If you’re practicing no-till or thinking about reducing your tillage, you may be wondering how to beat weeds in a no-till landscape. How do you manage these unwanted plants when you can’t rely on a disc or tiller to churn them into the ground? Fortunately, you can practice a few strategies to keep weeds at bay while minimizing your tillage.

Before we dive into weed management, it’s important to remember that you should approach tillage with your specific growing context and landscape in mind. Rather than being dogmatic about never tilling or grabbing the rototiller each spring, pay attention to your soil and how certain tillage events (or a lack thereof) impact both soil and plant health.

Know Your Weeds

Any plant that’s out of its intended growing space can be considered a weed—a rye cover crop that accidentally went to seed in your field, the Canadian thistle that’s been on the property for decades, and the fast-growing pigweed that germinates each spring.

While all of these plants are unwanted, they have varied growth habits and characteristics. Therefore, methods that work well to control one type of weed may not effectively control others. That’s why correctly identifying weeds is the first step in controlling them.

Perennial Weeds

Perennial, rhizomatous weeds like bindweed, bermudagrass, johnsongrass, and Canadian thistle are some of the most difficult to control. After you pull the above-ground portion of the plant, the rhizome resprouts and produces more weeds. Tilling chops these rhizomes into tiny pieces and spreads the problematic plants, so reducing tillage puts you a step ahead in terms of weed control.

Pulling as much of the rhizome as possible is a good place to start, but you’re unlikely to remove all of the plant’s deep-rooted rhizome. Covering the ground with an opaque material like a silage tarp smothers the weeds and depletes their access to the sun. Over time, they’ll exhaust their stored energy and die, but this process can take up to a year.

If you know a growing area has high perennial weed pressure, tarping the area for a season before planting can be worthwhile. Although the space will be out of production for an extended period, you won’t have to deal with as many of these challenging weeds.

Annual Weeds

Many common weeds are fast-growing annuals that germinate, grow, and set seed in just a month or two. That means just a single plant that blows in with the wind can quickly turn into thousands of weeds. Removing these plants before they produce seed is a key part of keeping them under control.

One way to beat weeds in a no-till landscape involves limiting the number of weed seeds that are able to germinate. Since you won’t be bringing up weeds that are lying dormant below the soil surface, only weeds in the top inch of soil can germinate. Killing this layer of plants and eliminating tillage means only weed seeds that arrive from outside your field will germinate.

The exact definition of no-till varies depending on who you talk to, but mechanical cultivation is often used to help kill weeds without severely disturbing the soil. A scuffle hoe or wheel hoe works well on a small scale, while basketweeds and fingerweeds are more suitable for larger farms. Killing weeds while they’re small will limit the need for tools that create more soil disturbance.

Implement Cover Crops

Fighting plants with plants? You got that right. Introducing cover crops into your no-till system can help limit weeds in your cash crop.

Fast-growing and dense grasses like rye, wheat, and oats are great for shading out and suppressing weeds. Rye is an especially great choice due to its allelopathic nature. The plants produce chemicals that harm other plants when the rye is growing, and when the residue is on the ground.

Mulch the Soil

Adding organic material to otherwise bare soil helps prevent weed seeds from germinating and limits the growth of weed seedlings. If you’re working on a smaller scale, you can mulch pathways and areas between plants with straw, wood chips, or other types of organic material.

Growing cover crops and utilizing the residue as mulch is effective at larger scales. Timing is extremely important when it comes to terminating cover crops; most crops are easily killed just after the anthesis stage, after the flower is fully open, but before seeds have fully developed.

Rolling and crimping crops is a popular option to keep the mulching material intact. You can also mow the crop, but this will break the material down into smaller pieces and lead to faster decay.

The post How to Beat the Weeds in a No-Till Landscape appeared first on Modern Farmer.

If you want to implement these practices on a larger scale, consider starting a permaculture farm. I’ll introduce some key permaculture design principles and outline a few ways you can apply them when creating a farm.

Know Permaculture Design Principles

Permaculture, as we know it today, was created in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. They developed this system as a response to industrialized agriculture and communities, and sought to establish areas that cared for the land and people while avoiding overconsumption and sharing any surpluses with others.

Holmgren later wrote “Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability,” where he laid out 12 permaculture design principles that should guide all projects, including starting a permaculture farm. Here are these principles, as well as a few ways you can apply them on your farm.

