March 2023 - 7

more finicky to grow, said Hank Scott, president.
Ensuring profitability, Long & Scott maintains a set
price throughout the fall to spring seasons, marketing
corn to consumers for 50 cents an ear and 30 cents to
wholesale customers.
" We wanted to keep the Zellwood sweet corn name
alive, " Scott said. " We had to change the way we did
some things, trying to diversify and bring more income
in. Instead of putting our corn in a crate and matching
the commodity guys, we went along with a corn maze
and a farmers market and started bagging a half-dozen
and two dozen ears. "
In 1998, Long & Scott began the farmers market and
in 2000, entered agritainment. Its fall festival attracts
35,000 visitors, and features the corn maze, a zip line
and catch-and-release fishing. A plethora of activities,
including a large slide and playground, huge bouncing
" pillow " and dirt mining, keep children busy. The farm's
mission is to educate families about where their food
comes from.
To keep a lid on costs, Long & Scott relies on
technology. Soil sampling before planting ensures
the ground receives adequate fertilization. It spreads
wood fines to return organic material to the ground and
reduce fertilizer use.
Long & Scott increased field scouting and controls
pests, including corn ear worms and pickle worms,
through products such as neem oil and XenTari. Though
not organic, harsh chemicals are avoided along with
applying the smallest amounts of inputs as possible.
Biotreatments are applied.
Limiting inputs
Some synthetic fertilizers are used.
" There are a lot of good products that are identical
to what the organic guys do, " Scott said. " We're trying
to build-up our soils to put more organic matter back
into our soils. We try to do as much as we can to avoid
using too much fertilizer to keep our ground as healthy
as possible. We are also trying to change our growing
techniques, to get the best yields we can get and the
only way we can survive. "
To limit weed growth, Long & Scott expanded cover
cropping from the summer to winter.
Cover crops were mostly sorghum. Today, it applies
a mixture of daikon radish and sunflowers. To reduce
pests, the farm assembles mixes that will best benefit
the ground.
The farm likes to experiment with automation. It's
looking into mechanically harvesting cabbage, which it
dropped out of for a year due to low returns. Mechanical
harvesting is new to the Zellwood area, and Scott said
he hopes it will reduce labor costs.
" We are determined and persistent, " he said. " We're
not real rich. We just figured how to keep it going. "
While considering robots and other new technology,
Scott remains realistic.
Workers harvest pickling cucumbers in September 2022.
Unlike Georgia's red clay soils and Virginia's dirt,
growing in Florida's sand is challenging. " Coming to
Florida, in our area, it's like farming Daytona Beach, "
Scott said. " You have to be a real farmer to grow on
sand. If you read the labels, the rates on what you can
use on sand is so much different than the heavy or
muck soil, because the product is more active or may
not be as active on the sandy soil. You have to know
what you're doing. "
Scott graduated from the University of Florida with an
accounting degree. In the late 1980s, he took over the
farm from his father. His brother, Mark Scott, runs the
sod business.
" It (farming) gets in your blood, " Scott said. " I enjoy
being out in the open. There's joy in farming, but it isn't
nearly as fun as it used to be. You have to keep finding
ways to push and make it. You change where you must
change, adapt and become more proficient. "
VEGETABLEGROWERSNEWS.COM | 7
" Where the problem comes in is there isn't enough
profit in farming to make those changes, " he said.
" When you talk about getting into robotics, like robotic
weeders, and to start going into mechanical harvesting,
it takes a lot of machinery on the other end to cleanup
the crop and get it ready for packing. If you're going
to spend the money and make the changes, you must
spend a lot of money to put in a process to the point to
where it's sellable and packaged right for sale. "
In 1952, Billy Long, the childhood friend of Frank
" Sonny " Scott, Hank's father, began growing sweet corn
in Zellwood. After encouragement from Long to grow
in Florida, Frank In 1963 relocated vegetable farming
operations from Virginia's Eastern Shore to Florida.
Long died in 2016 while the elder Scott semi-retired in
the early 2000s and died in 2017. Sonny Frank, Hank's
son, is the overall farm manager and is named after his
grandfather Frank.
http://www.VEGETABLEGROWERSNEWS.COM
March 2023

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