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Hey Mick T. check this out (covers are crimped)(updated)

A cultipacker doesn't concentrate the weight on a small enough area to get a good crimp.

And yes, growing the mulch on site is much easier, stabilizes the soil, and takes up leftover nutrients so they can be used the next growing season.


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MickThompson":2yscfd43 said:
A cultipacker doesn't concentrate the weight on a small enough area to get a good crimp.

And yes, growing the mulch on site is much easier, stabilizes the soil, and takes up leftover nutrients so they can be used the next growing season.


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Well, I'm trying to figure out exactly what you did do with that board and angle iron then? You said you ran over the cover crop 3 times with something also. The basic concept makes sense. I wonder why it wouldn't work to spray it with roundup 1st then crush it down with a cultipacker. That way you have the soil covered to hold in moisture, shade weeds and eventually rot into the soil and you don't have to worry that you've killed the cover crop.
 
Roundup works fine if you aren't working towards organic or at least trying to avoid chemicals. That's how a lot a farmers do it. You don't get as much weed suppression if you don't lay it down though. The angle iron concentrates all your body weight on its edge.


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Angle iron faces down and the edge breaks the stalks. You start off at the edge of the plot and kinda lift/slide the crimper into place, step on it, hard, slide forward a few inches repeat. I think I have the process right, please correct.

When I saw the pics I was amazed because this is really a surprisingly lot of work and that is NOT a small plot. I am wondering how you would do say 5 acres. You would have to get some help(?)
 
exactly, Mick. there is a farmer up the road that burned his with glyo BUT he didnt run a crimper over it to lay it down. he has some weeds in his fields. you also dont get the moisture retention benefits of laying it down.

the board doesnt need to be over 2ft long maximum, any longer and the force spreads out over the board and doesnt give a good crimp. the angle iron needs to be 1 1/4 inch and a grinder to put an edge on the downward part makes it even better(not a razor sharp edge, just an edge). the reason i did it 3 times was because i really planted a tad too much oats and ended up with about a 4" mat. suprisingly it wasnt a whole lot of work and once i got the hang of it it took maybe an hour. you dont have to do strictly no till but the least you disturb the soil the better. like i said, my method is low till and hopefully after layers of the black soil is built up then i should be able to do no till. after the crimp stayed down, i weedeated my rows for the row crops. then i took the outside tines of my front tine tiller and made ONE pass for each row. then i laid a furrow for the seeds and covered, then i pulled the weedeated much over what i had tilled. this was a shallow till, 1-2 inches max. for hill crops and transplants i just pulled the covers back some and used a garden spade to dig a hole and plant. hard clay is a chore to build up but once you do you have the benefits of the clay soil combined with better drainage. clay is good soil but it retains more water for longer.

this makes it a lot easier than it sounds. for a till garden you would have spray, till once, wait 10 days and till again to remove any weed sprouts. then if you dont use hay mulch you will have to run a tiller or hoe down the middle to combat grass and weeds. with a cover crop map, any weeds that make it thru can easily be pulled up and left laying for additional mulch as long as there are no seeds on them. if they are seeded remove them from the garden.

daveb, you could approach a larger plot 2 ways. first you could build a cheap crimper either with an old water filled seed compactor(just weld angle iron to it and pull it with a lawn tractor) or do like Mick suggested drag a 6x6 piece of lumber(the corners should knock it down)

you could also do like Jeff Poppen and use a small harrow and chisel plow to incorporate into the soil without turning the soil. someone with 5 acres is usually going to have a small tractor and harrow anyway. i know i did.
 
farmin68":15rzdnp6 said:
WTM, how is the garden looking?

very good(posted another thread with pic). hardly used any fertilizer except for sweet corn and a little tomato tone around some of the other stuff. been picking, freezing and canning what i can and giving the rest away this week.
 
WTM, I've been doing a cardboard mulch for our small home garden this year, as I'm creating a spot for the very first time, and using it to control/kill the lawn. Seems like pulling up the cardboard after grass growing season, and planting a cover crop like this, would put me way ahead of the game from both a mulch and nutrient perspective. That sound reasonable to you?

