Two Unusual Cover Crops with Great Potential
Audio Brief
Show transcript
This episode covers how small-scale growers can align major business decisions with a personal value system while leveraging innovative summer cover crops like Teff grass and Chia for natural weed suppression.
There are four key takeaways from this discussion. First, growers can utilize a spreadsheet-based scoring matrix to align business choices with personal values. Second, broadcasting Teff grass superficially creates a highly resilient living pathway. Third, delaying the undersowing of living mulches prevents crop competition. Finally, photoperiod-sensitive Chia provides massive weed suppression without setting seed.
Looking first at decision-making, traditional business plans and financial budgets are critical, but a personal value system acts as the essential final piece. By defining approximately ten core values, such as family time or environmental impact, growers can score potential major moves on a zero-to-three scale. This structured evaluation helps bypass analysis paralysis and ensures long-term lifestyle alignment.
On the agronomic side, Teff grass serves as an exceptional living pathway. Because its seeds are incredibly small, they should be broadcast superficially on the soil surface, lightly raked, and pressed down rather than drilled deep. Once established, Teff resists heavy foot traffic, grows rapidly in the heat, and is easily terminated by low mowing, tarping, or frost.
However, managing crop competition requires precise timing. Sowing living mulches like Teff too early directly alongside cash crops can restrict airflow and steal nutrients. To avoid this, growers should wait approximately four weeks after the primary cash crop has established its canopy before undersowing the cover crop.
Lastly, Chia presents a unique alternative cover crop for temperate zones. Because Chia only flowers when day lengths drop below twelve hours, it naturally runs out of time to produce viable seeds before the first winter frost. This photoperiod sensitivity allows northern farmers to cultivate massive, weed-suppressing biomass that terminates naturally without becoming a weed pest next season.
By combining a structured personal value system with strategic cover cropping, growers can build more sustainable, efficient, and fulfilling farming operations.
Episode Overview
- This episode of Growers Daily focuses on establishing a structured personal "value system" to navigate major life and business decisions, such as starting a farm or changing careers.
- The host explores the practical agronomic benefits of Teff grass, detailing how to utilize it for summer weed suppression, living pathways, and biomass generation.
- The narrative transitions into a real-world trial of Chia as an alternative low-water, high-biomass summer cover crop that naturally terminates with winter frosts.
- This content is highly relevant to small-scale growers, market gardeners, and anyone looking to align their daily work and farming practices with their core values.
Key Concepts
- Value-Based Decision Making: While traditional business plans, market research, and financial budgets are critical for a farm, a personal "value system" acts as the essential final piece of the puzzle. By defining approximately ten core values (e.g., family time, environmental impact, community involvement) and scoring potential decisions against them, growers can bypass "analysis paralysis" and make choices that support their overall well-being.
- Teff Grass as a Living Pathway: Teff is a small-seeded, drought-tolerant, and heat-resistant summer grass that establishes quickly with minimal soil disturbance. Its rapid growth, tolerance to foot traffic, and aggressive weed-suppression make it an ideal living mulch for farm pathways. It is easily managed by high mowing and can be terminated by low mowing, tarping, or winter frost.
- The Living Mulch Competition Barrier: Using fast-growing cover crops like Teff as a living mulch directly alongside primary cash crops requires precise timing. If sown too early or too close to crops like tomatoes, the cover crop can compete for airflow, light, and nutrients. It is more effective when undersown under taller, established crops like sweet corn or okra after they have passed their critical weed-free period.
- Chia’s photoperiod Sensitivity: Chia’s growth habits make it a unique tool for northern or temperate climates. Because it only begins flowering when day length drops below 12 hours, the crop naturally runs out of time to produce viable seeds before the first killing frost arrives. This allows growers to cultivate a massive, weed-suppressing green manure crop without the risk of it setting seed and becoming a weed pest in subsequent seasons.
Quotes
- At 2:16 - "Does this decision feed into my values, those things that you care about, or does it take away from them?" - Explaining the core framework of evaluating complex life and business transitions through a structured scoring matrix.
- At 8:26 - "Attribute number two that I love about Teff is that it grows relatively quickly and, if sown thickly enough, will crowd out most summer weeds." - Highlighting Teff's value as a highly efficient weed-smothering crop during the hottest months of the year.
- At 14:18 - "What we have is a large, green, weed-protecting cover crop that effectively will not go to seed." - Clarifying how Chia's specific flowering trigger prevents it from becoming invasive in cooler growing zones.
Takeaways
- Build a Decision-Making Spreadsheet: Define your core personal and family values in a spreadsheet, then evaluate and score major farm decisions (such as buying land or accepting a new job) on a 0-to-3 scale to ensure long-term lifestyle alignment.
- Broadcast Teff Seeds Superficially: Because Teff seeds are exceptionally tiny, do not use a standard deep-drill seeder; instead, broadcast the seeds directly onto the soil surface, lightly rake them in, and press them down for optimal germination.
- Undersow Living Mulches in Established Crops: To minimize crop competition, delay sowing summer cover crops like Teff in cash-crop beds until approximately four weeks after the primary crop has emerged and established its canopy.
