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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: Equipment
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
Comments Off on Trading tillage for tarps: an effective way to kill weeds and cover crops?
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
Comments Off on No-till transplanted onions in New England
Trying high-residue no-till on a budget
Update 4/1/15: Since writing this post originally, I have received feedback from a few people that this system has been hard to implement effectively. It takes a lot of weight to crimp the cover crops, there can be a good … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Rye
Tagged hand-held crimper, high-residue no-till, small-scale roller-crimper
Comments Off on Trying high-residue no-till on a budget
Mark your calendars and get ready for an information deluge from Germany
Back in 2013, Ray and I got an inquiry from “a farmer in Germany” who was preparing a seminar on soil health and reduced tillage and wanted more information on what we were doing. He did not send a picture … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Soil, Soil health, Vegetables
Comments Off on Mark your calendars and get ready for an information deluge from Germany
Can garlic planting get any better? Yes.
I think most vegetable farmers will agree that planting garlic is one of the most satisfying farm chores. There’s something about the end of the season also being the beginning of the next. It’s also one of the most common crops … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment
Tagged banding with cover crops, horsepower, no-till garlic, oats, peas, zone-till garlic
Comments Off on Can garlic planting get any better? Yes.
Getting cover crop seeds (in a quantity you can use) and putting them in the ground
This morning, I received a timely question from a a farmer in New Jersey: “Is the ‘Tillage Radish’ that is protected / copyrighted a better product than say, Forage Radish from Fedco seeds?” Good question, and I had just been … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Phacelia, Radish
Tagged Radish varieties
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