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Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden
- From: "Wiediger, Alison" <alison.wiediger AT hart.kyschools.us>
- To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden
- Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:27:44 -0500
I’d like to weigh in on this
also. We trialed it this year. From what we understand, it is a
corn based product, fully biodegradable – not like the photo-degradable
petroleum product we used only ONCE many years ago. In our production
system, it starts to degrade in about 45 days and is basically gone in
90. To succession plant a new crop, all we need to do is pull the drip
tape and turn the rest, including crop residues, under. In our small,
very diverse, labor poor (just the two of us) system, plastic that needs to be
removed is a real problem. By the time the crop is finished, it has
degraded enough to be hard to get up. Even with hand – rather than
mechanical – digging and pulling, we can always find pieces of plastic
remaining. With this new biodegradable product, that is not
happening. So, succession planting gets done on time, crops get removed
in time for cover crops to be planted, and our fields aren’t full of pieces
of plastic of all colors and sizes. It is pricey – about 3 times
the price of regular black plastic. So far, we have only found it in
black (we’d like a white on black product for mid-summer plantings). It
does degrade quickly in UV if there is no canopy to protect it and you must
protect it in storage. It is a little more fragile and has to be handled
more carefully when laying it. For instance, we had to reduce the tension
on our mulch layer because the clods in our early spring soil were tearing
holes in the plastic. Once we did that, it worked much better. Since we
are not certified organic, we haven’t had to worry about it being OMRI
labeled. We like it and will continue to use it
because it fits our operation so well. Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm From:
market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Bill Shoemaker I want to
add to what Shawnee Flowerfarmer said. The last two years I've been trialing a
truly biodegradable plastic mulch film for crop production. It performs like
any other plastic mulch but does not need removal. It just biodegrades at the
end of the season. For those unfamiliar with plastic mulch, it is a plastic
strip on a long roll that can be laid and secured on the ground mechanically.
The grower plants transplants through holes they make in the film. The mulch
provides weed control, moisture retention and boosts plants growth by
converting light to heat (greenhous effect). Plants produce more and earlier
generally. The
product I used came from Ball Seed. It performed very well. Last year I left it
in the ground into Winter. We disced the remains into the soil this Spring. By
all appearences it's gone. The product we applied this Spring is deteriorating
earlier, probably because we've had 14" of rain in the last 6 weeks. But
I'm very pleased with it. I think a cut flower or vegetable grower who uses the
plastic film on raised beds with organic mulches between the rows will have a
great growing system. Drip irrigation under the mulch would just make it
better. Bill |
-
Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden,
cjmaness AT juno.com, 08/25/2007
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
-
Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden,
Bill Shoemaker, 08/26/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden,
Sharon and Steve, 08/26/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden, road's end farm, 08/26/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden,
Wiediger, Alison, 08/27/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden, road's end farm, 08/27/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden,
Sharon and Steve, 08/26/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden, Bill Shoemaker, 08/26/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] herbicides for use in a cut flower garden, Robert Schuler, 08/29/2007
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