"We have 40 acres, 23 leased out, 6 in hay, 1 in alpaca paddocks, 1 in naturally grown vegetables with the remainder in house, buildings and seasonal creek. The vegetable acres will be expanded to 1.5 acres taking about a half acre out of hay. We have been growing vegetables about 5-6 years. Weed control has been mechanical and by hand. Usually about July we loose the battle with the annuals however we have been able to keep the perennials at bay to some degree. I work off the farm and travel 180 miles per day round trip to work daily. I do the starting of plants and much of the mechanical control, but my wife and daughter do most of the hand weeding and wheel hoeing. Canada thistle is the biggest perennial problem. I also have some grasses, however I have not identified them; most seem to be annuals although I believe that some is quackgrass. Due to the part-time aspect of our operation it takes 6 weeks to get the acre planted. I deliberately plant the areas that have the Canada thistle last. I have disked these areas three times at 2-3 week intervals. This has seemed to run much of the energy out of their root system and I have seen a decline. Once the area is planted, I have cultivated and/or roto-tilled between rows along with hand weeding. Along the edges, where the vegetables meet the hay, I mow the thistle to keep it from flowering. While this has reduced the thistle, it has yet to eradicate it. This year I plan on employing a combination cover crop/living mulch of hairy vetch and rye."

Eden's Harvest Farm is an fruit and vegetable farm

Production approach: Natural (chemical free)
Rotations: Vegetables rotated
Cover crops: Hairy vetch
IPM used: None
Tillage: Disk, rototiller, wheel-hoe
Soil amendment program: Blood meal, bone meal, greensand, compost
Soil tests: Click HERE.

Field was visited 5/15/09. Soils were very wet. It was raining steadily during the farm visit. Canada thistle was observed growing thickly on the Western edge of the vegetable plots. Portions were disked one week prior to the farm visit. Last year, Thomas disked part of the area multiple times and it reportedly knocked down the thistle in that area. Thomas and Janet will try the recommended practices on the thistle this year with some minor modifications. Hairy vetch has already been planted in about half of the field (see more details of Thomas' plan below). Sudangrass will not be planted in this area. Sudangrass will be planted over patches on the other half of the invested area. Hairly vetch areas will be mowed and compared to Sudangrass areas. The following plan was developed with Thomas:

1. Till multiple times. A disk will be used 2-3x before planting sudan grass.

2. Plant sudan grass. Seed will be located and sudangrass will be planted in early June at a recommended rate of 55 lbs/acres in area tilled.

3. Mow sudan at 4-6'. Sudangrass will be mowed just as thistles are starting to flower. Sudan should be at least 4' tall.

4. Sudan will be mowed again. A second mowing will prevent any thistle from flowering and help build up a thick layer of biomass to smother thistle.

5. Sudan will be tilled under in Fall or following Spring.

[on the phone Thomas explained his plan for this year which is to plant the entire 1.5 acres in hairy vetch. About four weeks later he will till in swaths of vetch where he intends to put rows of vegetables. He will spread soybean meal on these areas to provide N, but also burn any germinating weed seeds in the planting areas. After about two weeks, the soybean meal (about 10% N) will be “cooled” and he’ll plant vegetables.]

Project coordinator visited the farm a second time on August 26th. Thomas had just mowed the sudangrass that morning. The cover had been well over 6 feet tall and very thick. Very few, stunted thistle were growing in the standing sudangrass before it was mowed.


Sudangrass was 6'+ tall at the time of mowing.

Approximately one month after the first visit, Jablonski disked the growing thistle 3-4 times and broadcasted sudangrass seed. After broadcasting, he dragged the area with a section of chain-link fence to cover the seed. By June 19 Jablonski saw germinating sudangrass.


Mowed sudangrass left a thick mulch.

On July 12 Jablonski spread 25 lbs of soybean meal for fertility. On August 26 he mowed the sudangrass cover crop.

In Spring of 2010, Jablonski will pay special attention to the number of thistle sprouting in the area.


Mowed sudangrass on the left, mowed wheat on the right.