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  • From: Garth & Kim Travis <gartht AT txcyber.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling
  • Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:05:38 -0500

Greetings,
You are close, but not quite. It is clear plastic, over a very wet bed, and weights along the edges so the bed can't dry out. Sun can get hot any time of the year. I have been sunburned in Nothern Alberta in January. You want to steam the bed to kill disease and insects.
Bright Blessings,
Kim

Lee Neill wrote:
Hello,

I've been hanging around the fringes for a while, reading with interest all the posts from everyone and picking up some useful information. I'm in zone 6 and not really a market farmer (yet), but we built some raised beds and used them this year with modest success. If you have time to respond to a personal gardner with hopes of producing enough to sell in the future, I'd like to ask about this solarizing idea. I assume it's covering the beds with black plastic and letting them cook...but my assumptions have at times been wrong. How do you do it and what are the benefits, and is it too late to do in SW Missouri?

Lee

----- Original Message ----- From: "Garth & Kim Travis" <gartht AT txcyber.com>
To: <gofish54 AT centurytel.net>; "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Loss of Soil Carbon After Tilling


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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