Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] greens and weeds

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Russ and Rosie <russandrosie AT comcast.net>
  • To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] greens and weeds
  • Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 21:51:28 -0800

I don't know if this is cost effective for you but the last year I did
lettuce I was using a commercial compost (that contained a lot of bark) on
my lettuce beds. I planted lettuce plugs thru the compost. Alternately
one could lay down a strip of weed-seedless soil on top and plant lettuce
seeds in that. You could experiment on a small scale.
The high bark content kept weed seeds from sprouting. I didn't have weeds
probably for a year or so after I stopped doing lettuce. (FYI - I don't
believe in crop rotation and kept planting lettuce in the same beds. The
compost is quite persistent.)

Rosie
Tanglewood Farm
PNW

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Emers
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 10:20 PM
To: 'Market Farming'
Subject: [Market-farming] greens and weeds


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)


_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm



  • Re: [Market-farming] greens and weeds, Russ and Rosie, 11/27/2005

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page