The Newfarm Forums

[Mountain Brian]

I work for a retreat center that I've convinced to start a small scale farming operation for education and to supply local organic food for the dining hall.

We broke ground on about an acre in an old "cabbage field" that hasn't been worked in a decade. We have limited equipment: a 30 HP compact tractor with a 48" rotary tiller and a "bush hog." There is little chance that we'll buy any more large equipment in the next 5 years. (We are a non-profit.)

Eventually I would like to have our operation be no-till or at least limited tillage.

How can I direct seed into rows through a cover crop mulch without the ability to "drill" the seeds? I have an Earthway seeder, and I do have the ability to purchase small tools (human powered). Any ideas?

[CP Knerr]

What are you planning on planting for your cash crop?

What types of cover crops are you planning on planting? Are you going to rely on winter kill?

I have some ideas but I'd like to hear what your plans are first for what you are trying to accomplish.

[Mountain Brian]

I'm still determining the exact crops for 2010. We don't have access to a greenhouse to create starts, so we can only direct seed. We'll grow a lot of lettuce, potatoes, spinach, beets, annual herbs, onions (from purchased sets), etc.

So far, I've got Winter Rye in the ground, now, and I'll likely use White Clover in the paths during the growing season. We obviously don't have a roller, so I'm hoping that we can use the bush hog to cut down the rye at the right time. I'm open to recommendations.

I hope that a combination of cover crops, rotations, and limited tillage will preserve fertility.

Location: 4000 feet elevation in the Southern Appalachians, western North Carolina. The soil is actually not too bad. Lots of rain, 80+ in/yr unless we're in drought. It is a unique site, to say the least.

[CP Knerr]

You should research the effects of cereal rye on the seeds you are attempting to direct seed. Rye tends to suppress the plants you are talking about growing. I have a book on this so I'll try to look up the information for you regarding the suppression window. You may need to kill the rye many weeks before seeding what you're trying.

If you bush hog the rye, it will tend to windrow it to the one side of the bush hog, and leave ground with no cover. Maybe this would work for you as you won't have the heavy residue to plant through, yet still get the allelopathic affects of the rye roots to suppress weeds for a bit if you plant transplants. You should be able to kill it if you mow it at the correct stage.

I've been contemplating attempting to roll the rye down with a rototiller, which is unengaged and free to turn. It would offer a bit of crimping and would be pretty heavy to push the residue down. If this worked you could plant transplants into the rye residue.

Also, you don't need a large greenhouse to create starts. Get creative with what you can come up with as a non-profit (old windows, scrap lumber, etc.) You should be able to rig something up for lettuce at least. Figure 2, 72 cell 1020 trays takes up roughly 4 square feet, so with a you could get 1000 lettuces under cover with a 5x15' covered area easily.

It's an excellent idea to have white clover in your wheel tracks for your tractor. Will your tiller set up allow you to till between the wheels, and never drive over your beds? Sort of a permanent bed system.

[Carriage House Farm]

Not too sure how you hill potatoes without tilling.

I would suggest getting a moleboard plow or a subsoiler/chisel plow. You can get one for REALLY cheap and a small set-up for the basic set-up you have already.

No till can be expensive and very crop specific. For instance, you will not be growing lettuce well in no-till with a rolled cover crop. You won't be using an Earthway seeder or anything similar. You need something mechanical that will slice, spread, drop a seed, cover over and roll, which is what a no-till drill does. It needs to have a great deal of weight to do that cutting to get through the cover crop, the rolled cover crop that is dead, or the pan that develops after making a many passes over the same ground.

The best thing to do right now is to get that ground open, tilled, let the weeds germinate three or four times and till each time. Then plant. Learn to get everything working without competition and using the tools you have. Then go from there. I am no way suggesting to not try out no till. I have seen a lot of small scale produce growers try it thinking they are going to plant lettuce and kale in an annual rye that they roll over with very disappointing results.

Take that for what its worth. I do believe in the value of some types of no-till and lots of different types of cover crops, I just think its hard to simply start off doing it, especially without the right gear.
_________________
Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, OH

An Ohio Century Farm
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com

[Mountain Brian]

I appreciate the responses and recommendations. It seems as though for now we should hold off on attempting to go no till. We'll mow and then till the rye under this spring, multiple weeks before planting. As we build our capacity to create our own transplants, we'll work towards integrating some no till techniques into our plans.

Of course, I can still incorporate cover crops where ever possible. Anyone have experience with undersowing (living mulch)?

Interesting idea to use a PTO driven tiller, disengaged, as a roller/crimper. Probably worth a try. To answer a question, the wheel of our tractor do not completely straddle the beds. I have to "leave space" for a path as I till. For 2010 (our first season on this land and this organizations first experience with this type of operation), I plan on putting every other pass with the tiller in cover (white clover, possibly), using those spaces as our "paths" for the growing season. Then for 2011, those "paths" will become the vegetable beds and the 2010 beds will be in cover. Sound workable?

[CP Knerr]

Interestingly enough on the "Weed 'em and Reap" videos they do no till potatoes with beds they shaped the year before. They have the potatoes buried quite deep in the beds after they kill the cover crop. I don't know how well this works, they just showed them planted that way.

I've done some undersowing of white clover... it works well for corn and staked tomatoes, some other things not so well. When I tried it in pumpkins we had a real humid year and the clover I think contributed to the mold and mildew on the pumpkins.

Your clover idea sounds ok, so long as you can kill your clover doing what you're planning on. Make sure you leave enough time (weeks) to till multiple times, it will be difficult to kill with a tiller. You may also want to add in an annual grass (oats, etc) for some more carbon addition.

White clover seed is also relatively expensive compared to some others. Crimson clover or berseem is not even half the cost of white clover, and the berseem will probably winter kill where you are. Sweet clovers are also a lot cheaper than the white clover. You could also consider mixes like pea/oats, etc. I grew that this year for the pigs to eat, it grew up about 3-3.5' high and produce a lot of tasty peas for the pigs. The pigs ate it and then what they stamped in, regrew and they're in harvesting it again now.

Also consider looking at buckwheat.

In the book "Managing cover crops profitably" they also mention spring planting winter rye. The rye never heads out, it just grows and dies later in the season. If I have time I'm going to try this in my asparagus after I'm done harvesting for the season to keep the weeds down in the summer.

[Mountain Brian]

Great recommendations! Thank you! I'll look into the berseem, which I've never heard of, and the crimson clover.

If I have a cover crop for summer, the peas/oats mix, for example, would it be best to leave it to be winter killed, then till it in in spring for planting, OR is it best to replace the summer cover crop with winter rye in the fall?

[CP Knerr]

Regarding the rye planting after peas/oats, I think it would all matter what you want to plant in the spring. If you want to direct seed things right away, taking into account rye's allelopathy towards small direct seeded vegetables, I'd till in the oats/peas first thing in the spring.

Here's information on berseem clover:
http://www.sare.org/publications/covercrops/berseem_clover.shtml

Here's information on crimson clover:
http://www.sare.org/publications/covercrops/crimson_clover.shtml

It looks like where you are located, both types will overwinter.

The other thing to consider with all your rain is nutrient leaching, where the rain would wash some of the nutrients out of the soil. The grasses will help keep them where they can be used. We only get ~30" of rain here so you're getting nearly 3x that amount.