• Observe and interact. Watch how the water flows and settles before determining where to build beds and plant species; don’t forget to read the landscape during heavy rain events.
• Catch and store energy. Use ‘waste’ materials like leaves and sticks to fuel compost piles that feed crops.
• Obtain a yield. Plant and care for species in a way that provides the greatest harvests.
• Apply self-regulation and accept feedback. Be willing to adjust your systems as you continue to observe; you may need to relocate ponds to areas where water naturally collects or plant deep-rooted crops in areas susceptible to erosion. 
• Use and value renewable resources and services. Choose organic mulches over plastic, and capture water rather than letting it run off the property.
• Produce no waste. You can use organic debris to create compost and collect would-be runoff for future irrigation. 
• Design from patterns to details. Plant tender seedlings in the area you walk by multiple times a day, and place tall perennials on the west side of heat-sensitive annuals.
• Integrate rather than segregate. Consider what other local farms are producing, and think about how you can work with rather than against them. Maybe you can feed ugly produce to a neighbor’s animals in exchange for nutrient-rich manure.
• Use small and slow solutions. Use the tools and resources you have readily available rather than importing lots of outside materials; use fallen leaves or pine needles as mulch rather than buying woodchips.
• Use and value diversity. Add plants that vary in height, bloom time, moisture needs, and other factors.
• Use edges and value the marginal. The ends of beds, sides of walkways, and other areas that would often be mowed provide space for low-lying groundcovers and perennial plants.
• Creatively use and respond to change. Increasingly dry summers coupled with heavy storms provide an opportunity to implement rainwater catchment systems. 

Think About Zones

Another key component of permaculture design is understanding the different zones. If you start a permaculture farm with varied crops, considering the various zones will help you establish the best places to place each type of plant.

There are five different zones, with one being closest to your home, workspace, or other highly-trafficked area. Zone five is the farthest away from this central point.

Placing daily-harvested crops like annual herbs in zone one makes the most sense since you can walk directly out the door and pick what you need. This zone is also the best option for spaces you visit daily, like the seedling propagation area and compost bin.

Zone two is ideal for perennials you use in the home, like blueberries, fruit trees, and a small asparagus patch. As you enter zone three, you begin looking at commercial production zones. This is where your annual vegetables and fruits are located, as well as orchards and pasture for animals.

Zone four moves into semi-managed woodlands and grasslands. You may have a few nut trees that you visit a few times a year, but you won’t travel to this area multiple times a week. Zone five is an unmanaged area that is left wild.

Consider Your Dream Farm

Once you have the design principles and zones in mind, you can think about your dream farm. What and how much do you want to produce? Do you have a well or pond for water you can rely on to irrigate crops, and do you plan to dry farm portions of your property? What native species exist that you want to protect?

Before you jump into any decisions, consider the permaculture design principles and think about how they affect your decision making. Have you observed your space long enough and chosen renewable materials? Should you plant your crops along the landscape’s contour rather than in straight lines to eliminate runoff?

Don’t let fear of failure prevent you from starting a permaculture farm. You’ll surely make mistakes along the way, but how you respond to these mistakes is more important than avoiding them entirely.

The post How to Start a Permaculture Farm appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Unfortunately, summer also brings unwelcome diseases. Pruning, trellising, fertilizing, and properly watering your plants decreases the likelihood they’ll become infected, but choosing disease-resistant vegetables is another way to keep them healthy.

These resistant varieties have stronger defenses against common pathogens, so they’re less likely to become severely infected. Not all tomatoes or cucumbers are resistant to the same diseases, so pay attention to plant labels if you’re looking to protect against specific pathogens.

‘Indigo Rose’ Tomato

The ‘Indigo Rose’ tomato produces golf-ball-sized fruits brushed with a deep purple color that results from the plant’s high anthocyanin content. Cutting into the fruits reveals a classic red flesh with a sweet and acidic flavor.

These indeterminate tomatoes are resistant to powdery mildew and late blight, so they’re an excellent option for your second succession of tomatoes. Trellising the plants will keep them off the ground and help with disease prevention.

‘Emerald Delight’ Zucchini

‘Emerald Delight’ has impressive disease resistance, so it’s a good option if you’ve fought diseases in years past. The hybrid is resistant to powdery mildew, zucchini yellow mosaic virus, and watermelon mosaic virus.

This variety also has an open growth habit that makes it easier to spot the elongated green fruits. This shape makes it easy to spot the fruits while they’re still tender and prevents them from developing into zucchini that resemble baseball bats.

‘Mountain Merit’ Tomato

If you like classic red slicing tomatoes, ‘Mountain Merit’ is a time-tested variety with impressive disease resistance. It’s highly resistant to Fusarium wilt, gray leaf spot, tomato spotted wilt virus, and Verticillium wilt, and also moderately resistant to late blight.

The hybrid plants produce medium-sized slicing tomatoes that are perfect for slicing onto burgers or chopping for salads. Since the plants are determinate, they’ll produce all their fruits within a few weeks. Planting two or three successions will allow you to enjoy ripe red tomatoes for multiple months.

‘Spacemaster 80’ Cucumber

A classic slicing cucumber, ‘Spacemaster 80’ produces seven to eight-inch green fruits. The plants’ compact size is what sets this variety apart; the vines grow only a few feet long and are perfect for containers and small gardens.

