Market Farming

[John Hendrickson <jhendric AT wisc.edu>]

Thanks Paul, that pretty much confirms what I was thinking: basket weeder 
plus a tine weeder.  I am also hoping to find a belly-mounted cultivator 
for my Allis B for miscellaneous one-row cultivating jobs.  What is your 
opinion (and others can certainly chime in) on bed shapers?  Do they make a 
big difference or are they unnecessary?  I've been cautiously considering 
the Lesche bed shaper offered by Market Farming implement.  -John

> -re cultivators for roots and alliums:  if you have relatively stone free 
> soil, the combo of a basket weeder and a tine weeder (Lely or Williams 
> both work in my experience, there are other out there (Einbock is one) I 
> haven't tried) is hard to beat.  Use the basket weeder to weed very small 
> seedlings and newly transplanted plants.  Once the crop is a bit larger or 
> transplants have rooted (ie. they survive the tug test!!!) use tine 
> weeder.  Usually a fair bit of hoeing and rogueing is requried as 
> well.  One great use for a basket weeder is to prepare a stale 
> seedbed--let weeds germ (but not get to first true leaf stage) and then 
> till top half inch to kill weeds, repeat 1 to 2X more after rain or 
> irrigation and you will kill 95% of weeds before you even plant.  THis 
> works best in late spring to late summer when enough heat and moisture are 
> present to kill the summer annuals (pigweed, crabgrass, lambsquarters, 
> etc) that are our biggest headache.  Once you get a basket weeder system 
> going it should replace wheel hoe work you are currently doing, and yoiu 
> will be very happy with the speed and precision of this tool.  I have 2 
> basket weeders, one with all baskets pushed togehtert permanenly mounted 
> on an IH 140, and one 3 row basket weeder on AC G.  I have another G for 
> seeders, hillers, and finger weedres.  I got a thing for old cultivating 
> tractors.  They are cheap, and were the state of the art for killing 
> weeeds without chemicals before the world discovered better living through 
> chemistry.  Still great machines.  And very cool and fun.

John Hendrickson
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1535 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI  53706
608-265-3704
www.cias.wisc.edu