I am planing on growing 1 acre of pumpkins & gourds in 2010. Growing them in the past weed, grass control has been a problem. What herbicide could be used to prevent this? I live in southwestern IN. I am not planing on selling the product just for family use and decrations. I plant with a corn planter on 30" rows using planter plates that I modified. Any help you can provide would be helpful
Danny: We are a certified organic farm and do not use any chemical herbicides, so we cannot advise you on them. At our farm, we control weeds mostly by cultivation with tractors, hoes and hand weeding. Before you plant the pumpkins and gourds you may want to use the "Stale Seedbed" method to help you control your weeds, as the weed seeds germinate. With the Stale Seedbed method you prepare field, allow a flush of weed seeds to germinate then shallowly cultivate (1/4" to 1/2") the weeds to kill them. Allow the weed seeds to germinate again and shallowly cultivate again. If your soil has a large seed bank you may have to repeat the process several times. The reason you cultivate shallowly several times is to kill most of the weed seeds in the top inch of your soil.
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I am planing on growing 1 acre of pumpkins & gourds in 2010. Growing them in the past weed, grass control has been a problem. What herbicide could be used to prevent this? I live in southwestern IN. I am not planing on selling the product just for family use and decrations. I plant with a corn planter on 30" rows using planter plates that I modified. Any help you can provide would be helpful
Danny: We are a certified organic farm and do not use any chemical herbicides, so we cannot advise you on them. At our farm, we control weeds mostly by cultivation with tractors, hoes and hand weeding. Before you plant the pumpkins and gourds you may want to use the "Stale Seedbed" method to help you control your weeds, as the weed seeds germinate. With the Stale Seedbed method you prepare field, allow a flush of weed seeds to germinate then shallowly cultivate (1/4" to 1/2") the weeds to kill them. Allow the weed seeds to germinate again and shallowly cultivate again. If your soil has a large seed bank you may have to repeat the process several times. The reason you cultivate shallowly several times is to kill most of the weed seeds in the top inch of your soil.
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