Tony -
That's a nice system you have in mind. It is practical,
it integrates, and it links the fundamental practices of Steiner,
Albrecht, and Reams along with your own farm-ready
insight.
One of your ideas is worth repeating. Let the weeds come
up, then put them back down under the weed mat. Worms
like to feed on decaying organic matter, they stir the soil,
and they excrete their castings, soil-binding glues, and
growth-promoting enzymes, nutrients, and bioactive
substances.
Weeds function like a cover crop. The roots and leaves
provide living biomass; the rhizosphere and phyllosphere
serve as a brief home for microorganisms, the weeds
further the cycle of life, and then they decompose
and release their plant-available nutrients and provide
food and shelter for soil microorganisms.
Yet, you create a clean and weed-free bed to raise
your vegetables, flowers, and herbs. One of the
remarkable aspects of the weed barrier method,
is the realization that you are spending time
enjoying the garden. walking around,
smelling fragrant flowers, observing Nature,
hand-picking a few bugs, harvesting and tending
to your plants instead of dealing with weeds,
weeds, and more weeds on a weekly or bi-weekly
basis. Once you plant your transplants into the
weed barrier, you more or less just walk away.
The BD preps have their work and their influence.
How do I find out the details on Steve Storch's
recipe for sequential spraying?
There is a grower who used the weed barrier method
in market farming with permanent raised beds, tractors,
spading equipment, composting, BD preps, and the
works. It seems to me worth repeating, it serves as an
example of the weed barrier in action.
Paul Sansone, a biodynamic flower grower in Oregon,
used the DeWitt Pro-5 Weed Barrier on 5-15 acres
of raised bed production. His farm has been featured
in Growing for Market and one of the greenhouse
trade magazines, like Greenhouse Grower.
As I recall from the Growing for Market article:
*Permanent raised beds
*Tractor straddles the bed
*Cover crop established in the fall
*Mow and incorporate cover crop in spring
*Tractor with fertilizer buggy straddles bed and lays
down compost + organic fertilizer blend
*Drip irrigation tape set out on bed
*DeWitt Pro-5 Weed Barrier laid down and tucked in
*Weed barrier has pre-burned holes for 6 and 12
transplant spacings, other spacings as neeed
*Hand transplant and water in
*Turn on drip irrigation
*Watch plants grow, tend to plants, irrigate plants
--
*But no fuss over weeds, mechanical cultivation,
wheel hoes, or hand hoeing
--
I'm not sure how the BD preps were integrated
into the Sansone system, but you get the idea from
the summary above how the sequence works.
OrganicBoquet.com is Paul Sansone's web page
OrganicBoquet.com
http://www.organicbouquet.com/sansone.shtml
Of particular interest is the sub-section on biodynamics
Secular Biodynamics - Agriculture Beyond the Organic
By Paul Sansone
http://www.organicbouquet.com/biodynamics.shtml
And further within...
The Seven Essential Elements of the Biodynamic Method
By Paul Sansone
http://www.organicbouquet.com/biodynamics4.shtml
Interestingly, Paul Sansone and Susan Vosburg have
this website, Here Now Garden
Here Now Garden
http://www.hereandnowgarden.com/
Especially see Grower's Corner:
Grower's Corner
http://www.hereandnowgarden.com/growerscorner.html
It has useful notes on BD practices for fungus and botrytis
control, fertilization, soil and cover crops, tillage. .
Perennial plants should be top dressed each spring with
1/4 - 1/2 of ripened Biodynamic compost.
An organic plant food is banded into the bed under where the
cut flower plants will be planted when the bed is being shaped
or it is worked into each planting hole for the plants as they are
being planted. This balanced plant food is 4 parts seed meal,
1 part rock phosphate, 1/2 part kelp, and 1 part greensand.
The Green Beam website is the online gateway for
Branch-Smith Publishing. Branch-Smith publishes Greenhouse
Manager-Pro (GM-Pro), as well as Nursery Manager-Pro
(NM-Pro) and related trade magazines. The following online
article features Paul Sansone.
The Dynamics of Biodynamic Growing: Lean how
Here Now Garden Uses Sustainable Agriculture
to Produce Fresh Cut Flowers
http://www.greenbeam.com/features/tour062899.stm
Now, I switch to the work of the late Dan Wofford who
influenced me in relation to weed barrier production
methods.
It is a long story to relay all the integrated approaches
we took in our various plantings: weed barrier, hydrogels,
organic fertilizers, composts, mycorrhizae, special plug trays,
Booth tube plugs, Chapin bucket irrigation kits (gravity-flow)
in remote sites, etc.
Allow me to post the library where Dan Wofford's
work resides.
HydroSource @ Castle International Resources
http://www.hydrosource.com/
Library on
