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.
Featuring
Eero Ruuttila, Nesenkeag Farm. Litchfield, NH.
Audio Text
What we’re doing here with green manure cover crops is I’m using them to confuse Colorado potato beetles. I cut strips, plant the potatoes, I try to do my weed cultivation and hilling so that the potato plants are well established and then at that stage I knock down the rye and vetch and usually by then it’s late June early July and by then that’s the first of the potato beetles coming into the field. They don’t need to have a big mulch on the ground like I would put on the tomatoes, I just want to have some contact with the straw on the potato plants.
With this method I’ve never had to spray more than twice for potato beetles and at best it’s a spot spraying - I don’t spray the whole field because in a good portion of the field there won't be potato beetles at all. It’s usually on an edge where they’ll come in at the end of the rows, or on an edge where solanaceous crops were the preceding year and you’ll find a few rows.
This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).
This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.
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