Paul Arnold is a remarkable organic vegetable grower in the upper Hudson area. With only about 5 acres of vegetable fields, he grosses over $75,000 in sales at three area farmers' markets. Many aspects contribute to this profitable operation, including close-spaced plantings, use of rowcover, irrigation, some hoophouse production, thorough record-keeping, and good marketing. However, one main supporting feature that allows heavy production from these fields is his unusual use of hay mulch.

Paul applies a coating of mulch to many of his crops during the season, to suppress weeds, conserve moisture, and add fertility. That's not unusual.

But he also applies hay mulch to his fields after the season is over.

In the late fall, Paul uses an old forage chopper to cut hay and blow it onto a wagon. Then he forks it onto his vegetable land. The mulch hay sits on the fields all winter, then is plowed in in the spring. Over the years, a tremendous amount of organic matter is added this way. His vegetable soil organic matter levels are well over 4% and still going up. About 8 acres worth of hay mulch are put on each vegetable acre each year. This is just old grass hayfield, with little fertilization, not a highly managed stand of alfalfa. Besides the mulch, some manure and other rock fertilizers are used.

I had a few questions about using so much mulch, and about cutting it in the fall:

What about slugs?--Paul said that slugs were bad for a couple years, then abated. Perhaps the system somehow adjusted. A new product, Sluggo, is now available for safe slug control.

Don't you get weed seed in that late-cut hay?--He said the hay grasses drop their seed after about 4 weeks, so he hasn't had a grass weed problem in the 8 years he's been using this system.