Chickweed in the garden

[skinyea]

I am visiting my Uncle in Ohio. He has 5 raised beds that have not been used since 2019. I promised him to help him get them ready for 2022 garden.

the beds are covered in a ground cover that I am almost positive is chickweed. is their a trick to getting this out of the garden without chemical?

 

[Chuck]

Chickweed is spread by seeds and by what I would call shallow roots. The are fairly easy to pull up but you have to get all of the plant. It is also edible.

 

[skinyea]

Chickweed is spread by seeds and by what I would call shallow roots. The are fairly easy to pull up but you have to get all of the plant. It is also edible.

I have never seen it this thick. it is like matted in. I almost rototilled it up before figuring out what it was.

thank you

 

[Chuck]

There you go. 2 years worth of growing undisturbed in good soil. Its a good thing your didn't rototill it.

 

[Ruderunner]

Funny this popped up as I was going to post an observation I made this week.

I've been battling chickweed for a few years now, started off as the small round leaf style but the mouse ear variety is taking over.

What I noticed is that the chickweed is not growing in the areas where I dumped my fall leaf gatherings. Something about leaf mold that keeps it at bay?

It occurred to me that there's something to it since there's next to no chickweed in the wooded area next door.

 

[skinyea]

so I admitted defeat. It took about 6 hours to clean out one of his 10 beds. this stuff is matted in.

I went and bought 9 tarps. covered the beds and will come back in 3 weeks. should kill the chickweed.

 

[plot22]

Ruderunner has got my brainbox in motion with his thoughts on chickweed and leaves. Each winter I take bag after bag of leaves down to the allotment from the 6 Sycamore trees in my home back garden. Approximately half I put in a large bin and half I dig in. I have a map of my allotment on my computer and keep a record of what I have previously set and where for the past 10 years or so. For the 1st time I marked where I had dug the leaves in last November and December. I have this last month or so started setting this years crop and have noticed that wherever I had dug leaves in then there was very little chickweed . Where I had not dug any leaves in there was plenty of chickweed. It gives me food for thought. There was very little evidence of the leaves which I had dug in the worms had taken them down.

 

[gary350]

Chickweed is a nightmare 1 plant produces a 1000 seeds. If you hoe or till them they put all there remaining energy into makes seeds. You need to get the dying plants our of the garden, burn them so they don't make more seeds. I have learned to till the soil every other day for 2 weeks I can make 98% of the seeds germinate and die.

 

[headfullofbees]

It may be the further decomposing of the leaf mould sequestrating nitrogen, leaving the chickweed seeds to germinate & starve, if the seeds are very shallow.

 

[Ruderunner]

Could be. Just smothering them can set them back.

It's been a couple years since I've laid down a good dose of cornmeal, but it did seem to help then.

 

[skinyea]

Tarping worked. almost all dead. the stuff that didnt die was super easy to pull up. Burned it all. Chickweed crisis gone.

 

[Ruderunner]

Except for the seeds that will grow. On a recommendation from here I've started sprinkling corn meal on my garden after tilling. It's supposed to prevent seeds from germination. Seems to work well on chickweed BUT also prevents direct seeding.. if you're starting seedlings elsewhere then they should be ok.

 

[Chuck]

Except for the seeds that will grow. On a recommendation from here I've started sprinkling corn meal on my garden after tilling. It's supposed to prevent seeds from germination. Seems to work well on chickweed BUT also prevents direct seeding.. if you're starting seedlings elsewhere then they should be ok.

Cornmeal or Corn Gluten Meal?

 

[skinyea]

Except for the seeds that will grow. On a recommendation from here I've started sprinkling corn meal on my garden after tilling. It's supposed to prevent seeds from germination. Seems to work well on chickweed BUT also prevents direct seeding.. if you're starting seedlings elsewhere then they should be ok.

I think his plan is potatoes in 4 of the beds.

 

[gary350]

Has anyone planted sweet corn yet? I'm still waiting for warmer weather it was 53° this morning and going to be 51° Sunday morning. Super sweet & sweet corn are both very sensitive to cold & wet weather they need 65° minimum low in the morning and 80° + during the day to plant seeds. I stopped planting super sweet corn germination is only 50% to 60% maximum I only plant sweet corn. 72 day corn plants are small, ears are small, kernels are small, I have to plant 9 rows of super sweet corn to equal 3 rows of 90 day sweet corn this is 80 corn seeds per row with seed spacing 5" apart. When soil is 85° I have to water seed rows several times every day for 7 days to get 99.8% germination. I till 1 lb of Urea into each row 1 week before planting. I feed corn 15-15-15 when plants are about 6" tall. After that I pour on the nitrogen 1 lb per row every week then water it into the soil. Corn plants are 8' to 9' tall ears are big corn is sweet. Wife cuts kernels off the cob freezes it 20 ounces per zip lock bag that is a heaping 1 pint jar of corn kernels 240 ears = about 100 bags = about 125 lbs of corn kernels in the freezer. We are having excellent luck growing G90 sweet corn. I hope I can plant corn & beans Monday if it is warm enough. The only thing we put in mason jars these days are, tomatoes in quarts, Bread & Butter pickles in quarts, Enchilada sauce in pints. We are making 7 gallons of bread & butter pickles this year this will be a 3 or 4 year supply don't need to grow cucumbers again for 3 or 4 years.