Ken Laing – Organic No-Till Vegetable Trials
To reduce tillage in organic vegetable systems, Ken trialed a total of 13 organic vegetable crops no-till planted or transplanted into nine cover crop combinations.
The most promising no-till planting strategies that produced good weed control and good yields were not continuous no-till systems, since digging root crops is a major tillage event and establishing cover crops to plant into required tillage. They included:
- Organic garlic no-till planted into a mown cover crop of sorghum sudangrass without any tillage for weed control
- Organic potatoes no-till planted into mown cover crop of rye/hairy vetch without any hilling or tillage for weed control
- Winter squash transplanted no-till into rolled hairy vetch and deep compost mulch without any tillage for weed control
Guiding Principles
- Reduce tillage for organic vegetable production
- Use a mechanized approach suitable for mid-scale vegetable grower (i.e. 10-50 ac)
- Avoid the use of agricultural plastic materials
No-till Strategies Used
- Planting or transplanting into winter killed cover crops
- Planting or transplanting into green cover crops either before or after termination
- Planting or transplanting into deep compost mulch (DCM)
Research Strategies Used
- 2020 | A broad survey or proof of concept of many strategies and crops to narrow down promising combinations.
- 2021 | Demonstration plots of the most promising combinations from 2020
- 2022 | Randomized, replicated plots of the demonstration plots from 2021
Follow Ken’s Work
No-Till Vegetable Trials: Late Spring 2021
This is the second season of Ken Laing’s No-Till Vegetable Trials, and the first year they’ve been run as part of Living Lab – Ontario. Here’s a summary of what’s been happening so far in 2021.
EFAO Becomes a Partner in AAFC’s Living Laboratories Initiative
As a collaborator on the Living Lab – Ontario initiative, the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO) is one of 10 partners who will facilitate on-farm research trials focused on reduced tillage and continuous cover. EFAO will support two trials, one in organic field crop production and one in organic vegetable production.
No-Till Vegetable Trials: No-Till Garlic with Mechanized Planting
Encouraged by the success of hand planted no-till garlic into winter killed sorghum-sudangrass this past season, read about how Ken tried to mechanize the process using a no-till transplanter for their 2021 crop.
