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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: Soil moisture
Under Cover: Rotational No-till and Mulching Systems for Organic Vegetable Farms in Germany
It sounds like there was a great turnout for Jan’s eOrganic webinar on the cut-and-carry mulch system he and his colleagues are using for organic vegetable production in Germany. My favorite quote: “You can completely screw up the system and … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Rye, Soil, Soil health, Soil moisture, Soil temperature, Vegetables, Vetch
Tagged cover crop economics, farm economics, high-residue cover crop, mulch, rotational no-till, silage mulch, under_cover
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From small seeds to big roots: no-till organic carrots in Maine
We all have biases. In research, we randomize things and establish clear rules to avoid having our biases influence results. But I have concluded that it doesn’t violate any rules of research for me to admit one bias: I like … Continue reading
Posted in carrots, Cover Crops, Radish, Soil moisture, Vegetables
Tagged no-till vegetable production
1 Comment
Two ingredient cover crop cocktails
Someone branded cover crop mixtures as “cocktails” and it has stuck. Even NRCS has adopted the “cocktail” label: Regardless of what they’re called, the new multi-species mixtures are very exciting, results are intriguing, and these cocktails are probably the cover cropping … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Nitrogen, Nutrient Cycling, Radish, Rye, Soil microbes, Soil moisture, Soil temperature, tomatoes, Vegetables, Vetch
Tagged cover crop cocktails, grass-legume, rye-vetch
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Mud season in New England can be tempered by cover crops
Our colleagues Masoud Hashemi and Julie Fine at UMass Amherst have decided to join us in seeing how far north no-till early vegetables will work. We’ve seen that this system can work in the mid-Atlantic, but New England is a … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Radish, Soil moisture
Tagged mud season
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Push seeders for no-till seeding: No-till seeding Part II
Step two after calibrating our seeders was to put them to action in the field. Here’s a short video. This was on a pretty wet day when we never would have tilled the field. It was even a little wet … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Radish, Soil moisture, Vegetables
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How many seeds is your seeder putting in the ground? No-till seeding Part I.
Truth be told, I like vacuum seeders. They plop down seeds at nice even intervals in a perfect furrow, and then close the furrow with press wheels, creating good seed-soil contact. But vacuum seeders are wicked expensive (I’m living back … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Radish, Soil moisture, Vegetables
Tagged Jang seeder, Knapik seeder, no-till vegetable production, push seeders
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Sometimes, less is more when it comes to cover crop residue
Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow in Maryland, and fields are neither drying out nor warming up quickly. Unlike a living cover or mulch that prevent the soil from drying in spring, low-residue winterkilled cover crops can facilitate faster … Continue reading
Posted in Cover Crops, Phacelia, Radish, Soil moisture, Soil temperature, Vegetables
Tagged biodrilling, infiltration, low-residue cover crop, subsoil moisture
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