So we harvest the delicious vegetables for your box then what? Once the beds are picked through Roberto chews up the residue into very small pieces with our flail mower. This was purchased for $5,500 in 1995 and is still running well. We have replaced bearings, belts and blades may times. We bought the ‘industrial strength’ model for twice as much money but it has lasted about 5 times as long as the regular flail mower does.
The crop and weed residue is then incorporated into the soil with our Sundance disk. This disk peels the bed apart then mixes the soil back into two ridges 40” apart. Roberto makes two passes then rolls the beds to firm down any large clods of soil that could dry out faster than the main body of soil.
Depending on the season he will have Jose irrigate the beds and follow five days later with another pass of the Sundance disk. If there is still plenty of vegetation for the soil microfauna to digest we will irrigate again. Once we have nice friable soil he will make a pass with the bed shaper. This great tool creates a pool table smooth bed to sow and plant into accurately.
At most times of the year this whole process takes two to three weeks. We try not to rush it but we do need to make sure we constantly plant so that we have fresh crops to harvest for your box 50 weeks a year.
Knowing exactly the right time to cultivate and with which tool is a skill that Roberto and Ramon are become masters of. Their hard work makes it easier to grow great crops every year.