I assume to get started you tilled and then planted the oats & peas. What time of year did you sow?
 
Nimrod777":32bvn53a said:
WTM, I've been doing a cardboard mulch for our small home garden this year, as I'm creating a spot for the very first time, and using it to control/kill the lawn. Seems like pulling up the cardboard after grass growing season, and planting a cover crop like this, would put me way ahead of the game from both a mulch and nutrient perspective. That sound reasonable to you?

I assume to get started you tilled and then planted the oats & peas. What time of year did you sow?

yep when you grow green covers it takes the place of both compost and mulch. now every other year you can add an inch or so of quality compost and lightly till it in. im not totally no till yet and the way ive been doing it is in the fall around sept 1st i sow my oats, wheat, or peas and then i set my rear tine tiller for a 1'inch depth and lightly till the seed under. i get 95 percent germination that way. if growing crimson clover, i will till my sown wheat at 1" and then i will sow the clover on top of that and water. never till plant clover, it can be sown on top of the soil and raked in with a rake.

in the spring i crimp it all and the peas and clover will decompose and the oats, wheat will decompose slower and act as a mulch weed barrier.

the first year, at this spot, i did a deep till 8", one time, to loosen the hard pan clay and to remove the huge rocks. the first year i used wheat straw mulch in between the rows and let it decompose in the garden to add biomass.
 
That's very cool. Our yard soil is easy enough to work, but you can tell it's nutrient-poor. I've got chicken manure and leaf compost working, and plan to grab every bag of leaves that the neighbors put out this fall. But love the idea of cover cropping to help get the nutrient levels up.
 
Nimrod777":mpn5b714 said:
That's very cool. Our yard soil is easy enough to work, but you can tell it's nutrient-poor. I've got chicken manure and leaf compost working, and plan to grab every bag of leaves that the neighbors put out this fall. But love the idea of cover cropping to help get the nutrient levels up.

sounds like you have a plan. one tip on the leaves, they need to be cut up and not put in whole. when i add compost to the garden i also add a little lime or wood ashes as well. if you already have good soil texture go easy on the brown carbon. good soil should look kind of like a cake brownie: dark and crumbly. you should be able to take a little moistened soil, form it into a ball and it should break apart fairly easily when tossed onto hard ground. if it doesnt break apart easily then its clay based and could use some brown type mulch. if its hard to make a ball or breaks apart in your hand then its too loamy and could use some finished compost. by using the green cover crops you will see that you will need to add very little, if any, finished compost.

another thing that i do, as far as spring crops, ie lettuce, radishes, cabbage, brocolli, onions, is that i do not plant a cover crop in the areas that i will be planting those. what i do, in the fall, i make my beds/rows, add a little compost to them and then i cover that bed with brown cover. i use several inches of wheat straw but any brown biomass will work. then in march i pull just enough of the wheat straw back to plant my transplants, seeds and onion sets. by doing this, my spring bed is ready to plant and i dont have to wait until the ground is dry enough to work and that area will be premulched and weed free. you never want to work wet soil, if you do you will be dealing with clods all year.
 
I hit the jackpot today at Walmart. Got several different food plot blends on clearance-rye, radishes, rape, clovers, beans, peas, you name it.

Looking forward to putting it to work.


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TX300mag":2yjy9xju said:
I hit the jackpot today at Walmart. Got several different food plot blends on clearance-rye, radishes, rape, clovers, beans, peas, you name it.

Looking forward to putting it to work.


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As food plot or cover crop??
 
Nimrod777":2j09l4yy said:
TX300mag":2j09l4yy said:
I hit the jackpot today at Walmart. Got several different food plot blends on clearance-rye, radishes, rape, clovers, beans, peas, you name it.

Looking forward to putting it to work.


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As food plot or cover crop??

I'm going to use it for cover crops in my gardens as I try to transition to no-till.
 
just make sure you dont plant the radishes or rape(or other brassicas covers) in the same bed as your spring brassicas vegetables, ie, cabbage, radishes, and broccoli. since they have the same pests they can carry over if planted in the same rotation.
 

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