Cultivation is essential for nearly all commercial vegetable crops since herbicide choices are limited and vegetable crops cannot tolerate much weed competition. A basic sweep cultivator can do an excellent job of precision cultivation if set up and equipped properly.

Precision vertical plate seeders are available for planting many vegetable crops. These seeders use a vertical metal plate with the cells (holes) on the edge.

All vegetable seeders require openers, coverers and presswheels to provide a furrow for the seeds and to then cover the seeds and assure proper soil contact. These devices must be matched to the soil type and condition for optimum germination and seedling vigor.

A key component of a precision cultural system is precision bed shaping. A precisely shaped bed is essential to locate the crop row properly when planting and to provide a basis for guidance of subsequent operations.

A standard sweep cultivator can do an excellent job of cultivating vegetable crops once the plants reach 4-6 inches, but it must run very slowly in small crops (1-2 inches) and has a tendency to throw soil over the crop plants. An alternative is a rotary tiller/cultivator.

A basic sweep cultivator can do an excellent job of cultivating vegetable crops but must be run slowly (1-2 mph) when the crop plants are small. A simple modification to a sweep cultivator allows high-speed cultivation of small vegetable crops.

Vegetable growers have many choices in tractors, ranging from older, smaller tractors to large, new tractors. Many are designed specifically for vegetable work.

Many years of testing at the LSU AgCenter have demonstrated that precision belt seeders deliver the best seed spacing uniformity of any type of vegetable seeder – if the seeds are spherical (round) or nearly so. Belt seeders are versatile and can meter a wide range of seed types and sizes.

Downy mildew is a potentially devastating disease of all cucurbits. Disease symptoms, development, control measures and color photographs of symptoms on pumpkin, cucumber and watermelon are included.

The use of plastic mulch is a common practice for strawberry and vegetable growers, but there are two major problems with plastic mulch: It is expensive to install and at some point it has to be removed from the field. Drawings are available to use in building a mulch collector. This machine allows easier retrieval of the used mulch.