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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] Tillage is tillage
  • Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 16:24:40 -0500


On Feb 7, 2007, at 12:13 PM, Tradingpost wrote:

I've relocated and have to start over at the age of 63, but what I'm doing
or not doing shouldn't convince anyone to risk time and capital with my
exact methods. We're in semi-arid central NM on land that's never been
farmed, so permanent no-till beds need to be preceded with digging down and
building up with frames to hold mulch in high winds. Starting over with
back trouble doesn't sound promising. And if and when I ever quit learning,
the only thing I'll be good for is pushing up daisies. Even if I could
claim to be an expert it wouldn't make any difference since experts are
notorious for disagreeing.

Not necessary to be an expert to let people know what is working for you personally (or, at least equally important, what isn't working).

One reason experts disagree is that different things work in different situations; even if the underlying principles are the same, the details will vary because the climate/microclimate/soil type/soil condition/crops & varieties/market/etc. varies.
I mentioned Eliot Coleman because he's got 30 years of growing behind him
and succeeded financially, growing sustainably without power equipment or
chemicals, on a miniscule area of land in a harsh climate. That ought to be
an example worth investigating. I thought it very odd that no one here
asked how does he do it,

Can't speak for others, but I didn't ask how Coleman does it because I already have his books. They are widely available and widely read, so this might also be why no one else on the list asked.

It also appears to me that no one writer or researcher has all the answers,

Agreed. No one farmer, either.

This isn't only because the entire universe won't fit in any one head; but also because no one specific set of answers is going to fit more than one farm perfectly. We can learn a good deal from each other anyway.

We can learn best from each other if everybody feels free to post, not only what does work for them, but what doesn't work for them, and why. Saying that something didn't work out on your place, and/or for other people you know, does not in any way mean that it can't work for somebody else, and it doesn't mean that nobody else should try it. But it's essential information for each farm to use to help decide what methods, varieties, etc. to try out, and what to watch for when doing so.

If I had known, the first year that I tried planting into a killed rye and vetch cover crop, that others had had a large surge of vigorous weeds coming up through that mowed mulch about three weeks later, I would have either tried this on a smaller scale or would have planned things differently. (I did have the sense to try it with only half the field, and so lost only half the crop.) The report I had read, however, (on the tomato trials in New Jersey some years ago), had not mentioned this growth of weeds, and had also not mentioned the herbicide that the people who wrote the report had used to control it, instead just repeating that the mowed rye and vetch formed a "heavy, weed-suppressant mulch". (I was able to talk to one of them directly at a NOFA conference a couple of years after that, and confirmed that herbicides had been used at that point and for that reason.)

I have learned from that experience, three things: for one, to try on a smaller scale first; for two, to check multiple sources of information when available; and for three, that when I leave a mowed cover crop in the field at planting, I'll need to cultivate about three weeks later for weed control. There are a lot of people working on this, and there may well be a way around it other than cultivation or herbicide; though an alternative that worked in some operations might not in others. In the meantime, anyone contemplating planting into a killed mulch is likely to find it useful to know what has not worked for others; while that person might be the one to solve the problem, they're more likely to do so, not less, if they know in advance that the problem might occur.

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




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