Re: sanet-mg-digest V1 #465

Janet Bachmann (janetb@ncatark.uark.edu)
Fri, 7 Aug 1998 15:16:14 +0000

In regard to roll-killing of winter cover crops before no-till
planting of summer cash crops, Steve Groff is doing that on his farm
in Pennsylvania. He posted something to SANET not too long ago about
a field day he was hosting. I heard him speak last winter at the
Hort. Industry Show in Tulsa, OK, and bought his very
professionally-done video. Steve plants a mix of hairy vetch, rye,
and crimson clover in the fall. The roll-kill is accomplished with a
rolling stalk chopper manufactured by Buffalo. The no-till vegetable
transplanter used in this system was designed by Dr. Ron Morris at
Virginia Polytech, if I am not mistaken.

Also, last winter, (the only time market gardeners go to meetings?),
I heard a presentation by Dr. Seth Dabney, a USDA/ARS agronomist who
works at the National Sedimentation Lab. in Oxford, MS. Seth has
been working with no-till cover crops for a long time. (Relatively
speaking -- he isn't old yet!) In his slide show he gave examples of
a number of different pieces of equipment that could be used to
roll-kill a cover crop, including one designed and built at Ohio
State and another in S. Am. These wouldn't be as expensive as the
Buffalo stalk-chopper.

As with other aspects of cover crop management, timing is critical.
The cover crops must be a a certain stage of their life cycle to be
killed in this way. I know this isn't very detailed - but maybe
someone else can fill in the details.
Janet Bachmann
NCAT/ATTRA
P.O. Box 3657
Fayetteville, AR 72702
Telephone: 501-442-9824
Fax: 501-442-9842
E-mail: janetb@ncatark.uark.edu

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