Preparing a small plot for row crops
Prior to Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of attending the VSU Small Farm Outreach Program’s conference in Roanoke. At this conference, a seasoned vegetable farmer asked me, so how do I prepare ground for planting grain?
Grain farming inevitably brings to mind gigantic tractors and fields that stretch to the horizon. This is in fact how most grain is currently grown. But I have been delighted to discover that small plots of grain can be grown and processed with ordinary garden and household supplies. If you are farming 1-10 acres with a small tractor, you can still find old 3-point hitch implements (often for a song), that will get you started. Even more exciting is some companies are manufacturing teeny adorable combines and planters with all the modern bells and whistles.
Today I’ll focus on small scale (<1 acre) growing in this post, since it seems more obvious how to scale up than to scale down. (If I’m wrong about this, let me know in the comments). So let’s start with row crops, like dry beans, corn, and sunflowers. These can be grown and harvested like vegetables and are great to start with.
Preparing the ground for row crops
Your goal is a firm, weed-free seedbed, but the whole aisle doesn’t need to be worked. Save yourself some work and do good by the soil by considering strip-tillage, where you work only the area that is being planted and leave the aisles as no-till. To keep the aisles walkable, you can mow, weed whack, or put down landscape fabric.
Corn, especially, needs lots of fertility, so spread compost, manure, or a slow-release OMRI-certified nitrogen fertilizer on the plot before you start working. Prepare the soil as you would for a direct-seeded vegetable or flower crop. If the soil has been worked, a rake or drum lawn roller is all you need to smooth the seedbed right before planting, followed by a hoe or stick for making a planting furrow.
If you’re starting from scratch and have time, try covering the soil with an opaque tarp or cardboard to kill perennial weeds and grasses and to bring the earthworms up to the surface–they’ll do most of the work for you. If you’re in a hurry, broadfork to loosen the perennial root systems and pull by hand. Follow with some way to firm the soil again—like walking on it!
Either way, do a little light cultivation as a last pass right before planting, since corn, especially, does best with little competition.
Have you grown flint, dent, or flour corn, dry beans, or sunflowers for seed in your garden? How did you prepare your ground? Share your experience in the comments. Thank you!
Photo: Hand tools or an opaque tarp can get you started growing row crops (Garden Gate Magazine, Farmer’s Friend)
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of
Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2019-
38640-29878
through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program
under subaward number LS20-327. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and
service provider.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this
publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
