In summer 2021, Cornell Small Farms soil health specialist Ryan Maher collaborated with Bob Tuori of Nook and Cranny Farm (Brooktondale, NY) to carry out an on-farm experiment trialing tarping in a reduced tillage potato production system. They designed an experiment to trial tarping as a method to improve cover crop termination, weed suppression, marketable crop yields and labor use compared to the standard practice on the farm. They used three growing methods: tarping with mulching, tarping without mulching, and no tarping with mulching (standard practice). For each method, potatoes were planted into a tilled strip following an over-wintered cereal rye cover crop. They documented changes in weeds, soils, labor costs, marketable potato yields in each production method. This video provides an overview of the research and serves as a companion to an article in the Spring 2021 Small Farms Quarterly and other resources that are linked below.


SFQ article

https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2022/0...



SARE report

https://projects.sare.org/sare_projec...



Reduced Tillage Project

https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projec...