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  • From: Michael Meredith <meredith848 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] weeds
  • Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:30:26 -0800 (PST)


For some kinds of weeds, a dried manure mulch is good, just stomp down the
weeds, and bury them with 4 inches. The lighter mulches may not work, and the
perrenial vine weeds can get through most mulch. Cardboard ( maybe a grocery
store will divert it to you from recycling), will stop anything, if you
overlap it 4 inches, and weigh it , or wet it down. Black plastic, an
environmental nightmare, will work....


I like to let the weeds build up, then mulch them, to get the green manure....
....or, just blast it with agent orange ( round-up).....

Richard, is johnson grass tasty? I tried some bermuda grass, it was not
bad....

Maybe feed some goats....


Michael


Hi Richard,

We have heavy weed pressure at our farm, too.
Many different varieties, too numerous to mention, Johnson grass and
spotted spurge being examples. Unfortunately, I don't have any great
answers for you either, just a couple of small points.

The tree
trimmers contracted by the local electricity coop to clear utility
lines has been bringing us their mulch as often as the rains allow. Of
the many ways we've made use of it, one of the more labor intensive was
to heavily landscape cloth the 450' of frontage fenceline and then
heavily mulch on top of that. Turns out the weed seeds blow into and
then take root in the mulch. Lesson learned. The Johnson grass really
loves the loose nature of the mulch apparently, as it grows to
phenomenal heights out of the mulch, something quite spectacular to
behold. Tried 20% vinegar and don't like that it kills everything good
and bad. So still looking for a solution.

One other thought if
you have the market for it and the manpower resources to harvest it
when young?some chefs and regular people like lambs quarters to eat,
cooked and/or in salad. Example:
<http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/lambs%20quarters.htm> .

Just
a couple thoughts. I will wait with bated breath for other more
constructive contributions to help with weed control. Lord knows we
need some help with our weeds.

Laurie
Barking Cat Farm
Texas zone 8/7 where the 6-month rainy streak continues as I type




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