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  • From: Thomas Kumpf <tjkumpf AT yahoo.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Weed control Advice?
  • Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:58:12 -0800 (PST)

Richard,
As my operation has expanded and new land put into cultivation that had
been neglected for years, weeds are our primary focus. After reading Richard
Wiswalls book and watching the weed control videos from NESARE and OSU, I
completely agree with him. Here are some of the factors I look at. Keep in
mind that we have gone from 2 acre market garden to working on 8+ acres of
crops for our 200+ CSA and markets. Two tools that I bought last year, both
used, were and Allis chalmers G and a Lely 7 1/2' foot tine weeder. I have
used stale seedbedding, flameweeding (pre-and post-emergence), plastic and
organic mulches, covercropping, etc.

1.) Timing of tillage-i.e. till, plant 3 weeks later, etc.)
2.) timing of seeding/transplanting
3.) Seeding vs. transplanting
4.) Cover cropping vs. stale seedbed
5.) Seeding/irrigation (before and/or after seeding)
6.) Labor--time required for weeding vs. other duties
(trellising/picking/packing)
7.) Ease of weeding (white thread stage vs. 2-3 true leaf stage or later)
8.) Cost of tools and money to invest vs. money spent on labor.

I guess it all depends on the amount of work to do and how much time and
money you have to spend. People I know that have a Allis G tractor like to
use it on 200' long rows or longer to lessen the amount of maneuvering. The
better the tooling, the more likely you will use especially if it makes a
manual labor task quick and painless. The tine weeder is a mindless and easy
way of cultivating. It allows you to drag the tines over the established
crop quickly to "blind weed", that is disrupt barely germinated weed seeds
that you can't see, expose them to the sun and let them die. This can be
done before seeding/transplanting and after. It is a real time saver. I
farm two parcels, the second of which, was left in weeds by the landowner for
5 years. Yellow nutsedge is rampant, but through tillage and tine weeding we
were able to make a dent in some areas that looked like a lawn 1 month post
tillage. I try to make my cultivation "to do list" by
thinking temporally, how will I tend this crop from start to finish.
Here is a great hand tool I picked up at a local hardware store that
could be used on small areas:
http://www.amleo.com/index/item.cgi?cmd=view&Words=gk2

This tool mimics a tine weeder that costs $2000, yet is cheap enough to
use in the garden and modify (cut out tines for crops to fit between). They
also make a narrow 9" model to go between rows.
I always go out after freshly tilling/planting and scrape a fingernail
in the soil. If I see a little "white thread" of a seed germinating, we get
in there ASAP and tine weed. Prevents alot of costly labor dollars and time
wasted on hand pulling or hoeing.
I probably could go on forever, but timely use of the wheel hoe,
colinear hoe, 3 tine cultivator (johnnys seeds) are a great way to go.
Hope this helps.
Tom Kumpf, Raleigh, NC
Double T Farm









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