This disease-resistant vegetable also stands up to common cucumber diseases, including cucumber mosaic virus, powdery mildew, downy mildew, and scab.

‘Megatron’ Jalapeno Pepper

Jalapeno peppers are perfect if you want a hint of spice but don’t want to deal with watery eyes and burning lips. The green peppers are mild chile peppers that add depth to salsas, marinades, salads, and more.

‘Megatron’ produces extra-large jalapenos that can reach over four inches long. This variety’s disease resistance also makes it stand out; it’s resistant to bacterial leaf spot and tobamovirus.

‘Bolero’ Carrot

You may not think of carrots as summer vegetables, but planting the seeds in the summer is essential if you want to enjoy sweet fall roots. That’s especially true if you’re planting long-season varieties like ‘Bolero.’

This variety is a reliable storage carrot, allowing you to dig the roots in the fall and store them throughout the winter. Along with excellent storage life, they also sport resistance to bacterial blight, alternaria blight, powdery mildew, and cavity spot.

‘Sun Gold’ Tomato

A fan favorite, ‘Sun Gold’ produces super sweet orange cherry tomatoes. Due to the tomato’s poor shelf life, this variety is rarely found outside gardens and farmers’ markets. The plant’s indeterminate growth form means you can harvest these little gems for months, as long as the plants are healthy.

‘Sun Gold’ plants are resistant to Fusarium wilt and tobacco mosaic virus. Since the vines can grow wild, pruning and trellising will help improve airflow and limit other diseases from taking hold.

‘Jade’ Bush Beans

A classic green bean, ‘Jade’ has a short, bushy habit and slender, tender beans. The beans are stringless, so you can throw them in a sauté pan or even eat them raw.

The plants grow well in a variety of climates since they can tolerate heat and cold better than other varieties. They’re also resistant to bean mosaic virus, curly top virus, NY15 mosaic virus, and rust. 

‘Yellowfin’ Summer Squash

‘Yellowfin’ produces bright yellow zucchinis that stand out from the standard green varieties. The plants have a semi-open habit that makes harvesting easier, especially since the bright fruits stand out from the green leaves.

‘Yellowfin’ is a disease-resistant vegetable that can stand up to cucumber mosaic virus and powdery mildew. Keeping an eye out for squash bugs and squash vine borers will also keep the plants healthy.

The post 9 Disease-Resistant Vegetable Varieties You Should Be Growing appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Since then, I’ve worked at farmers’ markets in four different states. These experiences have taught me how to sell a large number of products and keep customers coming back for more, as well as what causes people to walk by your booth without giving it a second glance. I’ll share some farmers’ market tips you can utilize to drive sales and build relationships with customers.

Keep Everything Clean

Whether you’re selling vegetables, cheese, meat, or anything in between, it’s essential that you keep your products and stand clean. Some farmers make the mistake of keeping dirt on their carrots or lettuce heads, thinking this only confirms that the products are straight from the farm. But most customers prefer to receive their produce clean and as ready to eat as possible.

Spending extra time at your wash station will make it easier to make sales at the market. If you notice your produce looking sad, spritz greens and roots with water to cool it down and help it shine.

You should also maintain a tidy market stand. That means keeping your bags on a hanger or in a neat stack rather than strewn across your tables. Consider using tablecloths or, at the bare minimum, washing your tables before each market.

Look Approachable

Looking approachable is a key part of encouraging people to inspect your products and make a sale. Sitting at the back of your booth is a subtle way to tell people that you’re not too interested in their business.

If possible, stand the entire market. This isn’t a problem at busy markets since you’ll be spending the majority of the time ringing up customers and restocking your stand. Taking a break once in a while is fine, but don’t spend the entire market sitting in a chair and staring at your phone.

Pile It High

“Pile it high, and watch it fly” is a common farmers market tip. I’ve found it true that tall piles of radishes or cucumbers sell better than short stacks of the same products. Even if you only have a handful of a certain item, make a stack rather than a single layer.

It’s better to keep a single table filled with a tight cluster of products instead of spreading the same products across multiple tables. You can use crates and baskets to help add a vertical element to your stand. This works particularly well if you’re working with difficult-to-stack items like tomatoes and bouquets.

As items dwindle and sell out, rearrange your offerings so they’re neat and compact. Remember, you want your stand to look intentional and well cared for.

Don’t Forget Signage

Even if you’re familiar with every product you’re selling, remember that not everyone is! Having a sign for less common items, such as Thai basil and radicchio, introduces customers to products as they walk by your booth. Common items like carrots or eggs also deserve signs, even if they just let people know how much each product costs.

You can also create signs to highlight special sales and give ideas on how to use a specific item. If you’re trying to move lots of cherry tomatoes, you can offer a special deal if someone buys three more or highlight how you can use these tomatoes to make salsa, pasta salad, pizza, and more.

