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Recent Posts
- At last, the soil podcast is here! November 3, 2017
- Don’t count your weeds before they hatch: update on occultation vs. solarization for weed suppression in no-till cabbage August 24, 2016
- Tarps for killing cover crops: mid-project update June 22, 2016
- Trading tillage for tarps: an effective way to kill weeds and cover crops? May 26, 2016
- Phacelia is a bumble bee paradise July 8, 2015
- Cover crop mixtures: new factsheet May 25, 2015
- If you can see it, it’s too much May 13, 2015
- No-till transplanted onions in New England April 12, 2015
- Trying high-residue no-till on a budget March 19, 2015
- Maine is the first state to pay tribute to soils during the International Year of Soils March 12, 2015
- The website will go on, but this project is ending… March 9, 2015
- Under Cover: Rotational No-till and Mulching Systems for Organic Vegetable Farms in Germany February 2, 2015
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Category Archives: Cover Crops
Don’t count your weeds before they hatch: update on occultation vs. solarization for weed suppression in no-till cabbage
When I last wrote in June, I was really excited about how quickly the clear tarps were killing cover crops and weeds. I even proclaimed “the answer is clear: solarization is outperforming occultation.” Now that the tarps have been off … Continue reading
Posted in cabbage, Cover Crops, Rye, Vetch
Tagged occultation, solarization, tarps
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Tarps for killing cover crops: mid-project update
UPDATE 8/24/16: Please see follow-up post on this experiment. Initially, the title of this post was “The answer is clear: solarization is outperforming occultation for killing cover crops.” At the time I originally wrote it, clear tarps were killing cover crops … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Rye, Soil temperature, Vetch
Tagged solarization; occultation; tarps; roller-crimper
1 Comment
Trading tillage for tarps: an effective way to kill weeds and cover crops?
It’s been so long! I apologize for my hiatus from this blog. I’m going to skip the chit chat and get right to the topic though: TARPS. I know a lot of small-scale growers have been using tarps as a … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment
Tagged killing cover crops, occultation, small-scale no-till, tarps, weed suppression
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Phacelia is a bumble bee paradise
In my narrow-minded search for fall-planted, low-residue, winterkilled cover crops, I tried growing phacelia a few times to suit this purpose. It did ok, but I found that with good fall growth, it really isn’t low-residue in spring. More on … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Phacelia
Tagged bumble bees, flowering cover crops, pollinators
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Cover crop mixtures: new factsheet
Selecting, seeding, and managing cover crop mixtures is the topic of a new factsheet from eOrganic written by our colleagues at Penn State. I had a chance to talk with Charlie White recently about their project and I’ll be sharing … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops
Tagged Austrian winter pea, cover crop cocktails, cover crop mixtures, overwintering cover crops
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If you can see it, it’s too much
Sometimes, I feel like erosion is a big elephant in the room. It happens. It feels unlucky, it feels bad, and sometimes it feels inevitable. It is also still one of the biggest threats to long-term productivity and soil health … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Soil, Soil health
Tagged soil erosion; soil aggregation; soil building
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No-till transplanted onions in New England
I met Annalisa Wild Miller at the Maine Agricultural Trade show, but I was rushed with other things on my mind so I didn’t get to talk with her much. I took note that she mentioned something about an article her … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Radish, Vegetables
Tagged horsepower, no-till onions, no-till vegetable production
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