Market Farming

[<sunnfarm AT netscape.com>]

If you want to grow certified organic you can not use roundup, if you do then you extend the transition process. I did a similar 8 acre field years ago and first mowed the grass in the spring and then rotavated twice with a very heavy duty tiller, then plowed. The grasses came back to haunt me that summer it wasn't until the second year that growing became easier. You might want to plan for 2010 and leave 2009 fallow... Bob.

Sunny Meadow Farm

Bridgeton, NJ.

--- gregory.strella AT gmail.com wrote:

From: "Gregory Strella" <gregory.strella AT gmail.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] How to Plow
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:20:04 -0400

I'm looking to convert four or five acres of grass at a former horticulture vocational school near Baltimore, MD into an organic market farm and agricultural education site.  There are some hedges and trees (mostly pine) in the mix as well.  Being a younger grower, I've never attempted to grow in soil that wasn't recently cultivated in one form or another.  My main concern is how many experts (both extension and several local organic growers) are advising me to spray glyphosate on the perennial grasses (looks like fescue, mainly) before I try to grow there.  This brings me to two questions:

1. Using a John Deere w/ ~ 35hp and renting/borrowing any tillage implements other than a mower or rototiller, is there a reliable way to mechanically break the sod next spring, grow some cash crops there at some point in 2009, and not face overwhelming perennial-grass weed pressure for "the next 10 years"?

2. If glyphosate is the best way to go - now that the window has closed on an effective fall application - when is the best time to spray in the spring?  What sequence of soil preparation would you advise pre/post-application?

I apologize if these are naive questions.  I'd much prefer to not rush vegetables into the ground and deal with the grasses slowly and thoroughly, but the time-table for this project is out of my hands.  Thanks in advance for any advice you have and for all the great posts as of late.

Greg Strella
Meristem Farm
Reisterstown, MD

On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 9:17 AM, Carla Shafer <cs13 AT cornell.edu> wrote:

In trying to wrap my head around all the ins and outs of tillage (and non-tillage) I've run across some great resources. Here are a couple of good ones relating to plowing:

1.  Steel in the Field: a Farmer's Guide to Weed Management Tools -- This SARE publication is available in its entirety online, but well worth the purchase price for your own farm library copy, in my opinion.
2. How to Use Your Tractor: Creating a Seedbed -- An archived article from the Yesterday's Tractor magazine that covers the basic techniques of plowing and discing. (While you're on the YT website, check the archives for other articles that may be of interest, as well.)
3. How to set up a plow -- a post to the SSB Tractor forum, with a beginner's tip for how to adjust a plow the first time you use it.
4. Finally, I seem to recollect a useful discussion about bringing some fallow fields into production on this very list. I can't say exactly when it was. But it might be worth a perusal of the archives, if my memory serves me.
   

All the best,

Carla Shafer

On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 6:42 AM, Andy Fellenz <fellenz AT fltg.net> wrote:

I'm scaling up and looking for information on setting up and operating
larger equipment, specifically the best way to open up and plow fields
which have been mowed, but not planted in a long (>15 years) time.  Up
to now I've usually worked up 1/4-1/2 acre at a time at the most and
used a 3pt mounted rototiller.

I'll be planting larger areas next year and am looking for good how-to
guides.  On the equipment side for the larger fields I have an Allis
Chalmers 180 (~70hp) with a 14" Oliver plow (plow can be set up as 3 or
4 bottoms), 8' disk, 12' disk, 8' cultipacker, 10' cultimulcher, 8'
S-Tine cultivator.  I've mowed the field this season and may have time
to get out and fall plow if it makes sense.

Andy
_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

_______________________________________________ Market-farming mailing list Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
 

---

Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.