2012 Annual Report for FNE12-736
Conservation tillage for organic cabbage: Yield, weed growth, and management costs
Summary
This experiment seeks to build on previous work in cover crop mulches and organic no-till farming by growing cabbage after oats and vetch in three tillage treatments: conventional tillage, zone tillage, and no-till. Three cabbage varieties were to be grown in the three treatments in four replications of 12 by 5 foot plots in a randomized complete block design for each cabbage variety. During the growing season we had planned to measure cabbage growth and yield, soil nitrate, and weed density to assess the effects of the tillage treatments on weed control and cabbage production. This research will also focus on quantifying the labor and equipment costs of each treatment by closely measuring the amount of time each production activity (like transplanting and weeding) takes on a per plot basis.
In the spring of 2012 we had a miscommunication and the experimental site with vetch was roughly mown. We were unable to install the experiment on our farm because the vetch had been disturbed. We now plan to install and complete the experimental and outreach portions of this project in 2013.