Forum Friday: Tine Weeders, Wood Chips, & Undead Threads
Here are some of the top threads and themes from the last week at in the Growers Community. If you have a burning question, or an experience to share, what’s working? what isn’t? take a moment to post a thread. If you want to see if it’s been covered, use the search box to find related posts. Or, if you come across anything cool and interesting regarding no-till veg, the forum is a great place to disseminate and discuss it. Let’s get to it: Forum Friday!
Tine Weeders & No-till Greens
farmerbethany asks, “Hey- I'm interested in reducing tillage (including the impact of hoes) in my greens beds. Has anyone tried the tine weeders (ie. the 30 inch flex tine weeder from Johnny's) for weeding greens? We seed using the 4 row pinpoint seeder after power harrowing (but we are also considering moving towards the tilther). I'd also just be generally curious of what reducing tillage in your greens beds looks like. Are you removing debris with hoes to keep the roots in, are you tarping and waiting? Just about to transition some greenhouse beds… Cheers, B”
The post is only a day old, so it isn’t breaking records for replies, but touches on something that has come up again and again, no-till setup, cultivation, and turnover of baby greens. What is your experience with tine weeders in baby greens? Have you used a Two Bad Cats? Do you have a work-around? Take a second to give farmerbethany your two cents.
The turnover, in particular, can be quite time consuming and, let’s be honest, messy AF. FarmerJesse references Ace of Spades “Bed Prep 101” post to get a rundown of exactly how they do it, and they grow a hell of a lot of baby greens, so that is definitely worth referencing. We’ll get to the question about the tilther in a bit…
How do you deal with baby greens in your no/low-till setup?
Wood Chips in Rows
Wood chips, especially in pathways, keeps coming up. farmwithkieth writes, “Wondering if you all use woodchips in your walking paths on your rows. If so, are they more of a pain than they are worth. Do they break down and can they be somehow incorporated into the beds in the following season? We have a service here that drops off free truckloads of hardwood chips and I feel like its too good a deal to pass up…”
Just like everything else, there are a lot of perspectives on pathway management, from leaving/mowing the sod, to bare ground for ease of cultivation, to mulch the hell out of it. It’s been a recurring theme on the forum, and a particularly active thread. Here’s Farmer Jesse’s personal thoughts…
Shout out to Ruminant for his return to podcasting yesterday. In the episode with Karl Hammer of Vermont Compost they focus on ramial wood chips as a soil amendment, but get into pathway management, as well as his thoughts on intensive market gardening in general. Check it out, subscribe to his podcast (it’s one of our favorites), and let us know what you think.
Undead Threads
Some threads just won’t die. The “True Costs of Paper Pot” is still quite active. We got a lot of feedback on Instagram of farmers excited to get into the field with it for the first time this year, y’all keep us posted! There were plenty of Jang hacks posted in the “Jang Setup” thread, some of which we’ll be stealing, so thanks for those. And last, but not least, “Is the tilther worth it?” The tilther keeps recurring as a potential alternative to the power harrow. A lot of growers have concerns, so if you have any experience with it, good or bad, post about it!
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