THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 22, 1996 TAG: 9607220042
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 103 lines
Art Whitener is making a difference in a cantaloupe patch.
In one area of a small plot on Whitener's farm, the melons are beginning to ripen among lush green vines crawling across sandy soil. In another area of the plot is a mirror image. Vines are green; the melons beginning to turn golden.
Same hybrid seeds. Same soil. Same moisture. Same loving care.
Orange flags like surveyors use mark the difference. Some parts of the plot have been fertilized with expensive commercial fertilizer, others with common cotton trash.
``I would recommend to everybody - if you can get some of this stuff - you won't be sorry,'' Dr. Greg Evanylo, a soil scientist in sustainable agriculture at Virginia Tech, said as he smiled over the experimental cantaloupe patch. ``Much of what used to go into landfills is considered organic gold now.''
And cotton trash, for years a useless eyesore piling up behind commercial cotton gins, and likely to burst into flames if not watched carefully, is the latest agricultural bonanza.
Research on using cotton trash - stems, leaves, lint and boll particles left over after the ginning process - has been going on for a couple of years in cotton-producing states like Texas and Alabama.
And Virginia's farmers are beginning to catch on. Local gins in Western Tidewater say that cotton trash which once was nearly impossible to get rid of is beginning to disappear as fast as farmers and gardeners discover its rich merits.
Whitener's farm marks Virginia's first official experimental plot. Evanylo has computed the exact nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus content of the trash vs. fertilizer and advised Whitener how much to use, and he's keeping a close eye on the melons.
The use and production of commercial fertilizer rose after World War II, Evanylo said, and crop yields increased nationwide. But commercial fertilizer put few essential natural nutrients back into the soil.
``For the past 10 to 20 years, the importance of maintaining organic matter in the soil has been researched,'' the soil scientist said. ``We know now that's why they have better soybeans and corn in the Midwest than we do here on the East Coast. It's the high quantity of organic matter in the soil there.''
And it's high time Virginians take note and begin to think about putting organic matter back into this state's soil, Evanylo said.
Using cotton trash may be a little more time consuming than using commercial fertilizer. The same field that could be fertilized with several hundred pounds of fertilizer would require 20 tons of cotton trash. But the cotton trash would be a lot cheaper, and it would be better for the environment.
Yard waste and paper mill trash that has been composted may be just as good, but with the increase in cotton acreage across the state, and particularly in this area, cotton trash is available, and it could even be free.
The Suffolk Cotton Gin Inc. near Holland has been using its own cotton trash since opening in 1995 for exactly the purpose Evanylo is suggesting. That gin owns cotton-growing acreage. Trash from last year was composted and spread back onto the fields before this year's crop was planted.
About 1,500 pounds of seed cotton produces about 175 pounds of trash. The Suffolk gin processed more than 8,500 bales of seed cotton during last year's harvest, each bale weighing about 480 pounds. The result was around 750 tons of cotton trash.
In Windsor, at Commonwealth Gin Inc., manager Tom Alphin Jr. said they give it away, and it is becoming quite popular.
``We have one guy who's hauled away several tractor-trailer loads,'' Alphin said. ``I think he's building up pasture land. I think a lot of people are beginning to use it.''
At Commonwealth, it's free.
But it may not be that way for long.
Once gardeners discover its merits, they are likely to begin taking advantage of it, said Clifton Slade, Virginia Tech extension agent in Suffolk. Once composted - at a point when it looks like rich, black, potting soil - it could easily be used by commercial nurseries, vegetable growers, farmers willing to take the time to spread it. Since the composting process results in temperatures of up to 170 degrees, there's little danger that the organic fertilizer would contain weed seeds or left-over chemicals. The heat kills most of that.
Cotton trash, Slade said, could easily be one more marketable product of cotton, after the lint, seed, and oil are extracted from the boll.
``I think there's going to be a market for this stuff,'' Slade said. ``It is organic fertilizer that has the potential to be a very profitable enterprise. Cotton compost - we can come up with a fancy label, sell it in convenient, 25-pound bags, show the nutrient content, and I think it would be a big hit.''
Whitener would probably go along with that. Doing things a little differently is nothing new for the Suffolk farmer. He just harvested his first crop of elephant garlic last month. It's selling for $3 a pound. Pumpkins are growing in an untilled field of rye.
As for the cotton-trash cantaloupes, the taste test is due in about a week. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN H. SHEALLY II photos/
The Virginian-Pilot
Cotton trash, for years a useless eyesore piling up behind
commercial cotton gins, is the latest agricultural bonanza. Art
Whitener holds some in his hands at his farm on Old Myrtle Road in
Suffolk.
Farmer Art Whitener, left, is growing two fields of melons. One uses
common cotton trash as fertilizer - in the hands of extension agent
Clifton Slade; the other, a commercially produced one. The soil
loves the difference. by CNB