The following videos walk farmers through sustainable concepts and practices for organic weed control, including crop rotations and cultivation techniques. The videos highlight farmer perspectives on these topics and are part of a larger organic field crops course, available at https://courses.organicagronomy.org.
Designing a Crop Rotation
The concept of crop rotation is not new to organic agriculture. It is as old as agriculture itself. This video discusses the central role crop rotation plays in organic weed, pest, disease, and fertility management.
Example Crop Rotations
This video looks at balancing needs when designing a crop rotation in two agronomic regions: the semi-arid West and the humid East.
Focus Farmers Talk Crop Rotation
Successful organic farmers share their approaches to crop rotation.
Organic Weed Control and the Meaning of "Clean Fields"
Good weed control is possible on organic farms. This video explores the realities of organic weed control and the concept of "clean fields," and it discusses tools and strategies used on organic farms.
Knowing Your Weeds
Weeds are worthy opponents in the battle to raise a successful crop. As with any competition, knowing your opponent is the key to victory. This video shares the characteristics of weeds that are most useful to understand as you pursue good control in the field.
Keep Weeds from Emerging
This video discusses how to keep weeds from emerging in the first place. This is important because weeds are plants that have evolved to thrive in specific agricultural environments, and putting a stop to their lifecycles will put a stop to their evolution.
Kill the Weeds That Do Emerge, Part 1
So you did everything you could to discourage a weed from becoming a weed, but nature prevailed and your field isn’t as clean as it once was. This video dives into the many organic strategies available to kill those weeds that have emerged.
Kill the Weeds That Do Emerge, Part 2
Part 2 explores alternative strategies for killing weeds, such as flame weeding, the weed zapper, mowing, field walking, and organic-approved herbicides.
Long-Term Weed Control
With a typical bank account, you want it to grow over time. But the weed seed bank is the opposite. It represents the amount of viable weed seeds in your fields, and thus their potential to remain a problem. This video discusses strategies for long-term weed control by keeping the weed seed bank low.
Farmer Perspectives on Flame Weeding
This video shares farmer perspectives and experiences with flame weeding as an organic weed control method.
Farmer Perspectives on Blind Cultivation
This video explores farmer perspectives and experiences with blind cultivation as an organic weed control method.
Farmer Perspectives on Cultivators and Alternative Tools
This video shares farmer perspectives and experiences with cultivators and alternative tools as organic weed control methods.
Farmer Perspectives on Weed Control Timelines
This video explores farmer perspectives and experiences with weed control timelines.
Want more information? See the related SARE grant:
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.