Winning Against Weeds

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According to North Carolina farmer Kenny Haines, you “want to catch them in that white-hair stage,” that is, just as weeds are sprouting that first white root. At this stage, they’re utterly vulnerable. Disturbance exposes the newly emerged roots to drying out, and they die. Haines recommends getting out as soon as the soil will allow after rain or irrigation and cultivating the top half-inch or inch. When I do that, I find that the work is quick and easy, and my plantings remain virtually weed-free.

Cultivating is most effective if your seed rows are spaced just widely enough to accommodate the tools you plan to use. If your soil’s fertility will allow it and fungal diseases are not a problem, you also can prevent weed growth by spacing plantings so that, at maturity, your crop will completely shade the spaces between rows.

Eliminating Noxious Weeds

Unless you mulch with cardboard, black plastic or landscape fabric, none of the previously described tactics will eradicate such pernicious weeds as mugwort and nutsedge, or Johnson, Bermuda and quack grasses. Apart from such heavy-duty mulches, the only organic options for eradicating these weeds — short of removing every piece of root by hand — are to bare-fallow or smother-crop the infected area.

Bare-fallowing is most effective in hot (or very cold), dry weather. First, till or plow the infected area. Repeat every time you see green, or every seven to 10 days. Depending on the weather, this process can take three to six weeks or longer, and it’s hard on the soil. If the weather is cooperative, however, it’s the most effective method.

Smother crops are vigorous cover crops, including Sudan grass, buckwheat, cowpeas, rye and hairy vetch. They force weeds to exhaust their reserves while trying unsuccessfully to compete with the smother crop. Just be sure to cut down your smother crop before it produces seeds of its own.

Some researchers and farmers are experimenting with working the soil in the dark. Apparently, many seeds need just a brief exposure to light to break their dormancy, which they can get simply by being tilled up and turned back into the soil. Working the soil in the dark is supposed to eliminate this problem. I have not tried this method, but if you’re single or have an equally obsessed spouse and excellent night vision, let me know how it works.

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