Know Your Product

One of the great aspects of farmers’ markets is the direct connection between producers and customers. Shoppers can ask questions about how their melons were grown, cheese was produced, and beef was raised. They can also inquire about how to select, use, and store items.

It’s okay if you don’t know everything about what you’re selling, but you should at least be familiar with it. How do you like to store your basil at home? How peppery are the radishes at this time of the year? Knowing the answers to these questions makes you a valuable vendor and can give you a competitive edge.

Aim for Sincere Interactions

As I mentioned above, farmers’ markets are about more than just finding high-quality products. Many customers are looking to put a face and a name to their farmer while establishing relationships. Being genuine doesn’t mean treating everyone like they’re your best friend, but putting in a little effort to know people can go a long way.

If you’re attending the same market week after week, you’ll probably see some of the same faces. Make an effort to learn shoppers’ names, and take a moment to ask how they’ve been or what they’ve been cooking lately. Creating relationships is one of the top farmers market tips.

Keep Things Moving

While spending a minute chatting with a customer as you’re ringing them up is a great way to form a connection, avoid spending 15 minutes talking with a single individual. These extended interactions can lead to a long line and cause your stand to become crowded with impatient shoppers.

Aim to keep your checkout process quick. Have bags, payment collecting devices, and cash organized and ready, and politely encourage chatty customers to move along while focusing on who’s next in line.

The post Success at the Farmers Market: 7 Vendor Tips appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The truth is that you can grow enough to make a few loaves of bread even if you only have a small backyard. Scaling up to a few hundred square feet can provide enough grain to supply your family with its yearly flour needs.

Still, making your own flour, starting from seed, is a new territory that can be intimidating to enter. Knowing some basic information about growing and grinding wheat will simplify the process and give you the confidence to get started.

Choosing the Right Type

Just like with tomatoes and lettuce, there are dozens of different types of wheat. It’s fascinating to explore the new varieties that seed breeders are creating to withstand changing local environments, but the variety can also be overwhelming.

If you want to grow it for the first time, know that there are three main distinctions within varieties: soft versus hard, red versus white, and spring versus winter.

Soft wheat contains a lower amount of protein, also known as gluten, and produces flour that works well for cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. Hard wheat contains more protein, so it’s preferred for yeasted breads.

Red wheat has a more pronounced flavor and often packs significant protein. White wheat has a mild taste and lower protein content.

Spring wheat is sown in the spring and harvested in the fall. Winter wheat is sown in the fall and then harvested the following summer.

When and How to Plant 

The best time to plant depends on your location and whether you’re growing a spring or winter variety.

You can plant spring wheat as soon as the soil warms to 40°F in the spring. The plants can tolerate a light frost, so it’s fine to plant before your last predicted frost date. Avoid planting too late in the spring, as this will require young plants to endure high temperatures that can be stressful.

Mid-fall is the ideal planting time for winter wheat. Sowing the seeds a few weeks before the predicted first frost date is ideal.

Planting in neat rows makes cultivation and harvesting easier, making it the recommended method. Space rows four to ten inches apart with seeds spaced between one-half and one inch apart. A push seeder makes sowing the seeds much quicker, but you can also plant the seeds by hand.

If you don’t want to deal with planting seeds in rows, you can broadcast the seeds across an open area. Scatter three to four pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet, then lightly rake the surface to incorporate the seeds. 

Caring for Your Plants

Once wheat has sprouted, it won’t need much care. The plants can tolerate a fair amount of drought and don’t require any fertilizer once they’re in the ground. Keep an eye on the plants and look for the seed heads to begin forming.

At first, the head will flower, a stage called anthesis. Upon close inspection, you’ll see tiny yellow anthers sticking out from the sides of the heads. After pollination occurs, the plants will begin forming the grains that you’ll eventually harvest.

Harvesting 

You can harvest when the grain heads are fully formed and the plants have dried. The stalks and seed heads will be golden brown and hard. If the wheat berries are still chewy, it’s not ready! It’s best until the crop has fully dried, but if you’re expecting a long spell of rainy days, it’s okay to harvest the grains and further dry them off the plants.

When you’re growing on a small scale, using a scythe is the easiest and most ergonomic way to harvest. However, you can also use a sickle, sharp knife, or pair of pruning shears. The end goal is to cut the stalks so they’re at least a foot long, but cutting closer to the ground equates to more straw and requires you to spend less time dealing with the leftover residue.

Processing the Grain

Once you have the wheat heads, it’s time to remove the grain from the stalk and husks, a process known as threshing. Large-scale growers use machines known as threshers to complete this task, but you can also complete it by hand.

First, remove the grain from the seed head. You can do this by placing the seed heads in a paper bag and hitting them, whacking the seed between two tarps, or using other creative methods. When you’re done, you’ll be left with a mess of grain and chaff.

