greg-dude

Wigmap

We plow and/or till depending on the plot.

You're correct. Everytime that you till, seeds are exposed to sunlight. This can promote germination. We plow and till which exposes the weed seeds when we plant our annuals. Then we kill the weeds by retilling, mowing, or roundup at the end of the annual's growth season or even during the annual's growing season when needed.

We are primary concern with grass seeds because those are the most costly to control and can not be controlled with clipping. If you till for several years and plant with annuals, the amount of grass seed (and others) in the top few inches of tilled soil will be reduced. Then when we do finally plant a perrianal legume, the competition from grasses is also reduce. We seldom need to spray for grasses in our legumes. We are in the process of replanting an older Imperial plot that was 5 years old. Grass in that plot was not prevelant until its 4th year.

In one of other plots that was plowed. tilled and planted in a legume in it's first year was completely overrunned by grass in it's second year.

Like I said, this system has worked well for us.