Thursday 7 April 2011

Spreading the Woodchip

The Mill Creek Compost Spreader

Weeds can be a big problem in organic vineyards as we can't use herbicides to control them. We opted to use woodchip as a mulch which has generally proved to be an excellent solution.

Spreading the woodchip along the rows can be a difficult and time consuming task and so we initially hired a compost spreader from Laverstoke Park Farm to do the job. Initially we thought that spreading it would be a one off exercise but in practice we have already had to replenish some rows and so we have now invested in a compost spreader of our own. We will also be able to use it for spreading PAS100 compost, and possibly organic manure, to add nutrients to the soil.

The spreader (with operator) is for hire if anyone is interested!

4 comments:

  1. Not quite the green lipped mussels I was telling you about at lunch today, but the wood-chip looks good! Hope it works out. Very nice to have met you today, and I'm sure and hope we'll meet again. I'll keep my eyes out of any (anonymous) organic yield data!

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  2. Brilliant idea! If you want to get rid of grasses, how about spreading dried hay and burned it all at once?

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  3. Hi, cool compost spreader. What is the model? I am looking for something like this to spread compost only under rows rather than everywhere.

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  4. Hi Nicholas, it's a Millcreek http://www.millcreekmfg.com/index.php We occasionally hire it out if you are interested.

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