Small growers often embody the principles of organic growing more completely. They are frequently driven by personal conviction, more than financial reward, and the small-scale, hands-on approach they have to adopt, for economic reasons, keeps them in close contact with soil and plant, and enables them to implement the ecological principles at a scale that conventional growers can seldom approach.

The most productive growers are always small growers. Productivity here is measured in terms of produce out for effort in, rather than total yield (which may be heavily subsidised by fuel and other inputs).

The most profitable horticulture enterprises in the country are probably small herb producers. They are either producing medicinal herbs for a specialised market or supplying restaurants. They may produce as much as $100,000 per annum from 0.4 hectares. Generally these blocks are located close in to the city, so that delivery is easy, as the volume delivered to each outlet may be small, hence the emphasis on restaurants, with their greater potential to use a quantity of fresh product before it wilts. There is potential to push this return even higher by value adding, such as using a professional food-processing machine to shop herbs prior to delivery.

The return is based upon the yield and price, and the number of times a plant may be cut or harvested. For instance spring onions may be worth $10 per square metre, and three crops or more can be grown in a square metre in a year (certified organic growers will need to use rotation crops and/or leys after an intense cropping cycle). The particular growers referred to here are not certified organic growers, and their market is not demanding organic, but wants quality (freshness, bright colours, lack of blemish).

Grower-controlled box delivery schemes, such as those run by Michael Plane and Joyce Wilkie at Gundaroo, NSW, and mesclun salad producers such as Ian Cairns from Liffey, Tasmania, are examples of consciously organic growing systems which return a healthy dollar-per-hectare. Ian Cairns produces mesclun salads from his own farm, all year round. Joyce and Michael deliver boxes of vegetables to a Canberra location for collection, every week.

The high return per square metre they can achieve is sponsored by very high knowledge inputs, and the willingness to work manually, or with small-scale mechanisation. In other words: “hands on” management.

The knowledge encompasses many aspects of growing, such as:

• Yield and quality performance of many species and varieties in local conditions, and across seasons
• Length of growing season and how that might vary with planting time
• Seed sources and seed keeping techniques
• Germination requirements, sowing rates and plant spacings
• Soil and fertility requirements, place in rotation of various crops
• Pest and disease prevention and control
• Maturity, harvesting methods, post harvest treatments

This is in addition to normal farming skills such as irrigation management, tool and machinery maintenance, accounting and marketing skills.

The willingness to get very physical in the process is essential. Digging is generally mechanised at the scale of tractors, such as in the case of Glenn Crowhurst, or smaller machines for Michael, Joyce and Ian. The small machines include walk behind rotary hoes, a spading machine (kinder to the soil that the rotary hoe), or wheel hoes for inter-row cultivation. Planting may be done by hand or partly mechanised, such as by the use of a roller with dibbers, to make small planting holes. Harvesting is always done by hand, to select perfect maturity, except for potatoes.

Diversity of crops is always important to these growers. Box scheme growers have to fill the box each week of the year, with a variety of produce to support a family diet. The mesclun producer must have greens in winter and high summer. Small row-crop market gardeners like Glenn Crowhurst have to spread the workload and income across the year to make it manageable.

Growers who rely on the box delivery system generally need sheltered growing spaces too, in the form of cloches, greenhouses or shade houses.

Equipment and infrastructure needs for horticulture are significant, and include tractors, machinery, hand tools, water supply, irrigation, sheds, cool rooms and processing areas, delivery vehicle, tracks and fencing. The cost of these can be equal to the cost of the land.

Box delivery scheme growers have a significant advantage, in that they have a simple mechanism for ‘gearing up’ their business, which is to add customers gradually.

Box schemes do not suit all growers. Some do not want to be tied so closely to their land (some farmers still have family or leisure interests), some don’t have year round water, and some don’t enjoy the public contact aspects of direct marketing.

Access to good information can be the most limiting factor, after capital. Very useful resources include the books by Eliot Coleman, "The New Organic Grower and Four Season Harvest". The single most useful reference is a CD put together by Joyce Wilkie and Michael Plane. It describes their growing system very well, and is amply illustrated with photos, tables, charts and diagrams.

Most importantly, intending organic growers must increase their knowledge of every aspect of their growing system. Organic management emphasises management rather than inputs. In other words, manipulate the growing system (fertility, biodiversity, rotation, species and variety selection, time and density of planting etc) to interrupt pest and disease cycles rather than relying only upon agricultural inputs. Even the permitted inputs are meant to support management decisions, rather than replace them. The more knowledge that can be brought to bear on any problem, the better the opportunity to use a management solution. Such knowledge is gained from books and by talking to people, and from experience, in other words, by ‘doing it”, presuming that the grower maintains observation, and the willingness to learn.

Successful organic growers such as Glenn Crowhurst are more than attentive; they are generally fascinated by their experiences.