Source:
Vegetable Farmers and their Weed-Control Machines [DVD]. V. Grubinger and M.J. Else. 1996. University of Vermont Extension. Available for purchase at http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/Videos/weedvideo.htm (verified 31 Dec 2008).
This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Weed Control Machines video clip.
Watch the video clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix4jT_eYHZU
Featuring
Chuck Armstrong, Fiddlehead Farm. Brownsville, VT.
Audio Text
All the crops I plant are pretty large seeded and I can use a Lely weeder on those. After I plant, I will use a Lely weeder before the plant comes up and also after. A good way to judge whether you need to Lely weed is just run your hands through the soil and if you see a lot of white thread seeds germinating that kind of looks like a sprout salad, then you know you’re ready to cultivate.
When I’m using the machine on crops that haven’t emerged yet I usually dig up a short section of a row to see what the crop is doing; how far along it is and how close it is to coming through the surface and then I’ll know how much pressure I want to put down on the tines.
The way I adjust the tines is by raising and lowering the whole machine. The lower you push it the more pressure you’re going to have on the tines. As I start down the row I’ll get them all in the ground and I’ll put it down a little bit and if I feel like I’m starting to turn some crop up then I’ll raise it up a bit while trying to keep it down hard enough that it’s still pulling out the weeds.
This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).
