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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Cover crops and no-till weed control/ Sustainable Production of Fresh-Market

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Cover crops and no-till weed control/ Sustainable Production of Fresh-Market
  • Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:36:31 -0600


It sounds like your rye/vetch rotation with cash crops does help control
weeds. Most likely spring kill by flail mower etc. wouldn't be decompose
your cover crop as much by planting time, and should provide longer weed
suppression. Although if you have a wetter, warmer climate, it would speed
up decomposition. Those leeks and parsnips won't provide much of a canopy
to deny sun to weeds that do germinate. Perhaps more foliage-dense crops
could be rotated with them or grown exclusively. And as always, tillage
brings up weed seeds to germinate. I don't have commercial examples handy
but I'll look into it.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require government help.
-- me
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 8/17/2006 at 7:43 AM David Inglis wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>>
>>
>> David, what kind of crops can't be planted in winter killed residue?
>And
>> what kind of residue? It seems to me that less mulch/residue cover
>would be
>> needed if cultivation didn't bring up weed seeds to germinate.
>>
>> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> I should be more specific. Of course any crop could be planted into
>winter killed residue but because it has been on the surface all winter
>already the mulch breaks down quickly. Because it breaks down it does
>not provide the weed suppressing effect long enough to get the cash crop
>going especially if it is a full season crop like Leeks or Parsnip. The
>winter kill covers we use in this area are Spring Oats/soy/buckwheat/pea
>etc planted early to mid August. It is true that we have not done this
>on 'perennial' no till ground but following a break year of rye/vetch
>following the previous 'tilled' crop. In other words we have a one year
>on, one year off rotation. It may well be the case that in a perennial
>system less mulch would be enough as you say. I would like to hear from
>people that make this work consistently on a commercial scale.
>Be well.
>David
>
>
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