Source:
Farmers and their Innovative Cover Cropping Techniques [DVD]. V. Grubinger. 2006. University of Vermont Extension. Available for purchase from: http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/Videos/covercropvideo.html (Verified 31 Dec 2008).
This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Innovative Cover Cropping Techniques video clip.
Watch video clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIHIE64--cU
Featuring
Cliff Hatch, Upinngill Farm. Gill, MA.
Audio Text
Delayed planting of strawberries reduces labor costs by reducing the time that you have to tend the berries in the field. Berries have to be hand hoed every seven days to keep the weeds out of them. Every week we shorten the season we save that hoeing and that labor. We developed our delayed planting system with the aid of a SARE farmer grower grant. We received two, two year cycle grants on which we basically trialed planting densities. We’ve trialed everything from 6 inches up to like 36 inches apart for planting systems and basically what we’ve found is that if we’re going to plant in July we need to reduce our spacing down to about 6 inches. If we’re going to plant in June we can have what you see here which is about 10-12 inches. If you’re planting in May you can go with the customary spacing, which is about 24 inches apart with your plants. If the rye comes off early we can plant our plants farther apart, if the rye come off late we take more plants we just put them in closer to compensate for the lack of season. Usually we harvest rye first of June and get it baled in the first week of June. But some years, this year is a wet year, we’re into the second week of June and we don’t have all of our rye harvested yet, we’re still getting that put by.
This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).
