No-Till Cover Crop Termination for Small Scale Agriculture

Terminating cover crops on a large scale with tillage or with chemicals is pretty well fleshed out, but what about in a complex small scale no-till system? How exactly do you kill cover crops?

Today we cover: how to kill rye and vetch cover crops, how to kill grain crops, crimping cover crops, trapping cover crops, cover crops as a mulch, green manures and more.

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[renatehaeckler]

My best luck (least effort) is to plant oats and daikon type radishes in the early fall, they winter kill when there's a hard freeze. The oats fall over and cover the soil, the radishes feed worms all winter and there's usually not a trace of them by the time it's warm in spring. Most other cover crops like vetch and buckwheat, especially clover, are horrible about coming back as weeds for years.

[winchestermotorsports]

This year I dropped the deck on my zero turn all the way down and tied a cattle panel behind it and made several passes without the blades engaged to basically clobber the cover crop and seemed to have good results.

[notillgrowers]

Oops, just realized I sound like I call Buckwheat a legume in this video. Buckwheat is not a legume, but it is easy to kill. It's in the Polygonaceae family along with smartweed and dock and others which makes sense because all can easily become obnoxious weeds if allowed to go to seed. Also related to rhubarb though which is delicious. Yup

[codedesigns]

Great video! Here in Canada, I have been finding that Clover is being commonly used as the cover-crop for two reasons: first because it is nitrogen fixing; second, because the plant is small by comparison to rye (or tall) grain, therefore it breaks down fast under the tarps. I have a lot to learn on this topic, but this is just preliminary investigation found thus far. Great video!!

[ajb.]

I have found that pallets are handy to throw onto plastic sheeting to help weigh it down enough for most windy-ness ( if u also have cement blocks, heavy rocks, etc. every so often). They're awkward to carry far of course, but otherwise most one collects tend to be pretty light and manageable sized, and I just had them come in really handy once for tarping, and thought I'd share for others who haven't done it much and need ideas :).

[gizzysgarden]

This past summer, I stomped down a portion of my garden with a board that I screwed a metal plate to for crimping, and then went over the laid down mulch with a weed burner and it browned in a few days. I didn't burn the weeds. Just heated them to the point they browned on their own. Some came back a couple months later because I didn't plant into it, but I just hit it again with the burner.

[kannmann]

Last year i had suprising success letting cilantro and arugula stay in the beds and flower. Because flower stalks are so much more fibrous they actually stick around and create a great mulch. I terminated them either 1) waiting for a frost here in Maine or 2) i put on snowshoes and just walked over it sideways right at milk stage. This is great because you dont need to buy separate seed and you also dont need to plan out a whole separate crop for the bed. You can just neglect some beds and they naturally will flower and they do the planning for you. In the spring we were able to just rake it all aside very easily. I’ll be trialing these much more this fall

[maxiemills]

Even though I garden in raised beds, I get some good ideas from your videos. I am trying cover crops for the first time this winter and I just used a green manure mix. Some is growing well and some not so much but good enough for a first try. I have already decided I will try vetch and mustard next year but I could change my mind by next fall. Thank you for all the good info!

[LoveandStatus]

Hi Jessie, I’m a regenerative farmer. Big fan of cover crops to protect soil especially after animals have eaten their winter brassica crop Swedes, kale, rape crops etc. (temperate Climate). We use winter oats due to its great up take of nitrate. I also feed cattle zeolite to clean their gut and this holds nitrate really well in soil. I use a frail mower to drop the crop at milky stage, run animals over it which aids in driving it into soil and bruises the stems which helps in break-down. Trick is to get a “crop” in as fast as possible to suppress weeds. I use plant derived fatty acids as an organic weed killer IF there’s a particular nasty juvenile weed coming up. It’s contact only best applied on a hot sunny day during active growth. Probably good in Kentucky??

[Zednor]

The power of the wind as harnessed by a huge tarp is not to be underestimated. I had one held down with large wooden fenceposts laid all over it, and the wind still got in under one edge and ended up throwing the posts all over the place, with the tarp left flapping around with only one corner still held down.

[tammyhoffman]

In your area I am sure you have plenty of leaves available. Have you tried using them a cover instead of hay or straw as a supplement for weed suppression? In the spring I cover my garden with leaves and them mow and stir the leaves repeatedly to break the leaves down. I then place an additional 3-6 inches of leaves on top of that. The tomato plants are then planted. My weed control has been great and the tomatoes have done real well.

[curte]

I wish more Farmers here in the United States would rely on no till farming you would have to rely a lot less on herbicides and fertilizers over time it's also so much better for the soil.

[Crysi_Rich_Out]

This is my 5th video..n im hooked. Modern agriculture..love the science..

[mikes]

In the UK I use Winter Tares over-winter and a great Nitrogen fixer. Very soft growth so after 3 weeks under tarp there is virtually nothing left. Sow September, smother in February without crushing and follow on with Brassicas without any other inputs.

[Dakotad]

Can’t find info on braided cover crops - another new idea I have never heard of- why are you so cool! Lol

[lesliehollands]

Great video Jesse. Rye seems like a tough one. I'm playing it safe with White Clover. Although I do like Johnny's Fall Mix - winter rye, field peas, ryegrass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch.

[patrickmcandrews]

I love your videos! I profit from the knowledge and inspiration you share every single video!

[hamptonwick]

Great video ! To simplify it why not get the weed hacker out cut it all down to couple inches and mow it without the bucket to chop up the bigger bits. Clear up the path ways add bunch of compost to the beds and then cover it with tarp until that last frost date arrives? Love getting nerdy with this stuff but surely that’s a more accessible and more efficient option to the average market gardener? Unless I’m missing something

[saintmichael]

You have a really good attitude and a very realistic message that our new age "No-Till Nazis" are not so candid about. People who actually get in the field and do this stuff for real (like yourself) see the challenges and are part of the much needed learning process to make this type of farming more practical and eventually more common place. Thank you.

[AutoNomades]

Wow very nice experiments !!
One way of terminating weeds/cover crop i successfully tryed is to use a a weedwaker inclinated around 45° to destroy the crop at the colley. (you need good protections doh, because of soil projections, and sometimes stones..)
Thanks a lot for sharing !!