From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Virginia

I recently moved to Virginia coastal area and I cannot believe the amount of weeds that come up. I planted under plastic this year and have room to till between rows with my tractor but there is too much space for me to think the vines are gping to cover anytime soon.
What do you guys do for weeds?

5/22/2018 9:30:18 PM

Washington State

Glyphosate and mulch... learn which ones are the most detrimental and focus on the worst ones. This works for me. Bare fertile dirt, plus rain... is just asking for weeds. Solarization and planting a thick cover crop might help in the future.

5/23/2018 4:10:16 AM

Bethlehem CT

I use a hoe around the plants and a tiller in the bigger areas until the plant fill in. One of the clever things I have seen for weed control is this; Bart T uses a clear plastic stretched over the soil. The weed seeds on the surface get killed from the heat. As the pumpkin grow he pulls the plastic away from the plant.

5/23/2018 6:32:05 AM

central Nc

silage tarps for big areas work wonders

5/23/2018 9:08:42 AM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

I don't till everything to start the season. Just the hoop house to start. I let the weeds come on, sometimes with a cover crop added. I mow to keep weeds from going to seed. If I have tough stuff, like clumps of grass, I hit it with glyphosate. I till with a fork in advance of the vines, staying far enough ahead to avoid hurting roots. I hoe shallow near the vines, again being careful of roots, and sometimes I mulch a little. My patch is in a floodplain, although with an upstream dam repaired flooding is less likely. I don't like to keep the whole patch tilled up to powder, because a flood could remove a bunch of topsoil. My limited tillage preserves my works and they "till" below the surface. My soil stays nice and mellow an inch below the surface. I dig a trench with the hoe when burying vines so roots start out in loose soil. But weeds will always be a problem.

5/23/2018 9:45:02 AM

On a cliff in the desert

My way of clearing weeds is putting a sheet of clear plastic over the weeds with some bricks holding down the sheet of plastic.After a while the weeds will die from lack of water and the plastic acts like a magnifying glass on the weeds and creates a lot of heat that kills the weeds.

5/23/2018 12:22:48 PM

JACKSON, WISCONSIN. ; )

Hand cultivator

5/24/2018 9:36:14 AM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

I have seen the tobacco growers in southwest Wisconsin use a steam sterilizer to kill the weed seeds. Like a big low tent they put on the ground and then pump in steam. Someone I know from there had them do that to a patch before planting strawberries. Really prevents weeds, buy I bet it kills all the worms too. Others I know use a propane flame torch. I have seen ads for flame systems for big farm operations.

5/25/2018 3:06:23 PM