mark Halsall<\/em><\/p>\n

Harrison Van Meekeren is a third-generation apple farmer in Lakeville, Nova Scotia, managing the crop on property his grandfather Frank bought back in 1964 to grow vegetables, apples, and other fruit that he sold door-to-door.<\/p>\n

Today, Van Meekeren Farms comprises a bustling apple packing facility, along with 100 acres of trees that produce Honeycrisp, Pazazz, Ambrosia, Gala, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, and Cortland apples that are marketed under the Wink brand. Van Meekeren, 24, manages the farm\u2019s orchard operation, while his father and uncle run the other aspects of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really enjoying it,\u201d says Van Meekeren, who\u2019s been able to inject some new ideas into running the orchard operation since he took on the job two years ago. He\u2019s particularly excited about the potential of cocktail cover crops, a practice he introduced to the farm in the spring of 2017.<\/p>\n

A cocktail cover crop involves plants from five different families\u2014 cereals, grasses, brassicas, legumes and chenopods\u2014that, when grown together, have been shown to increase humus building in the soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s quite a phenomenon that happens when you plant all of these together,\u201d says Van Meekeren, who planted a mixture of buckwheat, mustard, sorghum-sudangrass, pearl millet, and clovers in the tractor rows in between the lines of apple trees on his farm.<\/p>\n

Van Meekeren observed that the cocktail cover crop not only increased soil organic matter and helped to reduce weeds, but it also provided habitat for beneficial insects and microbial life, which helped to lower pest pressure. This cut down on the need for pesticide sprays, and applications of other inputs were reduced as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest things I noticed was more earthworms in the soil, the number of bees visiting the orchard, and increased soil moisture. Also, compaction in the tractor rows seemed to be less in those rows planted with cover crops,\u201d says Van Meekeren.<\/p>\n

According to Van Meekeren, the key to successful cocktail cover crop is finding the right ratio that enables all of the different plant species to thrive. He planted cocktail cover crops in both the spring and autumn of 2017, adjusting his plant mix the second time around. \u201cIt was a learning experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Cocktail cover crops grown in between rows of trees growing Honeycrisp and Pazazz apples at Van Meekeren Farms. Photo credit: Van Meekeren Farms.\n

Van Meekeren believes there needs to be a paradigm shift in how the agricultural industry in Canada views biodiversity of the kind that a cocktail cover crop can provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are in nature, you are never going to see one plant species in a monoculture like we have these days. We\u2019re doing our best to mimic nature, and hopefully that will bring beneficial insects, fungi, and bacteria to help with our pest management as well with our soil life below ground,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat determines our tree health is our soil life,\u201d adds Van Meekeren. \u201cWhen we create this mass of biodiversity and we increase our soil life, we\u2019re reintroducing and strengthening the microbe bridge that helps the plant take up the minerals it needs in a more efficient way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Meekeren believes cocktail cover crops fall in line with environmentally sustainable production practices that are promoted by the Canadian Horticultural Council, which supports reduced carbon dioxide emissions under its environment advocacy mandate.<\/p>\n

Noting that agriculture produces a vast amount of the world\u2019s carbon dioxide, Van Meekeren points out that cocktail cover crops can help farmers recycle carbon while also producing food-grade carbon dioxide for their crops.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing when we do a cover crop is actually taking that carbon from the atmosphere and\u2026bringing it back into the soil,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

According to Van Meekeren, cocktail cover crops are gaining popularity in places like Australia and some European countries, where they can be used to help farmers claim carbon credits for increasing the amount of organic matter in their soil.<\/p>\n

Van Meekeren says he\u2019d welcome such a system in this country and believes that everybody would stand to benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to see them everywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d love to see farmers in Canada and the rest of the world\u2026start to use systems like this to help bring our carbon dioxide levels back to where they used to be.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Halsall Harrison Van Meekeren is a third-generation apple farmer in Lakeville, Nova Scotia, managing the crop on property his grandfather Frank bought back in 1964 to grow vegetables, apples, and other fruit that he sold door-to-door. 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