Breaking Down Deep Compost Mulch Research with Ryan Maher of the Cornell Small Farms Program

Hey listeners, it's Natalie and today I've got a conversation with my friend Ryan Maher from Cornell, formerly from the Cornell Small Farm Program about deep compost mulch. If that sounds familiar, it might be because Jesse talked about Ryan's research on his daily podcast several weeks ago or months ago. I don't know. I lose track of time. Ryan and his colleagues were able to do an eight-year research project comparing essentially different farming systems, not just different farming practices, and it yielded a wealth of agroecological and economic data. As Jesse discussed, and Ryan readily admits, there were some limitations to the research as there always are. But as with any good research project, it set the groundwork for additional questions, especially when it comes to the different phases of a farming system, sort of the setup or establishment phase, the maintenance phase, and how we might best manage that balance between nutrient management and weed management when it comes to using mulch, especially compost mulch. This was farmer-led research and I want to give a lot of credit to the researchers at the University of Maine and Cornell for recognizing this emerging deep compost mulch system when they did nearly a decade ago. It's no small feat to maintain a research trial for eight years and it's really great to have this wealth of data!

 

Natalie's Tarping Cover Crops Facilitates Organic No-Till Cabbage Production & Suppresses Weeds research

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