The Stale Seedbed Technique Is A Gardening & Agricultural Weed Control Technique That Goes Back Centuries. Stale Seedbeds Are Simple & Explained In This Post.
Weeds are very successful plants. Partly because they germinate quickly, but also because they fit into our growing systems and often mature before we harvest the crop they are growing amongst. This is where the stale seedbed technique comes in.
Over the years many techniques have been used to try to beat weeds. In the past cultural and mechanical methods were used, and nothing much survives a hoe used at the the right stage of growth. It’ll chop the weed stem off at, or just below, ground level leaving the top to wilt in the sun.
Another method is to use herbicides to control weeds. But on farms they are extremely costly and most gardeners want to produce food without herbicides and pesticides.
But there’s another technique that I prefer to start with. That’s the Stale Seedbed Technique.
What Is The Stale Seedbed Technique?
Stale seedbeds, sometimes called false seedbeds, are what you get when you prepare a seedbed and leave it for a few days or weeks. During that time any weed seed worth its salt will germinate and try to establish itself. You can then destroy the germinated weed seedling leaving a clean seedbed into which to sow.
What we are trying to do with Stale Seedbeds is to exhaust the soils natural seed bank of weed seeds AND kill any weeds that germinate.
The theory is that all the weed seed will have germinated and no more will appear.
Of course that is untrue. More seedlings will germinate. But there will be far fewer of them. And there will be less competition for your crop.
A variation on the above technique is the double stale seed bed method. Here you go through the process a second time and get that second flush of weed seeds before sowing or planting.
Naturally if the soil is cultivated too deep more weed seeds will surface and grow. So stale seed beds depend on minimum disturbance of the soil when the weeds are being destroyed.
That brings me to another variation. Instead of cultivating the soil to kill the weeds we could burn them off with a flame. A quick flash of intense heat will kill any weed seedling.
The last variation is to prepare the seedbed, wait until the first weed seeds emerge, then drill the crop and then, a few days later, use a flame gun. It gives an almost weed free seedbed.
Alternatives to the Stale Seedbed Technique
Personally I used to use stale seedbeds before I moved onto No Dig. When No Dig is used properly there are so few weeds that stale seedbeds aren’t normally needed.
The Stale Seedbed Technique isn’t the only weed control method. Use the search bar to discover more.
Using the Stale Seedbed Method In Containers
The Stale Seedbed Technique can be used in containers as well. It’s done exactly the same as on a field or bed scale but in a container. I tend to water my container compost after harvest, give it a few days to germinate any seed that’s managed to get in the pot and then lightly run my fingers through the surface to “hoe” the weeds lose. Then I sow my new seeds or plant with modules. It’s a very simple technique and cuts the weeds down to size.
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Tag: Stale Seedbed Technique
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