Saturday, May 23, 2009

Organic Herbicide made from lemons! now available for use in state

 Looks like we can now make our move to organic... and make some home brew herbicide of our own!?


California DPR Registers Organic Burndown Herbicide 

GreenMatch 


Enhanced d-limonene Formula Provides Rapid, Broad-Spectrum Burndown 

 

DAVIS, Calif. (April 22, 2009) Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc. (MOI) is pleased to 

announce that its improved organic formulation of GreenMatch Burndown 

Herbicide is now available in California for use in organic crops. 

 

GreenMatch meets the requirements of the NOP Rule for use in organic agriculture, 

and is listed by OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) and WSDA. It has a full 

EPA registration for crop and non-crop application.  

 

“Weed control is the single largest cost for organic farmers, and the main reason why 

many conventional farmers are unwilling to transition to organic practices” states 

Pam Marrone, CEO of Marrone Organic Innovations (MOI). “The availability of this 

effective, long lasting burndown material will positively affect the economics and 

operational challenges they face.” 

 

GreenMatch is a post emergence, non-selective organic herbicide that contains d- 

limonene (extract of citrus) as well as other plant extracts and surfactants. GreenMatch 

kills the weeds by stripping the wax off the leaves of the plants, causing weeds to 

rapidly shrivel and die, appearing “burned down.”  

 

Organic growers have long relied on hand weeding, propane flaming, mowing and 

cultural methods to attack weeds. As such, weeds are the largest cost to organic 

farming and the primary reason why many conventional farmers don’t transition fully 

to organic practices.  “This enhanced formulation of GreenMatch provides superior 

weed control at a lower price point than other “naturals” in the market” said David 

Warman, Director of Sales at MOI. 

 

GreenMatch is sold in 5 gallon pails, and has proven to be effective on a wide 

spectrum of broadleaf weeds and grasses, including spurge, sowthistle, shepherd’s 

purse, clover, hairy fleabane, annual bluegrass, smooth crabgrass, dandelion, 

whitestem filaree and many others. It can be purchased through local agricultural 

input suppliers, or contact Marrone Organic Innovations toll free at 877-664-4476. 

           Continued… 

 

2121 Second Street, Suite 107-B        

•• 

      Davis, CA 95618        

•• 

      530-750-2800 

Marrone Organic Innovations discovers, develops and markets effective and 

environmentally responsible products that fill unmet needs for weed, disease and 

pest management.  Through a combination of in-licensed technology and its own 

R&D, MOI develops products that target markets needing better and safer 

solutions.  MOI’s own R&D finds naturally occurring microorganisms from unique 

habitats and develops them into products for controlling insects, weeds, nematodes 

and plant diseases.  MOI has an impressive pipeline of new products, including two 

insecticides, two herbicides and a product for controlling invasive zebra and 

quagga mussels in waterways. MOI currently markets GreenMatch 

 

 Burndown 

Herbicide for weed control in organic crop production and Regalia 

 

 for control of 

fungal and bacterial diseases of both food and ornamental crops for conventional 

growers (an organic formulation is pending).  

For more information, visit www.marroneorganicinnovations.com. 

 

 

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

More Documentation





Site Works Opening






Animals/Spectators/Hay installation shots

Animals/Spectators/Hay

Animals/Spectators/Hay

Animals/Spectators/Hay

Orlando Tirado performance

Orlando Tirado

Orlando Tirado

Fun Times





Gerardo!




Documentation of Site Works, May 17, 2009





Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Orlando Tirado doc from performance at the deep end ranch




Greg Wells Doc from deep end ranch show


garden




Pony, Farming, immigration and labor





The Real by Sage Paisner and writng about working on the ranch with Greg and Gerardo

