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

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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] greens and weeds
  • Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 13:56:10 -0500


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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