Next, it’s time to winnow. Slowly dump your grain and waste over a running fan. The heavy grain will drop to the ground while the air blows away the lighter chaff and straw. You may need to complete this process several times to achieve completely clean grain.

Grinding Into Flour

You can store and eat whole wheat berries, but many people are interested in grinding their homegrown flour. Wheat berries are close to rock hard, so you need a specialized mill to complete the job. You can find numerous countertop grain mills that allow you to grind your wheat as you want to use it, so homegrown flour is accessible from start to finish, even in a small space. 

The post Growing and Grinding Your Own Wheat: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Skipping watering means you don’t have to worry about spending time setting up irrigation supplies and or paying for the associated water costs. It also means you can grow crops even if you live in a drought-prone area with scarce access to groundwater. And when things go well, you’ll end up with harvests of flavorful tomatoes.

Dry farming isn’t a new practice; people have been employing it for centuries in regions such as the Southwest United States, the Mediterranean, and the Sahel region of Africa. But researchers have discovered new strategies to make this practice more reliable. I’ll cover some ways you can adapt this practice to growing flavorful tomatoes.

How to Dry Farm Tomatoes

As I mentioned above, dry farming tomatoes involves caring for plants without applying any water during the growing period. It’s okay to add water as the seeds grow into seedlings and provide some water at transplanting. But once the plants are in the ground, they’re on their own.

The top of the soil may look dry, but silt and clay soil hold water deep below the top six inches of ground we often work with. Soils with high water-holding capacities can retain a foot of water in the top five feet of soil, providing plants with ample moisture as long as their roots grow deep enough.

Planting your tomatoes soon after the last spring frost gives them time to establish when the soil is still relatively moist. By the time the top layer of soil is dry, the plants will have grown roots that can penetrate deeper into the ground. Mulching around the plants also helps conserve moisture, so it’s a good tactic if you want to dry farm tomatoes.

Benefits of Dry Farming Tomatoes

Dry-farmed tomatoes are well-known in California and are gaining popularity in the Pacific Northwest and other growing regions. Customers know these fruits for their smaller size, which packs all of the flavor of larger fruits into a compact vessel. The result is supremely sweet tomatoes. This improved flavor and the unique marketability are two key advantages of dry farming tomatoes.

Since dry farming allows you to skip irrigation, it comes with far fewer costs. You don’t have to spend money on driplines, headers, and hoses, nor on the labor required to set up this equipment. Plus, there’s no need to pay for water since you won’t use any.

Potential Challenges of Dry Farming Tomatoes

While dry farming is often thought of as a simpler way to grow tomatoes, it’s not necessarily easy and foolproof. The lack of moisture can make it challenging for the plants to obtain the water and nutrients they need to remain healthy.

Nutrient Absorption

Since the top foot of soil quickly dries out, tomato plants struggle to absorb nutrients near the surface where most grower-applied nutrients exist. Getting nutrients into the soil below 30 cm will help them remain accessible to plants even as the top portion of soil dries.

Blossom end rot, a condition that results when plants don’t have access to enough calcium, is another challenge of dry farming tomatoes. Even if there are ample amounts of calcium in the soil, plants struggle to absorb it if the soil is dry. Fortunately, farmers can take numerous steps to decrease the prevalence of this issue.

Researchers found that adding windbreaks near crops sheltered them from drying winds and slowed soil moisture loss. In turn, blossom end rot levels decreased. Limiting nutrient applications at planting time can also decrease blossom end rot rates, but may also decrease overall tomato yield.

Decreased Yields

Even though dry farming tomatoes can lead to sweeter fruits, these plants often produce lower yields than their irrigated counterparts. It’s up to you to determine whether the decreased yields are worth the savings that come from forgoing irrigation.

Region-Dependent

Finally, it’s important to recognize that dry farming tomatoes isn’t well-suited for every region. It works best in areas with clay or loam soil that can hold onto winter and early spring moisture throughout the summer. Sandy soils quickly lose their water, making it difficult for plants to remain healthy.

The post How to Dry Farm Tomatoes for Improved Taste appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The soil rhizosphere is where plant roots grow. Thanks to the varied and complex interactions between plant roots, microbes, and inorganic substances, this portion of the soil differs from deeper sections. While all soil impacts plant health, the rhizosphere plays an especially important role.

Fortunately, there are multiple ways you can nurture the rhizosphere and improve plant health.

Ways to Nurture a Healthy Rhizosphere

The following principles and practices are ways you can foster a healthy rhizosphere. These practices will support plants, leading to better health and increased yields.

Always Keep Plants Growing

A key way to improve soil health is to grow as many plants as possible. Plants significantly impact soil microbes and, consequently, the health of the rhizosphere.

Plant roots release various substances known as root exudates. Many of these exudates are some form of carbohydrate, but others are amino acids, hormones, enzymes, and other compounds. Although we don’t see these compounds, plants devote a significant amount of energy to exuding them; over 20% of the substances produced during photosynthesis are allocated to plant exudates.

