Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Cover crops can be winter-killed or mowed in fall and left to decompose
and/or mulch for spring planting. Check the newfarm.org site for no-till
planter information. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/15/2007 at 3:20 PM Bobby G wrote:

>Well, it looks like we may have as much as 5 acres to
>devote to veggies and other crops, land which has been
>in organic pasture with cows on it.  All this no-till
>discussion brings questions to my mind.
>
>I'm wondering how you'd cover-crop this, then make the
>cover crop available as nutrients in time for
>late-spring planting of certain vegetables for
>farmer's market purposes.
>
>i did note one type of fava bean in the Fedco catalog
>which says it will germinate in 35-45 degree soil,
>which is where central Wisconsin soils are at in early
>spring.
>
>if you were to use this cover crop in a no-till
>fashion, you'd have to just mow it close to the
>ground, then plant  amid the stubble right?  if you
>disked or roto-tilled, you'd no longer be no-tilling. 
>
>
>does this take a particular kind of heavy-duty
>planting drill or something?  i'm used to having a
>nice fluffy well-tilled seedbed to work with, and
>no-till doesn't sound like that at all.  keep in mind
>this is a former pasture where plants like Reed canary
>grass are used to getting their way. not a
>vegetable-seedling friendly environment, that.
>
>any suggestions will be mulled over and chewed on like
>a stalk of Reed canary grass [already 6 feet tall by
>the first week of June...]
>
>bobby g.
>wisc.
>
>
>     
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