Resistant weeds solution

[muckfarmer]

With waterhemp and others, I have found
going back to a 12rn cultivator in beans
over 3 years did the trick. I have done test
strips with and without and did almost all
last year. White mold went away without
fungicides and weeds were very limited and
did not bother anything. Wondering if anyone
else has tried this? Still have to spray
initially but not all summer.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

I believe that is the correct way to go. I use a little Boundary/Canopy in the solid beans, but thats it; am otherwise herbicide-free.

 

[mrashwood]

I wish we had started sooner. My brother did some row cultivating last year but waited too long. The weeds drug up and pulled down the beans. The part that he did looked 90% better than the undone part. I'm going to be on standby this year...If the weeds break through the chemical...

 

[tomNE]

cultivators send our topsoil down the creek and for us; topsoil is very valuable!

 

[farmerwithmutt]

If you cultivate its very important to do it at the right time. A good drying day is critical pull the weeds to the top and let them dry out. Do it when its wet you just transplanted them.

 

[flying belgian]

I never stopped using the cultivator.

 

[paul]

I just hate the erosion I get in my backyard from row crop cultivation. It comes at the rainy season here, in our fine clayish soils those loose ribbons of dirt turn into mini rivers that carry all the dirt down to the bottom of the hills. Each and every time you cultivate. I can do fall plowing, field cultivate, plant, and not lose hardly and dirt, compared to that row cultivating.

The other problem is my old cultivators are not so co,pmpatagle with all the corn trash I'm leaving on the surface now, with the disk chisel and one spring field cultivations, vs the old days of moldboard plowing, spring several disk or cultivator passes, and a harrow pass. I would need a mpbew cultivator to get through.

Paul

 

[rustyfarmall]

You can talk about no-till/minimum till all you want, but eventually the soil benefits from being stirred up and loosened.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Muckfarmer, what kind of beans are you using? I've been using non-gmo because I cultivate, But I'm not getting 108 bushels like some of these guys. Seemed kind of overkill to me to plant Roundup beans and not spray Roundup on them, but there might be other genetics in them that I could use.

 

[muckfarmer]

Pioneer early group 3. Cultivating has reduced or eliminated in side by side white mold and other fungi. Cultivating has to come back and we shouldn't have given it up before. It is good for the soil and the crops. Days of spray and forget are over. We also spray off the cultivator as well. LOTS of options spraying below the canopy.Also spray manganese a lot. Huge yield difference.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

In '15 it rained like crazy then suddenly dried up, the ground in the trash-free fields was so flipping hard you couldn't get a point in the ground. The only depth that could be cultivated was below the crust and it brought up huge clods; just real slow going. I had some 30" beans in what was previously corn ground, which I chiseled in the spring. All those cobs and trash kept the soil from welding together and it was the mellowest cultivating you ever saw. From then on, I chisel for row beans whenever possible. I have erosion trouble too, but never during cultivating season. It's always when the snow melts and there is winter wheat in those particular fields.