Stale Seedbed Practice for Vegetable Production

Abstract

The premise behind the stale seedbed practice is that by delaying seeding after initial soil preparation, flushes of weeds can be induced to sprout, then killed. If the week killing is done with minimal soil disturbance, the weed seedbank in the upper inch of soil will be depleted, resulting in less weed pressure against the subsequently seeded crop. Successful adoption of stale seedbed practices could allow for more effective weed control in vegetable cropping systems, and perhaps lower herbicide use. This study explored weed density and biomass responses to basic stale seedbed techniques.