Archive for December, 2008

Rhizoboost and Defensor No Longer OMRI Listed

Published December 16, 2008 Ecology , History Leave a Comment
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You may have noticed recently that some previously listed products are no longer on the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) Products List. This past year, OMRI has been re-reviewing all products on their list for NOP compliance. The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) has recently revised its requirements for products to be approved for use in organic. The new requirements no longer allow the use of some inert ingredients (see full list below). Consequently, OMRI has withdrawn certification of a lot of products. Listing status is renewed annually, and another reason a product may fail to stay on the list is that some companies decide not to pay the listing fee. For companies with a small volume of sales, it can be a lot of money.

Two Rincon-Vitova products no longer listed as of September 2008 are BioStart Rhizoboost and Defensor. Bio-Cat, the manufacturer, is currently working on finding a preservative that will meet the new NOP standards. They haven’t given us a specific time frame, but testing a new formulation will take a few months and getting the products recertified by OMRI will take a few more months after that. We’ll keep you updated on their progress. We will continue to carry these products, but be aware that they are no longer approved for use in USDA certified organic production. If you need an OMRI listed microbial inoculant, we also carry Natural Resources Group’s Activate line of products. Hopefully a new formulation will be approved for organic soon because we have seen the benefits of these products extend beyond improving and maintaining soil biodiversity and promoting balance in the soil foodweb. Rhizoboost is especially helpful for farms in the first year of transition off of fumigated and chemically treated soils before moving the land towards organic certification.

Cucumber plants with and without Rhizoboost.

Cucumber plants grown with and without Rhizoboost.

Squash plants grown with and without Rhizoboost

Squash plants grown with and without Rhizoboost.

Inert ingredients no longer allowed by NOP standards:

acetylated lanolin alcohol
acrylic acid methyl ester, polymer with acrylonitrile and 1,3-butadiene
coumarone-indene resin
manganous oxide
pentaerythritol monostearate
pentaerythritol tetrastearate
polyglyceryl phthalate ester of coconut oil fatty acid
sodium fluoride

Organic: what’s in a name? OMRI vs. WSDA vs. NOP

Published December 16, 2008 Ecology , History Leave a Comment
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The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) reviews applications from companies that want a third-party verification that their product is suitable for use in organic production, processing, or handling according to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) guidelines. OMRI listing is voluntary and not appearing on the OMRI list doesn’t necessarily mean that the product is not suitable for organic farming. For more information on OMRI listing, see omri.org.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) also reviews materials and lists ones that they find acceptable. WSDA fee schedule is lower than OMRI, so you may see products listed WSDA Organic.

Producers can self certify that their products meet NOP organic standards. Basically if all the ingredients are from a natural source, the product is NOP. Some artificial chemicals are also acceptable under NOP standards. There are a few products that are natural that are not NOP – for example, strychnine and nicotine. For more information on what is and isn’t allowed by the NOP, refer to the USDA website.

I am in the process of updating Rincon-Vitova Insectaries product descriptions to show whether the product is acceptable for organic use and if it is OMRI or WSDA certified, NOP acceptable, or Natural-Not Regulated (the designation for beneficial insects, microbes or nematodes with no restricted additives).

Holiday Gift ideas

Published December 5, 2008 RVI Leave a Comment
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Seasons greetings from the Rincon Vitova Team! We thought we’d throw in some useful gift ideas your way. From garden upkeep to children’s activities, here are some a few items from The Bug Farm.

Deer nibbling your roses? Rabbits munching on your vegetables? Cats burying poo in your garden? Try a motion activated sprinkler! The Scarecrow is a great gift for the gardener with an animal problem. It has an infrared motion sensor and sprays a short blast of water at intruders. It is an attractive alternative to chicken wire or electric fences and work better than chemical deterrents. The passive infrared detector has a range of 105 degrees and adjustable sensitivity to detect animals up to 35 feet away. The Scarecrow can deter small animals such as birds, cats, skunks, and rodents and large animals such as deer, dogs, sheep, and even people. It comes with optional, high contrast “eye” and “beak” decals to scare birds visually. It is water conserving and only uses 2-3 cups of water per spray. Multiple Scarecrows can be connected to the same tap.

The Springstar Flea Trap is a super gift for pet owners in your life. It uses a small light bulb whose light, heat, and infrared rays are highly attractive to fleas. Fleas jump up to the trap, fall through a screen, and get trapped on the sticky pad. Replacement Capture Pads are 5×6, sticky on one side, and come three per package.

Get up close and personal with your favorite bugs! The World’s Best Bug Jar is a great way to get to know your beneficial insects and their prey. This jar has a built-in 2x and 4x magnifying glass in the lid and a grid in the bottom to measure your specimen. Great for entomologists-in-training young and old. Four and five year old naturalists find this tool is of especially compelling value in their studies. Make a gift of a basic hand-lens for older insect ecologists.

We asked artist friend Alice Williams for an image of a green lacewing adult, also called “Golden-Eyes” and “Aphid Lion”. Her painting in acrylic is reproduced and laminated for unique placemats in subtle hues of red and green on a pale peach background with copper-colored border. The same image is also available as notecards in two sizes.

We also commissioned jewelry-maker Joyce Fritz to render a green lacewing adult in polymer clay. There are six pins still available from a limited edition of 12 fashion pins 1 ¾ inch long with 2 inch antennae.

Check out the full version of our Holiday Gift Guide here.

Day to Day: Wildfires!

Published December 1, 2008 Life on the Farm Leave a Comment
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From left, Jan, Ron and Duke position themselves to take in the fire.

With all the wildfires in California, we thought we’d post our own little slice of life.

A small hillside fire broke out approximately two miles west of the Rincon-Vitova Insectaries (RVI) around 4:45pm on Tuesday, October 22, 2008. While the late day skeleton crew clicked away at computer monitors, Kyra and Gabe had left early and called in from the road. “You could see the fire from the [RVI] driveway,” Kyra explains. “It looked really close, but driving towards it we realized just how far it was.”

“It was the perspective. At first we thought we might have to evacuate,” said Gabe thinking back on the fire. “We joked about picking which DVDs to leave behind.”

The fire’s distance from the insectaries didn’t ease everyone’s mind. Duke lives nearby and was initially worried his house would be threatened, but it didn’t take long to notice the winds were blowing the opposite direction. “I did make a call to check, though” he said.

About five years ago, Duke’s neighborhood was evacuated during a hillside fire emergency. “…the authorities were pounding on the door and my girlfriend was trying to grab the cat and go. The cat, though, was not compliant.” So she grabbed a pillowcase, threw the cat in, and jumped into the car. “It’s kind of a funny story now,” Duke concludes.

When asked if he was worried about the fire’s proximity, Ron shook his head no. “I used to live at the base of that hill 6 years ago. Conditions in the area are ripe. It’s a reminder to be prepared. Fire is part of the ecology and learning to live with it and having contingency plans is essential.” Ron went on to describe priority boxes or even fire wells to store information below ground.

“It’s about what’s important. We’d shut down the server and grab the basic computer units. If we had more time we’d take the [insect] cages with all the mother cultures. We could take a few trays of [fly] pupae, but if we didn’t get back in three days we’d have a fly problem,” Ron laughs.

In the end, the fire burned approximately 5 acres, accrued no property damage and the unnamed hill stands with a black eye to the north. If there was any common thread felt here at the insectary, it was the realization of choice and priority. Insects may be small, but not everything can fit in a pillowcase.

For more info, check out the Ventura County Star article.

*Second Image: Kyra snapped this with her cell phone on the way home.

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