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  • From: Scott Breneman <sbreneman AT yourgoodwill.org>
  • To: "market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] mulching pathways and classic blunders
  • Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 09:24:43 -0500

We've tried a lot of different mulching and cover crops between plastic: We
used to get rolls on unprinted newsprint and put 3 ply down and mulch on top
of it and it worked pretty well in the berry patch.

Then, we got the idea to do that between plastic, spent several days laying
thousands of feet of paper three passes thick, mulched carefully with straw,
and wetted down with sprinklers. That weekend, I was about an hour away from
the farm when the humidity dropped very low and the wind blew like crazy.
When I came into the farm Monday morning, 40ft tall trees had been
toilet-papered to the tops with our 40 inch paper, 100 foot sections of paper
were blowing all over the farm, and wrapped around everything. We haven't
used paper since.

Cover crops:

we've tried rye, oats, sudan, jap. millet, clovers--the edge is *always*
weedy. Clover usually dies out and is slippery, the others need too much
mowing. I'd recommend oats, barley or wheat if trying it.

I think straw mulch is probably the best option--moisture rention, weed
supression, and soil building.

Scott
Goodwill at Homefields Farm



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