Market Farming

[Paul Bucciaglia <pbucciaglia AT yahoo.com>]

Hi John,

 

Need for a bed shaper depends on your soil type and the condition of your soil after your last tillage pass.  If you have heavy, clay soil that drains poorly and you live in a high rainfall area, a bed or raised bed will help with drainage.  I farm a sand pit so the last thing I want is more drainage.  If your last tillage pass leaves a bed that is not level you will want to rethink your tillage system or go with a bed maker.  One thing I didn't mention about the basket weeder is that optimal performance of this tool requires a dead flat bed.  In my soil I can get away with plowing, disking with a drag, and cutting beds with a basket weeder (all baskets pushed together)-- but it is not great.  So we have turned more to spading w/an old used Imants spader I picked up.  It has its down sides but it does leave a dead flat bed that does not require any bed forming.  I still end up plowig some acreage every year and I do have a used Lesche bed maker (ala market farm) but I've never been thrilled with the results--others do like them, I suspect they have heavier soil.

 

Paul

Fort Hill Farm

New Milford, CT

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:48:06 -0500
From: John Hendrickson
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Williams cultivator, basket weeders
To: Market Farming
Message-ID: <5.2.1.1.2.20060803194018.017d1238 AT wiscmail.wisc.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

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

Paul Bucciaglia
Fort Hill Farm
Organic Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers
18 Fort Hill Rd.
New Milford CT 06776
(860) 350-3158
www.forthillfarm.com