Vegetable growers and CSA managers are moving away from herbicides for a variety of reasons: cost, results and feasibility. That’s why Sam Oschwald Tilton helps growers statewide transition to mechanical weed prevention.
Oschwald Tilton is a direct market specialist with the UW-Madison Division of Extension. He’s also affiliated with the FairShare CSA Coalition based in Madison.
Managing weeds without herbicide may sound labor intensive, but he explains that there are methods out there that don’t require a lot of bodies. He notes labor is a valuable commodity these days with workforce shortages as the No. 1 issue for fresh market growers.
Options For Non-Chemical Weed Management
The foundation starts in the winter, Oschwald Tilton says. He says planning requires thinking about crop rotation based on weeds the previous year and row spacing.
During the growing season, there are several techniques that growers can use. One of these is stale seed bedding, or creating a soil environment that encourages weeds to germinate, Oschwald Tilton explains. The goal is to get weeds to germinate before you plant your crop. Next, kill off the weeds with shallow tillage or a propane flame. Then, let your crop grow.
Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day
Oschwald Tilton is helping put on the Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day happening Sep. 27 in Ohio: https://www.thelandconnection.org/event/2023-mmwcfd/
“The big thing that we do and why farmers come from all over the country to visit, is because of the in-field demos,” he says. “We’ll be planting demonstration plots, and cultivator companies from all over the country will be bringing their machines to demonstrate.”
There will be vegetable and row crop demos. The field day will also address today’s labor crunch by showcasing camera-guided cultivators and autonomous weeding machines.
“This is something that is starting to catch on in the vegetable producing areas of our country, mostly California, Arizona, Florida,” he says. “These are machines that use cameras to do the job that is normally done by people in terms of getting weeds very close to the crop.”
Wisconsin’s Direct Market Industry
In 2017, there were 1,942 farms reporting fruit production and 3,184 farms producing vegetables, according to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Combined fruit and vegetable farming generated about $800 million is sales employing some 9,790 people.
Sam Oschwald Tilton says his role was created as fresh market vegetable growers were declining. Today, he’s optimistic that more people will get into the business.
“I continue to hear from people either who are farming a little bit and want to expand or… people who are gardening and wanting to start selling, and I think because growing food is just a beautiful occupation, people are always going to want to get into it,” he says. “So while right now may not be the biggest rush that we saw 10-15 years ago, there continue to be people that want to start growing vegetables and want to start feeding our community.”
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