So, why do plants release so many of their valuable sugars into the soil? In short, it’s for the microbes. The plants recognize that a healthy microbiome is essential to their own well-being. These microbes help make nutrients available to plants, fend off diseases, and complete other processes that plants can’t do themselves.

Along with fostering diverse and robust microbial life, exudates also directly support plants. As agronomist and soil health expert John Kempf explains, root exudates can suppress pathogens from infecting plants, attract microbes that fight pathogenic microbes, and alter the pH in the rhizosphere.

Keeping plants constantly growing supplies the rhizosphere with a continuous supply of exudates. Farmers and agronomists often herald cover crops as a way to add lots of organic matter to the soil, but growers often overlook the major role that the release of exudates plays in establishing and maintaining a healthy rhizosphere. You can also replant crops soon after harvesting, especially if you’re operating on a market garden scale.

Inoculate the Soil with Microbes

To jumpstart soil biology, you can inoculate with a mix of bacteria and fungi. Many products are available for this process, and you can also capture local biology with Korean Natural Farming methods.

Regardless of which method you choose, ensure that you provide an environment that allows these new microbes to thrive. Gently mix them into the rhizosphere by applying them before light rain, incorporate them into a fertigation system, or lightly rake the top few inches after application.

You should also apply the microbes to an area with growing plants, or add plants shortly after inoculation. This will allow the microbes and plants to support each other.

Improve Plant Photosynthesis

Since there is such a strong correlation between the health of plants and the rhizosphere, growing healthy plants is a key way to improve microbial life. Increasing plant photosynthesis rates is one way to do this.

During the process of photosynthesis, plants use solar energy to transform carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen. However, they need more than just these inputs to complete the process. Plants also need elements that are part of chlorophyll molecules, where photosynthesis occurs, and the elements that make up the compounds that help drive photosynthesis.

Ensure your plants have adequate levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Even if soil tests show these elements are present in adequate amounts, plants may not be able to absorb them. Conducting tissue analysis provides a deeper understanding of which nutrients your plants are taking in and allows you to provide foliar applications as necessary.

Avoid Regular Tillage

Tillage isn’t necessarily detrimental to a healthy rhizosphere and can even be a key part of improving soil health. However, it’s important to recognize how the type and frequency of tillage impact soil life.

Regular heavy tillage disrupts fungal networks in the rhizosphere, requiring them to be reconstructed repeatedly. Tillage frequency and intensity also alter soil microbial makeup, potentially leading to greater nutrient loss. Practicing conservation tillage can improve the relationships between plants and microbes, leading to more robust root systems and higher yields.

Ensure Excellent Drainage

Although plants and microbes require water to survive, too much water can create anaerobic conditions. This kills many microbes and harms plant health. Therefore, providing good drainage is a key part of developing a healthy soil rhizosphere.

There are multiple ways to improve drainage, including planting deep-rooted cover crops, aerating with a chisel plow or broadfork, and installing drainage tile. You can also capture water with swales and ponds to prevent it from accumulating in unwanted areas.

The post Get Healthy Soil by Nurturing the Rhizosphere: 5 Pro Tips appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Long-time gardeners Kevin and Jacques of Epic Gardening took a moment to explore some of the most popular farming hacks and determine which ones are worth trying.

Mulch Grown in Place

Many people recognize that mulch traps moisture, suppresses weeds, and helps prevent erosion. Most of the time, adding mulch to the farm or garden means purchasing it from an exterior source and then spreading it on your land. But have you thought about growing mulch exactly where you want it?

Growing mulch in place involves planting a cover crop like rye or oats, and then terminating the crop by crimping the stems. Once the stems are broken and flat on the ground, you can cover the crop with a silage tarp to fully kill it. Peel back the tarp after a few weeks, and you’ll have a robust organic mulch covering the top of your bed. All you have to do is peel back the mulch to transplant crops like potatoes, tomatoes, or squash.

This farming hack is one that’s worth using at home. While it may not make sense for every scale, it can cover otherwise fallow ground and provide you with a thick mulch that helps keep summer crops healthy. If you choose to try this method, make sure to get the termination timing right, or you’ll end up with cover crops that don’t fully die or those that produce unwanted seeds.

Dried Peppers on String

If you have lots of peppers that you’d like to dry, you may be able to skip the dehydrator. Run a string through each, then hang the lines of peppers between two logs or posts. This method allows the heat of the sun to dry the fruits so they’re ready for storage.

Outdoor drying will likely work well if you live in a warm climate with low humidity and no rain. However, move your drying operations indoors if you expect lots of rain or high humidity.

Seat on Wheels

One farmer developed a simple wheeled seat that rolls down a rail in his greenhouse path. Rather than constantly bending over or crawling along the ground, he can sit on the low seat and easily harvest, prune, or weed his plants.

