Hi Simon!
I’ve been in the midst of a transition. Due to the recent budget cuts, I’ve been trying to change from a lab rat…to a field mouse!
So, half of my days are spent in the field and the other half are spent in the lab…
I’m still learning A LOT about the field stuff, but I figured you’d like to know what I’ve learned over the past few months.
What, I’ve learned about field ‘stuff’:
-No amount of weed barrier, mulch, chemicals, etc… will resolve you from the fact that you will have to do some hand weeding (trust me on this one!).
-We use good quality weed barrier. Yes, it is expensive, but it’s much cheaper to go that route than to hire a lot of extra people for labor. I say to use good quality because one of the professors used some empty rows from one of our field and he bought the cheapest weed barrier he could find. Unfortunately, within a year it broken down (completely). We’ve had some out there since 2003 and the only reason it has started to break down is because it’s been run over repeatedly with mowers, shredders and tractors.
-Personally, I would use weed barrier (I like the idea of using an old rug) because it allows the water to flow through it. Plastic will just shunt it off to the edges.
-Irrigation is a necessity. (We lovingly refer to is as ‘irritation’…) My personal opinion is that micro-sprinklers on a large scale are NOT practical. Thankfully, we have only a small portion of the peach trees on micro-sprinklers. Every time I turn on that section of the field, I spend a good 40 minutes walking around making sure the sprinkler heads have not blown off (and yes we have pressure regulators on the lines).
-Never turn the irrigation on and walk away… Every time I do, a line would blow out and flood a portion of the field.
-If you lay the irrigation on top of the weed barrier, it is easier to spot leaks and repair them. Unfortunately this also means that the sun will break them down quicker. However, if you put the irrigation underneath the weed barrier, the sun won’t break it down as fast, but…it’s harder to locate and repair the leaks.
The other reason I hate working/repairing irrigation is the fact that the fire ants love to build their mounds at the points where the water drips out. Nothing like trying to repair a break in the line and jump around trying to get the stupid biting ants off of your hands and legs. Hopefully, you have nothing as nasty as fire ants in your area!
-You’ll probably want to have a soil analysis done. This way, you can amend the soil as necessary BEFORE you plant the roses and watch them suffer and try to figure out what nutrients they need.
-Depending on what your friend is growing now, or has grown in the past, you will probably have those items ‘volunteer’ to germinate in the space you’ve given to the rose (or anywhere else they can put their roots down). Example: We were the first ones to plant in the ‘new’ Hort Farm. So, for years we had no trouble with volunteer plants. However, in the last few years other professors have move out near us and now we have things like watermelons, squash, tomatoes, blackberries, etc… growing amongst the peaches and roses. And, the worst of all…Morning Glory! Curse that plant and all of its offspring. It will sprout and totally take over a rose within a week!
-About Chemicals:
Jim mentioned the use of fumigants to sterilize the field. For us, this practice has been banned for years now. I was told it was a very effective treatment for weed control, but it’s not an option for me.
A few others mentioned pre-emergents, they’ll help, but won’t control everything. I rely more on a contact herbicide, but still I have to do a lot of hand weeding.
-And my last ‘hard lesson’ learned:
Make sure to leave enough space BETWEEN the rows to get your mower and tractor in there. Nothing like having 40 rows of roses and only being able to get the mower through 35 and having to use a push mower on the other 5…