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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] tomatoes in vetch mulch?

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "David Tannen" <david.tannen@gmail.com>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] tomatoes in vetch mulch?
  • Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 10:03:20 -0500



On 8/23/06, TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> wrote:

The technique is very simple. In late summer or early fall, you make a bed
or beds for your tomatoes. Then sow the very hardy annual legume called
hairy vetch, Vicia villosa. In spring you kill the vetch by simply cutting
it close to the ground, and then lay it in place on the beds. Then set the
tomato transplants right through the mulch.

I would like to attempt organic no till on a 3 acre hay field next spring.   I am zone 6B.  My plans are to cut the hay field in the next two weeks.   Rake the hay up to form beds.  In late September, early October I am going to plant a cover crop in the beds to cut down early next spring and then plant tomatoes, potatoes. peppers and beans.

I have read about hairy vetch in the past as a cover crop, but I was always led to believe that one needs a no till roller to kill it in the spring.  This article suggests that simply cutting the vetch will kill it.  A no till roller is not a tool I want to invest in at the moment.  

I live in small rural community and have access to all the conventional tools used by chemical farmers. This includes tractors, bushogs, hay rakes, tobacco planters, seeders, plows, tillers, disks and harrows.  These can all be borrowed from neighbors.  I presently farm a 3/4 acre area using a two wheel BCS walk behind tractor and am slowly converting to no till.

Moving my operation up to 3 acres under cultivation is a big step for me.  Here are my questions.  Does anybody have experience with using vetch as a cover successfully without a no till roller?  How can the above equipment be modified to plant transplants into the heavy mulch?  How does one plant seed into this heavy mulch? 

David        



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