Lineberger's Ecologically Grown Produce

Ecological Farming Practices
 
Plant Diversity

• Multispecies Cover Cropping- Our planned plant rotation includes 5-7 species of plants at one time to create a more diverse habitat for insects and soil microbes, with the added benefit of fixing organic nitrogen into the soil. This allows us to reduce our application of inorganic fertilizers. 
• Intercropping– We keep row middles planted with a ground cover mixed with legumes (usually clover). This adds even more diversity in our fields and helps us fix even more organic nitrogen into the soil.
• Crop diversity- We grow hundreds of species and varieties of crops on this farm, creating a diverse and stable agroecosystem.

Healthy Soils

• Mulching- Mulching is the foundational practice of our farming system. We use ag plastic, straw mulch, leaves from the town of Dallas, and woodchip mulch from the Gaston County yard waste facility.  These mulches provide physical protection to the soil from the impact of rain, wind, and the sun, promoting soil stability. Mulches reduce moisture loss and air exchange, helping soil aggregates maintain a more consistent environment. These mulches also provide weed control benefits and help our plants regulate temperature. This improves soil fertility, workability, tilth, and water retention, giving us more drought tolerance. 

• Soil samples- We lab test soil samples every 1-2 years to ensure we use the correct amount of fertilizer. This helps us avoid applying excess fertilizer, which can pollute waterways.
• Education- We believe soil health is critical to long-term farm success, and this belief is supported by research. We believe in this so much that Ethan Lineberger, 4th-generation farmer, has a Bachelor's degree in Soil Science and a Master's degree in Soil Biogeochemistry.

Thriving Wildlife

• Wildlife habitat – 20% of our land is kept in native woodland habitat to provide homes for God’s creation. Native plants are allowed to grow in the field edges and in the inter-row space, when appropriate. These areas provide habitat for all sorts of creatures, and the wildflowers support native bee and insect populations.
• Bees- We maintain field edge areas with native plants that flower during the winter months. We also plant a series of plants that bloom starting with strawberries in March all the way through Sunflowers in November. This combination of practices means there is always a source of nectar available for the bees throughout the growing season. Pumpkins, which flower in August, are especially helpful to bees, since few plants flower in the hot summer months. In addition, we do not spray insecticides on crops during bloom to prevent killing bees. We do not use neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been associated with Colony Collapse Disorder.

 
Reduced Synthetic Inputs (pesticides, fertilizers and non-renewable resources)

• Beneficial insect release- We release beneficial predatory mites (Phytoselius persimilis) and lady bugs to help predate and thereby limit the populations of spider mites, aphids and other herbivorous insects that are detrimental to our crops.
• Mass Trapping– We use lures and mass trapping to control Japanese beetles. These traps attract Japanese beetles, allowing us to keep their population under control without using extra applications of broad-spectrum insecticides that may kill non-target insects.
• Pheromone ties- We use pheromone emitting twist ties that prevent Peach Tree Borer and Lesser Peach Tree borer males and females from easily finding each other and mating. These twist ties do not affect any other species and are using the insect’s own pheromone.
• Peanut butter and borax bait -We bait for fire ants with a homemade peanut butter and borax bait on top of fire ant mounds, killing the fire ants directly. This method allows us to avoid broadcasting bait, which could affect native ants.
• Beneficial fungi– We broadcast a beneficial colonizing fungus called Clonostachys rosea that competes with pathogenic fungi for habitat. This reduces the presence of pathogenic fungi in our fields, allowing us to reduce fungicide applications.
• Hoeing – We still hand-remove many weeds from our fields, reducing the need for chemicals or herbicides to control weeds. Approximately 20% of our weed control is still done the old-fashioned way- hoeing by hand.
• Fumigation – We do not fumigate our soils. This allows our soil microbe population to build up in size and diversity.

 
Perennial Plants

• Perennial crops- We focus on perennial crops instead of annual crops. Perennials are plants that live more than one year. This results in less plowing, less soil disturbance, less erosion, and uses less fertilizer per acre, allowing for more carbon storage in our soil.

Water Quality

• Water purity- Sedimentation (soil particles floating in water) is the number one pollutant by volume of NC waterways. It is the primary cause of turbidity, which disrupts aquatic ecosystems. To combat erosion and sedimentation, we have constructed 5 ponds and 2 settling ponds. This means that rainwater running off our farm is purified, slowed, and filtered before leaving our property. These and other “Best Management Practices” like vegetative ditches, grassed waterways, and terraces ensure pure water for our downstream neighbors.

Local Food

• Local sales channels- We sell our produce at local markets, reducing the environmental impact of transporting food long distances.

Biodegradable packaging/renewable resource use

• Biodegradable packaging- Our fruit boxes are made from renewable resources. None of our vegetables are individually wrapped in nonrenewable plastics.
• Reused boxes are always available in our store for customers to take their purchases home, reducing the use of packaging materials.
• Natural sunlight and soil- We believe the most sustainable way to grow food is with natural sunlight and soil. We don’t grow plants under artificial lights (which burn electricity), or hydroponic systems (which also use a lot of electricity).
• Ag plastic- Farmers often use a thin layer of plastic to cover the ground as a mulch. While this is effective, and can reduce the need for herbicides, ag plastic is a petroleum product and is not recyclable. We are participating in a research study developing an ag plastic made from cotton hulls (a renewable, biodegradable resource). In the meantime, we mulch half of our strawberry fields with straw instead of plastic. This is the original method of mulching STRAWberries, and reduces our plastic use. As an additional benefit, strawberries grown on straw are perennial, meaning we do not have to burn fossil fuels to ship new strawberry plants from a nursery to our farm every year.

As self-confessed “planet lovers” and stewards of God's creation, our hearts are in the conservation of our agroecosystem. But, we have our own way of doing things, and the words “organic” or “conventional” just don’t describe us very well. SO… we are blazing a new path and describing our way of farming as “ecological farming” or “ecologically-grown produce”. Some of our practices are new (like releasing beneficial insects to eat pest insects) and some are very, very old (like adding leaves to our soil for fertility). We are on a wild adventure to reduce our environmental footprint around the farm, and hope one day some of our discoveries can be of use to other farmers in our region. There are no silver bullets in farming or in sustainability, but we have some successes under our belts and we’re excited to see what the future holds.
 
If you want even more details about our farming practices, we have a series of videos on Facebook about farm life and our farming practices.