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  • From: Pam Twin Oaks <pam AT twinoaks.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soybeans undersown in sweet corn
  • Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:02:16 -0400

On 3/15/2010 10:52 AM, Greg York wrote:
>
> Has anyone had success establishing a smother cover crop under
> sweetcorn?  We transplant our sweetcorn into the field and cultivate
> until the crop is about 2' high.  At that point I'd like to sow a
> cover crop under the corn that will germinate and grow quickly enough
> to shade out any broadleaf weeds until harvest is over.  We grow
> several 72-80 day varieties.  I know some folks relay different
> clovers into corn, but it sounds like the majority of the growth of
> those covers happen after the corn is harvested and/or flailed off.
> Has anyone tried soybeans?  Any other successful cover crops for weed
> control?
>
> Greg
>
> Zone 5, southern Catskills

Greg,

Yes, this is what we do. (Zone 7). At the second cultivation of the sweetcorn, at 30days after sowing, we broadcast soybeans and till them in. (We're using a walk-behind tiller.) The soybeans have some tolerance to partial shade and will take some foot traffic during harvesting. We use overhead irrigation. After harvesting is finished, we bush-hog and till it all in. I doubt we get much nitrogen from the soy - it hasn't usually started flowering by the time we do it in. But we do get a reduction in weeds. We still get some red root pigweed, but we pull that out when we harvest. For our last planting of corn for the year, we undersow with oats and soy. Then we bush-hog the finished corn, cutting high and leaving the cover crop to winterkill. This gives us a patch we can use for early crops the next year.

In the past, I tried undersowing with crimson clover, but the seed was expensive, and it was a struggle to get the seed to germinate in hot dry weather.

Pam, Twin Oaks Community, central Virginia


  • Re: [Market-farming] Soybeans undersown in sweet corn, Pam Twin Oaks, 03/15/2010

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