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  • From: "David Guthrie" <dguthrie AT egyptian.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] pastured produce
  • Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:08:03 -0600

Would fall planted oats that winter-killed work for plants (tomatoes in the
spring) or no-till seeding in the spring? The winter-killed oats would
provide a mulch/weed control for almost anything,. . . right? I intend to
do this with frost seeded clover and try the tomatoes as well (can you
no-till sweet corn?).

David Guthrie
dguthrie AT egyptian.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Hopkins" <rdhopkins AT americanpasturage.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 10:27 PM
Subject: RE: [Market-farming] pastured produce


> Lucy,
>
> We also found that early spring growth does not like the companionship of
> clovers. I will keep your water melon experience in mind for next season.
> I have thought a late planting of a winter annual that would go dormant
from
> the heat before setting seed might be a better companion for the melons
than
> would the clover. We may actually try some perennial cool season grasses
as
> summer cover as we know a late planting will lead to dormancy or kill from
> the heat. As we are going back to pasture after one growing season it is
> irrelevant if the cool season perennial survives or not.
>
> We use the medium red clover of no particular brand for cover.
>
> Rick H.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Lucy
> Goodman
> Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 5:43 AM
> To: Market Farming
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] pastured produce
>
>
> This sounds very close to what we did this
> season. We had planted a clover pasture for
> the meat chickens on a 1/3 acre and because
> we had extra clover seed (and I don't recall
> what kind of clover and i don't have the
> records near by) we planted the adjacent 1/3
> acre. This past spring at planting time we
> looked at the wonderful clover pasture and
> said to ourselves we cannot till this under,
> it's too pretty. So we decided to try no-till
> organic vegetable production and planted
> tomatoes (yellow taxi and Big beef),
> cucumbers (diva, conquest-we also grew lemon
> but in a tilled bed and they did great),
> zucchini (zephyr) and various cantaloupe
> (earliqueen, charentais "Savor", gala,
> athena), and later water melons on the clover.
>
> The tomatoes, cukes, zukes and cantaloupe did
> really really well on the clover but the
> water melons about failed (I believe we got
> .5 melons per plant). I am not sure if the
> failure was because of the clover cover or
> because of the especially wet and cool
> growing season.
>
>
> We did our first planting of maters, cukes,
> zukes and melons (earliqueen, savor and gala)
> very early (mid april planting) in
> hoophouses. These beds produced until fall. I
> did not know cantaloupe can set fruit 5+
> times in a season if given enough time. The
> Conquest cukes and 9 beds of cantaloupe were
> transplanted in early June as were 5 beds of
> water melon. We also had some tilled beds and
> planted cantaloupe in those beds (mostly
> savor IIRC). Our main crop tomatoes were
> planted on SRM IRT plastic mulch and our main
> crop zukes were planted on tilled beds.
> Tomatoes, zukes and cukes had about the same
> yields. Water melon did MUCH better planted
> in tilled areas, cantaloupe did slightly
> better planted on dirt rather than no till
>
> We did not keep great records as this
> experiment was not planned. As I said it
> happened because the clover was just too
> pretty to kill. Now, during the growing
> season we had to keep the clover mowed so it
> did not take over the crops (This was NOT
> dutch white and I think I remember the clover
> being the big red stuff-it did need mowing
> every 10 days or so). So we would take the
> weed eater out and lift up the vines and mow
> the clover right around the plants that
> way-it worked well. One person can do this
> easily but two is even better and faster (one
> weed whacks, one picks up vines).
>
> I believe no-till organic produce is
> possible, though not for everything-spring
> mix would not be a good candidate for this.
>
>
> Boulder Belt Organics
> New Paris, OH
> Check out the Boulder Belt website:
> http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa
> "There is no way to peace---peace is the way."
> A.J. Muste
>
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