Maintaining Soil Health by Integrating Cover Crops and Reduced Tillage Using a New Plastic Mulching Technology in Shaped-Bed Vegetable Production

This CIG innovation trial integrates cover crops & reduced tillage into our conventional shaped-bed vegetable production in order to improve soil health, while reducing emissions and inputs. The proposed innovative trial is for a cropping system that uses a plastic mulch for vegetable crops on a shaped bed, with an overwintering clover cover crop between the vegetable rows throughout the whole year. The purchase of a new FORIGO stone burier allows us to establish shaped bed vegetable rows with only one tractor pass & no herbicides, while maintaining clover from the winter between vegetable rows, thus keeping soil intact in nearly half of the field. This cropping system will be compared to a conventionally tilled & shaped shaped-bed system that uses weed mats instead of cover crops between rows & involves seven or more passes to each row with a tractor with different equipment. Using a comprehensive soil health assessment from Cornell, with assistance from a soil conservationist, we will compare soil health metrics, soil moisture retention capacity, soil organic matter, & soil nutrient content, fuel, water, fertilizer, & herbicide use, weed suppression, & vegetable yields (pounds/acre) between the production systems. We anticipate that compared to conventional practices, the proposed trial will improve soil health, increase soil moisture & organic matter retention, and decrease fuel, water, fertilizer, & herbicide needs—while providing similar weed suppression and similar yields to conventional methods. The project will serve as a case study for the innovative integration of a new technology with soil health practices to improve soil health while maintaining yields & reducing external resource inputs, & will be shared widely through workshops & conferences in collaboration with NRCS & the Worcester County Conservation District.