Grass Weeds

For non-spray systems: Plow in fall!!!!! !! Spring plowing really, really makes it really, really tough to get the grasses. Plow in fall, and use sevral shallow tillage passes in spring to kill off a lot the new sprouts. If you dig too deep you will dig up more grass seeds, so keep the spring tillage shallow, every 4-5 days. Some years the grass will still take over, but this gives you the best odds. Cultivate early & often as well.

--->Paul

If you are going to keep down grass you have to put down a herbicide that lasts a month or so.

Otherwise you have to follow my scheme (which isn't working this year because of it being too wet.)

Plow and disk. Then the day of planting run a field cultivator through the field to cut off the grass thats just getting ready to come up. The disk only ENCOURAGES grasses, doesn't kill them much. Then rotary hoe two or three times at three day intervals, providing the surface is dry enough to crack. If its damp you accomplish nothing with the rotary hoe. If you wait to see grass sprouts, you have waited too long. Rain by the bucket after planting has wasted my hoeing time this year. Next you cultivate with a row cultivator to cut off the grasses and leave a loose layer of drying dirt to discourage the weeds until the corn gets tall enough to shade the weeds. On the second cultivator pass you toss dirt into the row to bury grasses in the row.

I had a plan for this year. I was going to plow and disk early (say by April 15 in central Iowa), then pack the surface with a cultipacker to encourage the weeds. Then attack the growing weeds a month later with field cultivator sweeps to cut them off an inch or two below the ground and plant. Since it rained from April 15 to May 24, I didn't get it done. My corn and beans are now very green, and the rows are still visible, but may not be for another week unless I get in a cultivate thoroughly.

Gerald