Alna fruit and vegetable grower Tom Albee said he attends the Maine Agricultural Trades Show every year to gawk at shiny new tractors, to chat with other farmers and to find new seeds for the upcoming growing season. 

But this year was a little different; he joined dozens of others from around the state and took the Board of Pesticide Control Applicator License exam.

The Maine Legislature passed a law in spring of 2011 requiring growers who sell more than $1,000 worth of edible plants each year to obtain the license by 2015. Once obtained, the license is good for three years.

Growers who use pesticides on plants and plant produce for sale to the general public are required to have the training and certification. This also applies to growers who make bread, jam, french fries, wine, cider, juice and other products from their harvest of crops.

Albee took a 3-hour training class offered through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Board of Pesticides Control before taking the exam. Some of the topics at the trades show covered discussing pesticides control with customers and neighbors and management strategies for pest control.

The word “pesticide” is universally used to describe a variety of substances Albee and other farmers of small operations use to mitigate the damage caused by insects on plants. Albee said he uses a concoction of herbicide and insecticide sparingly.

“I try to keep it as organic as possible,” he said, adding that the mixture he does use on his plants is not harmful to humans.

While he has until 2015, Albee said he wanted to get ahead and be fully certified. Asbestosis, a chronic lung condition caused by exposure to the insulating material asbestos, slows him down, but Albee says he is going to continue to farm as long as he can. “I like what I do,” he said.

He opens his self-serve roadside stand in late spring and also sells produce annually at the Gardiner Farmer's Market. Some of the vegetables he grows and sells are: corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, winter and summer squash, peas, beans, potatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, a lot of lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, radicchio and red and white onions. 

This year he plans on growing a sweet variety of onion, as well as a variety of lettuce called salanova whose leaves grow from the plant's base. 

“They're supposed to be sweeter, tastier,” Albee said. “I'm trying it for the first time this year and I hope it will work out for me.”

Albee's stand is at 1628 Alna Road in Alna.

More information about pesticides and licensing can be found on the Maine Board of Pesticides Control website. 

The exam is based on the Pesticide Education Manual, available through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Click here for a copy or call 207-581-3880.