While the rail system may not make sense in every context, this farming hack is a reminder to make us think about how we can make work easier on our bodies. Long-handled tools prevent us from bending over, knee pads make kneeling an easier chore, and tractors or carts simplify moving heavy loads. You can also explore small-scale tool makers that are producing innovative items.

Deep Compost Mulch No-Dig Bed

No-dig, also known as no-till, has been rising in popularity in recent years. While large-scale conventional farmers sprayed crops with herbicides to avoid tilling them into the ground, organic no-till is different. This method prioritizes building organic matter in the soil, so there’s no need for regular tillage.

One way to quickly create no-dig beds on a small scale involves laying cardboard on the ground, then covering it with a thick layer of compost. You can plant directly into the compost, which means you can start a new garden bed in as little as a few days. This method can work well if you don’t have time to kill the underlying vegetation or grow a cover crop.

However, it’s labor-intensive, and the large amount of compost comes with a high up-front cost. Some perennial weeds can also make their way through the cardboard, so you should watch for bindweed, thistle, and other nasty weeds.

Leaning and Burying Tomato Plants

Tomatoes will form adventitious roots where they come into contact with the soil, so leaning and burying the stem will lead to a more robust root system. This method does involve extra work and planning, so it may not be the best idea if you’re working on a large scale.

To enjoy similar benefits, you can deeply bury your tomato seedling at planting time. Just make sure to leave two sets of true leaves above the soil surface.

Starting Crops in Small Cells

Solanaceous crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are often grown and sold in large cell trays. However, this isn’t necessary. Starting the seeds in smaller cells allows you to save space and potting mix.

While most growers keep their cell trays off the ground, one grower placed his seedling trays directly on the ground. The roots avoided circling and instead grew through the cells and into the soil, where they could obtain more water and nutrients. This method isn’t well-suited for extremely wet areas, and you should be aware of the increased risk of soil-borne diseases.

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Rather than spraying your entire field with insecticides or covering your plants for protection, you can implement trap crops this June. Planting these crops can make scouting for and controlling pests easier while saving you time and money. However, they’re not right for every situation, so learn whether they make sense for you.

What Are Trap Crops?

Trap crops are plants added to a landscape to attract or retain pests. The goal is to use these plants as a sacrificial lamb that protects your cash crops from pests. Growers often plant them along the perimeter of their fields, hoping that the pests will find and feed on these plants before they discover the interior cash crop.

Let’s say you’re worried about flea beetles appearing and decimating your kale plants. Rather than watching for the pests on the kale, you can plant radishes on the perimeters of your field. The flea beetles will find and start feeding on the radish plants, and you can then eliminate the pests before they reach your kale.

Should You Plant Trap Crops in June?

Honestly, it depends. While trap crops can be one part of an effective pest control strategy, they aren’t a silver bullet. You can control summer pests like aphids, harlequin bugs, and cucumber beetles with other methods.

Research shows that the effectiveness of trap cropping largely depends on the ability to retain the pests on the trap crop. This pest control strategy often works best when you’re growing a large amount of a single crop and can plant the trap crops around the perimeter.

You should also be able to check on them regularly and properly eliminate the pests. If left unattended, trap crops can attract pests to your garden and help them reproduce. When pests are left to flourish, they’ll likely move to the crops you’re trying to protect.

The bottom line? If you’re on the fence about adding them to your farm or garden, it’s probably best to skip them.

Maintaining proper nutrient levels in your plants, ensuring an adequate water supply, attracting natural predators with the help of flowering plants, and physically excluding pests are some other ways you can grow pest-free crops.

June Trap Crops

The best trap crops for June will protect summer crops from common pests. If possible, plant during or before you plant the crop you’re trying to protect.

Blue Hubbard Squash

The blue hubbard squash, a cultivar of the Cucurbita maxima species, is particularly attractive to striped and spotted cucumber beetles. Therefore, it’s an excellent trap crop for these pesky yellow and black beetles.

One study examined the impact of planting a perimeter of blue hubbard plants around a patch of less susceptible butternut squash. The cucumber beetles flocked to the trap crop, making it easy for growers to find and spray the pests. This method allowed for a 94% decrease in insecticide use on the butternuts with no notable damage.

You can use blue hubbard plants as a June trap crop for cucumbers, melons, and other cucurbits. Just make sure to monitor the blue hubbard squash and kill the beetles regularly.

Mustard Greens

Many pests that attack slow-to-mature brassicas like cabbage and cauliflower also attack other members of the brassica genus. If you’re in a cooler area where brassicas grow into the summer, planting a mustard green trap crop in June can help protect your harvestable crops from pests, including flea beetles, harlequin bugs, and cabbage worms.

It’s best to plant the mustard greens before your cultivated crop is in the ground, but it’s okay to plant the mustards anytime before pests arrive. After you get the trap crop in the ground, make sure to frequently scout for pests and then remove them. Spraying with organic insecticides like Bt and spinosad is often a suitable and easy way to kill the pests before they make their way to the brassicas you want to protect.

