What is a weed?

A weed is a plant growing in a cultivated area that wasn't planted or intended by the farmer.

So a corn plant growing in a soybean field is a weed and arugula growing in the spinach patch is a weed.

Modern agriculture uses very strong and toxic herbicides to eliminate these plants growing in the wrong place. Sometime only a few onces per acre will eliminate all but the desired crop.

I don't get too hung up on weeds. 

A Trick for Weeding and Watering Transplants

One of our tricks to help with weeding is to plant our transplants in a trench made by our tiller. Why does this help?

Steel in the Field

Steel In the Field

A famous farming publication from the early 20th century was a book called “Steel in the Field”.  It was a text on all the different ways you could use tillage for weed control. So this blog is about weed control, some with steel and some without. 

Weed'em and Reap

Our farm team has done an excellent job this season with weeding. We have a world champion weeding team. When the weeds get over about six inches we typically pull them.  When weeds are smaller we use a stirrup hoe or wheel hoe.

With the plants like onions where we use compost in the row, we don't usually have substantial weeds until mid season. We are on the second and final weeding for onions, leeks and shallots. They look excellent and will take care of themselves for the rest of the season.