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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling

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  • From: Garth & Kim Travis <gartht AT txcyber.com>
  • To: gofish54 AT centurytel.net, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling
  • Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:12:13 -0500

Greetings,
We are in Texas, we grow heirloom veggies for the market, but also sheep, cattle, rabbits, turkeys and chickens. I am zone 8B, so we grow veggies year round, but not in the same beds.

My summer garden is tomatoes, about 20 varieties; melons, about 6 varieities; cucumber about 4 varieties; Peppers, mostly sweet usually 4 varieties with one hot one just because. While we have started to clear these beds, since the cucumbers and melons are now done for the season, the tomatoes are still producing as are the peppers. Thus I use different beds for winter crops that went in a month ago.

We solarize our beds from 2 to 4 weeks depending on how much sun I get. We have found it really helps keep down the pests and disease problems. I grow tomatoes in the same beds year after year. We rake the top couple of inches to find the cocoons of the horned worms, my greatest enemy. We have found that skipping this step gives us real problems the following year.

Our summer and winter gardens are about 200' apart. The winter gardens are just being started and still need lots of work. We are just starting to grow winter stuff, as we decided to learn one season at a time. We both learned to garden in zone 2, so a big difference from our childhood memories.

Bright Blessings,
Kim

Mac wrote:
Where do you farm and in what zone? How long do you solarize the beds? Does solarizing allow you to have a quicker rotation on your crops? thanks - mac

Quoting Garth & Kim Travis <gartht AT txcyber.com>:
Greetings,

I do make a living with my no till gardens, but we are primarily tomato
farmers so yes, I do use raised beds like a home gardener.
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