Hot Cherry Peppers

The pepper maggot is a dreaded fly that lays its eggs inside the fruits of the Solanaceae family, especially peppers. Not only does this egg hatch into a larva inside the fruit, but the act of drilling a hole into the fruit leaves it susceptible to rot. Since you won’t know the adults are present until you spot the damage, the pepper maggot can be difficult to treat.

Research shows that using cherry peppers as a trap crop for pepper maggots can be an effective way to protect other peppers. Planting a perimeter of cherry peppers and spraying the plants with an effective insecticide resulted in 98% maggot-free peppers in the interior planting. Plus, it decreased the overall application of insecticides.

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But when it comes to planting, how do you choose the best variety? The following varieties are great tomatoes to plant out in June.

Cherokee Purple

A stunning deep purple heirloom, ‘Cherokee Purple’ is one of the most well-known and beloved heirlooms, especially in the South. There’s a reason people ask for it by name! The plants produce medium, round fruit with a balanced flavor and slight smokiness.

Although these plants are indeterminate, they rarely grow over six feet tall. They aren’t the most prolific producers, but they make up for it with their flavorful fruits. If you plant ‘Cherokee Purple’ in the field in June, you can expect to start harvesting in late summer.

Sun Gold

‘Sun Gold’ plants produce golden cherry tomatoes with a flavor so sweet they’re almost candy-like. The indeterminate plants pump out clusters of these sunny gems for multiple months, so you’ll have enough fruits to fill baskets or put up for the winter.

Although the fruits are delicious, they’re prone to cracking and don’t hold well in storage or transport. This perishability means they’re difficult to find in stores and a real treat on a market table and in the kitchen.

San Marzano

People sometimes think of bland flavor and texture when it comes to Roma paste tomatoes. ‘San Marzano’ proves paste varieties can be flavorful and delicious. This tomato emerged from the Italian town of San Marzano sul Sarno near Naples.

‘San Marzano’ fruits have few seeds and are larger than many other plum types, making them preferable over other varieties. Their low acidity and intense flavor mean they work well in applications like sauces, pastes, and whole canned tomatoes.

Sakura

A hybrid red cherry tomato, ‘Sakura’ stands out thanks to its prolific nature. The indeterminate plants produce long clusters that ripen from the top down and continue sending out more flowers throughout the growing season.

Since you can expect your first ripe tomato less than 60 days after transplanting, ‘Sakura’ is an excellent June tomato to plant if you live in an area with a short growing season or aren’t planting until the end of the month.

Green Zebra

‘Green Zebra’ is one variety that reminds us of the diversity present in the color and flavor of tomatoes. The round fruits are slightly larger than golf balls and have a bright yellow skin with lime green stripes. They have a bright, tangy taste that sweetens the longer they ripen.

This indeterminate variety can tolerate drought and heat better than some varieties, so it’s a good choice for the heat of summer. Planting this tomato in June allows the plants to grow throughout the summer and begin producing as the heat subsides.

Chocolate Sprinkles

If you plant ‘Chocolate Sprinkles’ in June, you’ll enjoy lots of their beautiful fruits less than two months later. The small, round tomatoes are deep red with green specks and splotches.

The plants are indeterminate, truly prolific, and resistant to both fusarium wilt and nematodes. Their fruits are also crack-resistant and hold well on the vine even after heavy rains.

Striped German

Some people like large tomatoes for slicing onto a hamburger or chopping up for a tomato salad. If that’s you, check out ‘Striped German.’ It produces large yellow and red fruit with a sweet flavor.

This open-pollinated variety is indeterminate, so it will continue to produce over multiple months. However, since the fruits are so large, expect a smaller number of tomatoes.

Magic Bullet

The flavor and color of ‘Magic Bullet’ is difficult to describe. It seems to pack a dozen varieties together, with a smattering of colors and hints of sweetness, tartness, smokiness, and more. Plus, all of these characteristics are packed into a small, plum shape. This variety’s appearance attracts people, and its flavor keeps them coming back for more.

The plants continue to produce clusters of fruit throughout the growing season. If you plant them outdoors in June, you can expect to enjoy the colorful tomatoes until the first frost arrives.

Cuor di Bue Albenga

Although plum tomatoes are often the most popular option when it comes to making sauce and paste, oxheart varieties are another option. The ‘Cuor di Bue Albenga’ is an oxheart variety that Italians also refer to as a canestrino type. It has a widened teardrop shape, deep red color, and a meaty texture.

Planting the ‘Cuor di Bue Albenga’ tomato in June works well in most areas since the plants take 85 days to start producing fruit. The vines are robust, and the plants are heavy producers. Since the fruits are larger than a standard Roma, they produce lots of fuel for sauces and other projects.

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