Pairing Tarping With Cover Crops: Getting Both On The Menu

Tarps can taste better when they are mixed with other soil building practices. Cover crops help keep soil covered, maintain active roots, feed soil biology, and add organic matter through living plants. How can we use tarps to reduce tillage while adding cover crops? Tarps are being used to kill winter hardy cover crops, like rye and vetch, and when it is too late to get those cover crops in the ground, tarps are covering bare soil overwinter in preparation for early spring.
03:40 Hear from Ben Stein of Edible Uprising Farm in Troy, NY on how tarps are used to manage cover crops, regulate soil moisture and reduce weeds.
At 25:08 Janna Siller of Adamah Farms in Falls Village, CT talks on their cash crop and cover crop planning, what fall management looks like, and how they are setting up for no-till planting when tarps come off.
The questions and discussion start at 40:40

[@09bamasky]

Recommendations for sourcing tarps? Also, would you recommend against tarping if it has rained a lot recently?

[@cornellsmallfarms]

Lots of online sellers of silage these days...Start local and ask ag/farm suppliers if they source them. May need to order in. More concerned with dry conditions than high moisture. Recent rain will infiltrate and still drain. Too dry could limit weed seed germination and soil organisms

[@09bamasky]

@@cornellsmallfarms Thank you! Yes, I was most concerned that, given how much rain we’ve had recently, whatever bacteria or other organisms might take over while the tarp is down. I’ve decided that this year, like every past year, will be “a learnin’ year.” 😅

[@aziz.alabboudi7498]

Hi