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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] pumpkins
  • Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:23:02 -0400


On Mar 18, 2010, at 9:38 AM, William H Shoemaker wrote:

Some are evaluating cover cropping systems, such as grain rye planted in the fall. Tillage strips are created early in Spring, before the rye gets going. The rye is rolled down with a roller/crimper, which flattens the rye and kills it, leaving a thick mulch layer. Pumpkins can be planted in the tillage strips and cultivated or a band of herbicide applied over it. The pumpkins quickly grow out over the rye, which provides pretty good weed control. 

Careful: you apparently need exactly the right kind of crimper, and close to perfect conditons to use it. I can testify that mowing the cover crop is no substitute: if you have any sort of weed seed bank in the soil, you will get a huge flush of weeds a few weeks later, as the rye breaks down; and this may occur after the pumpkins start to run and it's too late to till. If I remember the Rodale studies correctly, this can also happen under some conditions even if you use a crimper. If you're prepared to use herbicide in the rye strips, this most likely isn't a problem, of course.

I've had fairly good results with the following modification of that technique, which avoids the herbicide:

Seed rye and vetch cover crop in the field the previous fall (this can often be underseeded while the previous crop is still growing. In my case the previous crop is eggplant, peppers, potatoes (grown in the same field; the second year the field includes winter squash and other cucurbits as well as pumpkins.) 

In the spring, several weeks before planting, till the strips you're going to plant the winter squash/pumpkins in. Leave the cover crop growing in the aisles between the strips.

Just before you plant, cultivate the planting strips again.

When the vetch goes into full bloom, which is right about when you plant the pumpkins, mow the cover crop strips. (If they're going to be in your way at planting, just mow them right before planting; otherwise either before or shortly after will do.)

A couple of weeks later, disc the cover crop strips. The rye will not be well broken down and will not disc in completely; that's OK. Disc as close to the pumpkins as you can get .

Hoe between the pumpkins.

Disc the cover crop strips again, ideally just before the pumpkins really start running out into the aisles. 

Seed clover over the whole field.

Go away and let the pumpkins, squash, and clover fight it out. Presuming that the pumpkins got a decent start, they will win the first round; the clover won't grow very tall before harvest. (If there's a lot of weed pressure, you may want to go through once by hand yanking up the large stuff; but this step may not be necessary.)

After harvest, mow the field. Leave the clover through the following year if you can, mowing it occasionally. The clover will win the second round against the weeds. Till it in the second spring; it should provide all the N you need for the following crop and some of what you need for the year after that.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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