[Market-farming] greens and weeds

road's end farm organic101 at linkny.com
Fri Dec 30 13:56:10 EST 2005


On Nov 23, 2005, at 1:19 AM, Mike Emers wrote:

>
> As summer and fall have long given themselves up to cold and snow on 
> our
> farm, the planning for next year has begun.  One of our high priorities
> to correct next season is getting our baby greens production back to
> where it once was - our biggest moneymaker per area.
>
> Our weeds (mainly shepard's purse and chickweed), after several years 
> of
> poor management, have built up a healthy seed bank in the soil and can
> choke out the slower germinating lettuce seedlings very quickly.  Even
> after letting weeds germinate killing them for several iterations and
> then sowing my greens, we still have too many weeds.  We've also tried
> the window pane technique of watching for the crop to germinate under
> the glass and then flaming the bed. I tilled in several hundred feet of
> baby lettuce rows last season in frustration.  We don't have this same
> problem with the faster growing mustards, but spinach is also a drag.
> So any suggestions out there other than plasticulture?
>
> Mike Emers
> Rosie Creek Farm
> Ester, Alaska (sitting cozily in zone 1)
>

Can you start your lettuce from transplant? That's what I do; partly 
because of heavy weed pressure. If you're aiming for really baby 
greens, though, I don't know whether the time-spent ratios of 
transplanting versus weeding are going to come out the same.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
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