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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Abandoning plastic mulch

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  • From: "Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Abandoning plastic mulch
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 10:45:16 -0500

From: "Goodwill at Homefields Farm"
> I am contemplating not using any plastic mulch this year for our
tomatoes,
> peppers, sweet potatoes etc, as between bed maintainence and end of
season
> removal are a real bear on an organic farm.

Last year I used a living mulch of hairy vetch with my tomatoes. It's
supposed to be a good 'companion' plant for tomatoes, beyond just being a
legume. It grows thickly, can be mowed, and my tomatoes did well...no
disease at all. I left it on for a winter ground cover. You do have to
make sure the tomatoes get a good head start on the vetch, and the vetch
does tend to take over and climb the tomatoes if you let it.

I'm in northern PA, and find that hay and straw mulch keeps the soil too
wet and cold and hospitible to slugs.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Peasant Farmer
Tioga County, PA




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