[Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden
Wiediger, Alison
alison.wiediger at hart.kyschools.us
Mon Aug 27 08:27:44 EDT 2007
I'd like to weigh in on this also. We trialed it this year. From what
we understand, it is a corn based product, fully biodegradable - not
like the photo-degradable petroleum product we used only ONCE many years
ago. In our production system, it starts to degrade in about 45 days
and is basically gone in 90. To succession plant a new crop, all we
need to do is pull the drip tape and turn the rest, including crop
residues, under. In our small, very diverse, labor poor (just the two
of us) system, plastic that needs to be removed is a real problem. By
the time the crop is finished, it has degraded enough to be hard to get
up. Even with hand - rather than mechanical - digging and pulling, we
can always find pieces of plastic remaining. With this new
biodegradable product, that is not happening. So, succession planting
gets done on time, crops get removed in time for cover crops to be
planted, and our fields aren't full of pieces of plastic of all colors
and sizes. It is pricey - about 3 times the price of regular black
plastic. So far, we have only found it in black (we'd like a white on
black product for mid-summer plantings). It does degrade quickly in UV
if there is no canopy to protect it and you must protect it in storage.
It is a little more fragile and has to be handled more carefully when
laying it. For instance, we had to reduce the tension on our mulch
layer because the clods in our early spring soil were tearing holes in
the plastic. Once we did that, it worked much better. Since we are not
certified organic, we haven't had to worry about it being OMRI labeled.
We like it and will continue to use it because it fits our operation so
well.
Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm
________________________________
From: market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Bill
Shoemaker
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 5:35 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden
I want to add to what Shawnee Flowerfarmer said. The last two years I've
been trialing a truly biodegradable plastic mulch film for crop
production. It performs like any other plastic mulch but does not need
removal. It just biodegrades at the end of the season. For those
unfamiliar with plastic mulch, it is a plastic strip on a long roll that
can be laid and secured on the ground mechanically. The grower plants
transplants through holes they make in the film. The mulch provides weed
control, moisture retention and boosts plants growth by converting light
to heat (greenhous effect). Plants produce more and earlier generally.
The product I used came from Ball Seed. It performed very well. Last
year I left it in the ground into Winter. We disced the remains into the
soil this Spring. By all appearences it's gone. The product we applied
this Spring is deteriorating earlier, probably because we've had 14" of
rain in the last 6 weeks. But I'm very pleased with it. I think a cut
flower or vegetable grower who uses the plastic film on raised beds with
organic mulches between the rows will have a great growing system. Drip
irrigation under the mulch would just make it better.
Bill
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