Category: Soil Health
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Soil Health and Pollinator Support at The Farm Upstream in Jericho, VT
On Thursday July 23rd the VVBGA hosted a workshop focusing on pollinators at The Farm Upstream in Jericho Vermont. The Farm Upstream is a collectively owned, certified organic farm and native plant nursery established in 2021. Located on 20 acres along the Lee River, the farm focuses on sustainable practices, riparian protection, and community-centered agriculture,…
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Soil Compaction on Vegetable Farms
Soil compaction is causing trouble for many vegetable farmers, even if they don’t know it. That trouble may be in the form of reduced yields, excessive runoff and soil erosion, or an increase in root disease. Just because compaction is out of sight doesn’t mean it should be out of mind. Understanding Compaction Soil is…
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Weed Management on Organic Vegetable Farms
Many organic vegetable growers consider weeds to be their primary pest problem. Integrating a variety of weed control techniques is the best way to achieve effective organic weed control. Weed management techniques are aimed at preventing weeds before they appear, or at suppressing weeds once they are present. Weed prevention techniques include: · Rotation of…
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Ten Steps Toward Organic Weed Control
About one third of Vermont’s vegetable farms are managed organically. On many others, herbicides are used only on a few of the crops. Vegetable farms here and throughout New England are relatively small, and tend to have many plantings of highly diverse crops, making it a hassle to spray different materials at different times. Necessity…
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Plastic Mulch Primer
The use of plastics — to cover greenhouses and high tunnels, as row covers, and for soil mulches – has resulted in a horticultural revolution of sorts. Largely unheard of just two generations ago, it’s almost impossible now to find a farm that grows horticultural products without plastic. Taken together, the use of agricultural plastics…
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Please Don’t Call It Dirt!
Soil is at root of good crop production, but all too often, as the saying goes, it “can’t get no respect.” As vegetable growers, we push it around, drive all over it, leave it exposed to the elements, and feed it junk food. In other words, we treat it like dirt. Good soil deserves better.…
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Soil Organic Matter: The Living, the Dead, and the Very Dead
Soil organic matter makes up only a few percent of most soils, but it has a great deal of influence on soil properties, and in turn, agricultural productivity. What does it do? The list of soil properties affected by soil organic matter is long. It includes: aggregate stability (how well tiny clumps of soil hold together,…
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Observations on Interseeding Cover Crops
Interseeding, or sowing cover crop into a standing cash crop, is a way get a jump on the traditional winter cover crop season. This can lead to an increase in cover crop biomass production, and presumably, better erosion control and soil organic matter enhancement. Earlier establishment also increases your choices of cover crops compared to…
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Testing for Soil, Plant Compost and Water Quality
Vern Grubinger, Vegetable and Berry Specialist A variety of tests are available to assess soil in the field and greenhouse, plant tissue, compost and water used for agriculture. Test results provide data that can inform management decisions aimed at optimizing crop quantity and/or quality, as well as fertilizer and soil amendment costs. Conducting tests on…