Section 375 IAC 1-3-3 - Soils and plantsAuthority: IC 15-15-8-17
Affected: IC 15-15-8
Sec. 3.
(a) The following methods and organic materials are approved for use on certified organic farms; all manure sources and management techniques must be clearly documented as a part of the certification process: (1) Composted manure, preferably produced on the farm or, if imported, free of contaminants.(2) Uncomposted manure that has been turned and free from internal frost for at least one hundred eighty (180) days prior to application, preferably produced on the farm or, if imported, free of contaminants.(3) Fresh, aerated, anaerobic, or sheet composted manures for use on perennials or crops not for human consumption, or when a crop for human consumption is not to be harvested for at least one hundred twenty (120) days following application. At application, the soil must be sufficiently warm (about ten (10) degrees Celsius) and moist to ensure active microbial digestion.(4) On radishes, leafy greens, the beet family, and other known nitrate accumulators, fresh, aerated, anaerobic, or sheet composted manures may not be applied less than one hundred twenty (120) days before planting. At application, the soil must be sufficiently warm and moist to ensure active microbial digestion.(5) Green manures, crop residues, peat moss, straw, seaweed, and other similar materials.(6) Composted food and forestry byproducts that are free of contaminants.(7) Agricultural limestone, natural phosphates, and other slowly soluble rock powders. Fluorine content of the natural phosphates should be balanced with application rates so that total fluorine applied does not exceed an average of five (5) kilograms per hectare per year in the field, or ten (10) kilograms per hectare in the greenhouse.(8) Wood ash, langbeinite (sulpomag), nonfortified marine byproducts, bonemeal, fishmeal, and other similar natural products.(9) Cottonseed meal and blended products containing these substances are permissible only if free of prohibited materials.(10) Potassium sulfate, borax (solubor), sodium molybdate, and sulfate trace mineral salts are permitted where agronomically justified. Application rates and distribution should be controlled by applying these products in solution with a well-calibrated sprayer.(b) The following methods and materials are prohibited for use on organic certified farms: (1) Use of sewage sludge and septic waste is prohibited.(2) Genetically engineered organisms are prohibited for use in organic production and handling.(3) Highly soluble nitrate, phosphate, and chloride nutrient sources, natural or synthetic, are prohibited from use on soil or foliage.(4) Ammonia and urea products are prohibited.(c) The following methods and foliar materials are approved for use in certified organic farms:(1) Liquid or powdered seaweed extract or other nonfortified marine byproducts.(2) The use of materials, which coincidentally furnish plant nutrients, such as the use of phosphoric acid to hydrolyze fish emulsion, is a normal aspect of the industrial process. This is not to be considered fortification for purposes of this rule. Products that are added to the process in order to boost the analysis, as in the addition of potassium nitrate to fish emulsion, are prohibited.(3) Plant or animal based growth regulators and other plant and animal products.(4) Synthetic adjuvants, wetting agents, and similar substances.(5) Mineral suspensions, such as silica.(d) The following methods concerning seed, seedlings, grafting, and root stock are approved for use in certified organic farms:(1) Horticultural crops and nonperennial field crops must be produced from seed that has not been treated with any prohibited or nonapproved product. Temporary exceptions may be made if untreated seed is not available.(2) Annual transplants must be grown according to Indiana organic standards. Perennial transplants may be from any source, but crops labeled or sold as certified organic must be from plants that have been under organic cultivation for at least twelve (12) months prior to harvest.(3) Vegetatively propagated plants, such as garlic and other bulbous plants, are to be considered as transplants and fully respected subject to this title.(e) The following additional methods and materials are approved for use in certified organic farms: (1) Assorted plant and/or animal preparations, biodynamic preparations, microbial activators, bacterial inoculates, and mycorhizae.(2) Microbes used in the production of certified crops or agricultural products must be naturally occurring (not the result of genetic engineering).Indiana State Department of Agriculture; 375 IAC 1-3-3; filed Jun 15, 2001, 11:46 a.m.: 24 IR 3634; readopted filed Nov 26, 2007, 2:49 p.m.: 20071226-IR-375070721RFA