After my earlier columns focusing on the hazards of chemical herbicides, a number of readers asked the simple and reasonable question, “So what are the alternatives?” While I cannot offer firsthand experience with all of the available options in light of the varied scale and scope of farms—their operations, resources, disparate climates, as well as differing species of problematic plants—I can offer some observations from our own farming experience and from farms we have visited, worked on and supported, or from farming friends.
Readers should note that controlling weeds or other unwanted plants in growing spaces is a scale-specific situation. Procuring sufficient mulch for an acre or so, for example, is a whole lot easier than for ten acres, and in some areas ten acres of mulch material may be nearly impossible to acquire.
HOT FENCING
If you are keeping a fence “hot,” that is, electrified, a charger with a high enough output (high joule) will burn grass and other impediments right off it. Generally speaking, you are looking at 10 joules and above, depending on how many miles of fence you are electrifying and how much “load” of brush and grass you expect it to cope with. If you are new to electric fencing, Kencove, Premier, and several other manufacturers provide primers on volts versus joules and guidance in selecting equipment right on their websites.1 Modern, high-powered fences are also much safer than in the past for both animals and humans, especially single-strand fencing, due to the pulsed frequency of the charge passing along the line, rather than a constant electrical current. Either way, if you are using an electric fence, remember to exercise caution and care and teach your children and visitors to do the same.
The beauty of using a high-powered system is the incredibly low cost. Electrifying a fence costs just a few dollars a month, even for very high joule chargers. Given the savings in time, labor, and energy (compared to spraying chemicals or manually maintaining fence lines using equipment), it is a sensible and smart solution to keeping fence rows sufficiently clean. Note that such a system still requires inspection and removal of larger diameter debris from the fence lines, but can, along with rotational grazing discussed below, help ensure that fence lines and similar areas stay clean and clear.
HIGH-DENSITY ROTATIONAL GRAZING
Different animals will graze different plants at different heights and growth stages, so the more animals moved through an area in an appropriate manner for the appropriate amount of time, the more likely you are to keep all the various interlopers in check. This type of high-density rotational grazing sounds easy but requires a great deal of skill and knowledge of one’s land, soil, and other such considerations to ensure that areas are not under or overgrazed. Many good books and seminars are devoted to these issues, so I encourage readers to avail themselves of such resources.
To give you an idea of how powerful and profitable high-density rotational grazing can be, the online retailer Amazon.com is now offering goat rentals through their website! Airports and other such operations are renting flocks of goats to keep unwanted plants in check instead of resorting to machinery or chemicals. Studies on using particular animals, such as goats, for weed control and removal have shown them to be superior to the so-called best chemical approaches.2
Gallagher, a farm and fence supply company, recently released a new portable electric fencing system that is garnering excellent reviews to help make rotational grazing easier to handle and more affordable for farmers.
BIODEGRADABLE BLACK PLASTIC
The black plastic that has dominated some growing systems for the past decade or more is now available in an organic corn-derived version that is fully biodegradable. The use of such plastic is still controversial, but for larger scale, multi-acre growers, such a tool is often seen as a necessary trade-off that also extends the growing season and reduces water consumption while radically reducing labor requirements on the farm.
Another strategy for weed control in the field is to prompt early-season germination of weeds. This can be accomplished by using clear plastic sheeting to warm the soil a month or so before the last frost date, causing seeds to germinate. Once the seeds have germinated and sprouted, the plastic can be removed, exposing the plants to temperatures they are unlikely to survive. The next option to help control weeds goes along quite nicely with this method to further ensure their demise.
CHICKEN TRACTOR
Few strategies are as effective at weed control as the portable chicken tractor. What is a chicken tractor? It is a portable home for chickens, allowing them to move across the landscape in a controlled and secure fashion, tilling, fertilizing, weeding, and engaging in other “tractor-like” activities as they go.
Chicken tractors weeding between row crops.
Utilizing the chicken tractor requires a bit of management skill to use well in a growing space. First, we size our chicken tractor to our bed sizes (generally, six feet in width). This makes using the tractor easy and effective as it can run right down a growing space without needing special attention. Second, you can use the tractor in conjunction with portable electric poultry fencing so that you can move the tractor less often while giving the chickens access to more area.
MULCH
Nothing smothers weeds like mulches, including organic (wood chips, straw, old hay, lawn clippings), living (cover crops like clovers), or inorganic (like sheet metal or black plastic). We use all three in our growing systems. All three have benefits, drawbacks and caveats, along with considerations specific to each version, which is why I devote three whole chapters of my forthcoming book to this subject. Depending on which you have access to and feel comfortable with, all three can help manage weeds, provide weed and growing space buffers, and help improve soil over time.
Cover crops can be cut down into a living suppressive mulch that is then appropriate for grain or other plantings. Such an approach has shown some promise for organic grain growers.
OFF-SEASON CHICKEN ROTATION
For both growing spaces and greenhouses, allowing chickens access when crops are not being grown has been shown to reduce weed load significantly, while also improving soil quality and providing excellent fertilization.3 Portable poultry net fencing makes this an easy task in outdoor growing spaces, since you can allow access only to sections and areas that are ready for the destructive presence of these little velicoraptors. If you have breeds that are prone to fence jumping, be sure to go with the tallest netting possible or clip the wing feathers of the birds to ensure they don’t escape and do damage to your other plants and produce.
WHEEL HOE
A wheel hoe is an amazing tool for quickly weeding larger areas in more standard, row-based growing spaces. These cultivators may be purchased from a number of good seed sellers and garden suppliers. You can also build one yourself or purchase a kit to build one from Planet Whizbang. (Google “Planet Whizbang Wheel Hoe” and you will quickly find the website and additional information.)
A wheel hoe makes it easy to weed between rows.
AGRICULTURAL VINEGAR, SOAP, SALT
A mixture of the above ingredients diluted with water and then applied to emerging unwanted plants on hot, dry days can be very effective at killing or at least seriously thwarting particular plants, especially in areas like gravel driveways or walkways, where large amounts of hand labor or chemicals might otherwise be resorted to. If using in a growing space, great care is needed to apply the mixture without damaging the soil or crop plants.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Plantsman and author Eliot Coleman once said that a single season of mature weed seed will spawn seven seasons of weeds. Most plants are prolific producers of progeny and seeds can wait dormant in the soil and germinate years later. Prevention of reseeding is thus crucial to weed control. Falling behind on weeding can undo many years of hard work in just a few weeks if those weeds are allowed to produce mature seed.
Tillage is another tactic that is warned against for long-term weed control, although it is one that some farmers rely on regularly. Tillage constantly turns up dormant seeds from deep in the ground, along with providing an open landscape devoid of competitors for these new seeds to take root and quickly conquer the terrain. Thus this short-term benefit in weed control comes with a long-term cost of increased weed germination along with damage to the soil food web and overall soil health. On occasion, of course, tillage may be the last resort available to handle certain weed problems. There is so much more that can be said about reducing weed load and unwanted plants in growing spaces and pastures. I hope that this brief introduction to some cultivation strategies and solutions for modern growers may help growers reap the rewards of their care and attention to their farms, gardens, and homesteads.
REFERENCES
1. kencove.com/fence/7_Volts+vs.+Joules_resource.php
2. nicholas.duke.edu/news/goats-better-chemicals-curbing-invasive-marsh-grass
3. mysare.sare.org/mySARE/assocfiles/966151SarePresentation.pdf
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