Cultural Practices

I bale all the grass and weeds that I can with a small round baler on the BCS tractor. These bales are about 20 inches wide and 20 inches in diameter. I unroll them in the gardens for mulch. They give me moisture and weed control. They also keep the soil cooler in the summer and contribute to the soil fertility as they decompose.

In the dry summer of 2007, I found that the exposed edges of the terraces were drying the soil from the edge. So in 2008 I started mulching the edges with black plastic. This also controls the growth of weeds and gives me and the weedeater a rest!

I use a lot of cover crop biomass. In the winter most of the cultivated areas are in winter rye. It is very vigorous and harvests solar energy anytime the temperature is above 45 degrees F. I like to let it grow as long as possible in the spring to get the most biomass above and below ground.

On the left the rye is being chopped. After chopping it is plowed in with the rotary plow. The photo on the right shows the plow at work but not on the same rye crop. I plow at a depth of about 6 inches to keep all the residue in the decomposition area of the soil. If incorporated too deep, residue does not decompose, it ferments. I want decomposition, not fermentation!

This is a video of the swivel rotary plow in operation. I have optional wide tires on this BCS-850 tractor and they are great with the rotary plow because they fit in the furrow and keep the tractor and plow always in the correct place. You will also notice that I am plowing only about 6 inches deep. I want to keep the turned in residue in the area of decomposition. If you plow much deeper, there is not enough oxygen available and you can get fermentation instead of aerobic decomposition, and that is not good. (This may not play with Foxfire, if so try IE)