You wrote: <<I'm looking for practical, commercial scale tips and advice.
I prefer to go
for organic certification, but I don't know if it's possible/realistic on
a
commercial scale in my area.
Most extension folk are quite negative, full of omenous warnings, and
recommend all sorts of pesticides that scare the hell out of me!
I'd like to direct market my produce to my customers via a local CSA, or
buying club.>>
I suggest you contact the Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association,
(610) 935-7797. They have a database of most CSAs in the U.S. sorted by
zipcode, so you can see if anyone near where you'll be in SC is running
one. If you do, you will likely find out that "commercial scale" does
not have to be as large as you might think...and that the extension folk
are dead wrong to be recommending land poisons. I talked with a CSA
grower from Calgary, Alberta yesterday who grossed $14,500 (without
poisons) from one and a half acres in his second year...keeping his 35
shareholders quite happy and selling stuff on the side as well.
Good luck,
Woody
woodyw@juno.com
"There is no scarcity abiding in Nature;
any scarcity we see is our own doing."