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=kPquNqimV1Y
Featuring
Gary Gemme, Harvest Farm. Whately, MA.
Audio Text
So this tool here is the basis of our establishing a clean field from very early on and this combined with making a bed to get a smooth surface gives us the capability of doing a good job to start with. Once we get a little weed pressure and our transplants are still small enough, we run through with this Cub tractor and the Buddingh cages, we slide right in between the plants and do a nice job cleaning every thing up except what’s in between the rows or in the rows, and that serves us as our first cultivation and after that we go in with a different tractor.
We can do an acre in about a half an hour with this and my goal is to always go as fast as I can. Speed seems to really make a big difference with this thing if the plants are tall enough and the ground is firm enough, I’ve gone in road gear with it and really been pleased with the results. You also like to get your work done quickly but you wanna do a good job and that’s the primary goal.
When we find conditions are particularly clumpy such as after heavy rains, before we go in for the hilling we go in with these small teeth with these little wires attached to them to break up the clods, so that when we hill we don’t throw clods all over the plants and do more damage than good. These we found hangin' around in an old barn and we put them to use. They work quite well for fracturing the soil.
The key to doing a good job is to have a nice straight flat bed that the cultivators can follow to a T. This system works well enough that the tractor virtually does it itself, in fact one time I was chased by some mean bees and I jumped off the tractor and it caught up to me at the end of the row and it had cultivated perfectly all the way along without me on it.
This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).