The Real
  • being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory; "real objects"; "real people; not ghosts"; "a film based on real ...
  • real(a): no less than what is stated; worthy of the name; "the real reason"; "real war"; "a real friend"; "a real woman"; "meat and potatoes--I call that a real meal"; "it's time he had a real job"; "it's no penny-ante job--he's making real money"
  • not to be taken lightly; "statistics demonstrate that poverty and unemployment are very real problems"; "to the man sleeping regularly in doorways homelessness is real"
  • capable of being treated as fact; "tangible evidence"; "his brief time as Prime Minister brought few real benefits to the poor"
  • actual: being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something; "her actual motive"; "a literal solitude like a desert"- G.K.Chesterton; "a genuine dilemma"
  • of, relating to, or representing an amount that is corrected for inflation; "real prices"; "real income"; "real wages"
  • real number: any rational or irrational number
  • substantial: having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary; "the substantial world"; "a mere dream, neither substantial nor practical"; "most ponderous and substantial things"- Shakespeare
  • the basic unit of money in Brazil; equal to 100 centavos
  • (of property) fixed or immovable; "real property consists of land and buildings"
  • very: used as intensifiers; `real' is sometimes used informally for `really'; `rattling' is informal; "she was very gifted"; "he played very well"; "a really enjoyable evening"; "I'm real sorry about it"; "a rattling good yarn"
  • an old small silver Spanish coin
  • veridical: coinciding with reality; "perceptual error...has a surprising resemblance to veridical perception"- F.A.Olafson


The Real is very subjective but I feel that farming, relying on the land and being part of the community is real. The reality at the ranch is that 200 acres is made for many people to live and work on and Ellen and David understand this by sharing their home with the community and many other family and friends. The artist residency program is one further step to helping the ranch grow survive and become and stay a working farm, ranch and artist community. I don't believe you have to have the amount of land the government says to be a real farm. Emilio Ortiz a friend and is in his seventies and has orchard on 10 acres and a garden the size of two football fields I think this is a real farm using the land and living off its fruits from you and your communities labor.

The labor at the ranch is real and joined Greg Wells and Gerardo in Greg's assignment was a refreshing reminder of the real. I arrived and we got coffee and started to work.
The first order of business was to turn on the irrigation system. The bacon avocado trees were chopped down to be graphed to Haas avocados and we loaded the wood onto the tractor and moved it to a big pile to made into wood chips. It is hard labor, but Gerardo invited Greg and I to have lunch and it was amazing. It was really nice to work and get to know Greg and Gerardo better. This work is rough and never ending always something to do. I feel Greg's point was that no one wants these jobs in America but yet we criticize and lack the understanding of the situation at hand. This country was built on immigrants from Europe etc. now it is being held up by Latin America and Mexico and other countries and we are not allowing for hard working people to have the right to a happy and healthy life and attack them by saying things like the immigrants take all our jobs when no American wants to have these labor oriented jobs.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Camus’s Absurdist Man is a figure who (to summarize the text inelegantly) acknowledges the futility of his life’s tasks and the absurdity of his fate and through that is able to achieve a form of contentment. Could it be said that the farmer is himself an absurd man? Hating death, struggling against the insurmountable task of farming; the ground in constant need of water and fertilizer, the crops in need of picking and pruning and grafting… But things have shifted; Camus’s Absurd Man was a distinctly mid 20th century creature, ours is slightly different… our religious (pre-absurd) man is possibly concerned more with a sense of continuity than a search for a finality in a god-like end point. But the sub structures we have placed our unfailing faith in (the capitalist economy, the house that could never depreciate in value, the self-sustained farm…) have proven shaky. Sisyphus is still pushing the boulder, but the mountain beneath him is no longer solid and he knows it, but continues to attempt the climb.



The first component of the project consists of a builder’s elevation level; a common instrument in construction, land surveying, and property division. The level sits on a knoll behind the Deep End Ranch’s main house, trained upon a once active fault-line protruding from the side of the unstable mountains boarding the property. Positioned between the viewer’s position and the fault float the words “California Hates You”, the text visible from the backyard knoll through the magnifying lens of the builder’s tool.

The secondary component of the project consists of an informal walk along the edge of the Oak Ridge Fault, a scar that runs through the Venture Basin and into the Pacific. We will travel a tiny fragment of this 70 mile fracture, considered the likeliest cause of the Northridge quake.







The drowsy, golden surface of the Californian landscape stretches taut over an unstable substructure, pleasantly masking its "distinctly catastrophic" (Clarence King, first head of the United States Geographic Survey) nature. Here is the illusion of solid ground.

P.S. California hates you!