Managing Disease in Organic Vegetable Crops

Managing diseases on a vegetable farm is difficult due to the diversity of crops and the range of diseases that threaten them. Organic vegetable farmer Beth Kazmar will share her on-farm experience preventing and managing diseases. She will focus on one or two crops, with emphasis on proactive methods like variety selection, hot water seed treatments, row spacing, employee education and use of organically approved materials.

Beth Kazmar and husband, Steve Pincus, run Tipi Produce near Madison, Wisconsin. They grow 45 acres of certified organic vegetables, selling mainly through Community Supported Agriculture and to natural food stores. Beth has farmed since 1998. She and Steve were chosen as the 2016 MOSES Organic Farmers of the Year.

Below are two documents that Beth Kazmar references frequently in this presentation.

Beth Kazmar’s hot water seed treatment PDF

Resource list for managing disease in organic vegetable crops