Weeds are consistently ranked as one of the top challenges to profitable production of organic vegetables

Organic farmers cite cultivation, crop rotation and cover cropping as their foundational weed management tools, but many continue to rely on outdated equipment and do not deploy disturbance and crop diversity in ways that reliably stress and reduce weed populations over time. Low and variable cultivation efficacy are combined with abundant weed seed rain, resulting in stable, or more commonly, increasing weed densities over time. Simulation models and farmers' experience suggests that individual advancements in cultivation or crop diversity strategies alone cannot change this trajectory. However, we contend that cultural weed management focused on weed seedbank-depleting practices, combined with advanced, highly effective and reliable cultivation tools, can result in declining weed populations over time. Integration of seed- and seedling-focused management will exploit a positive feedback loop: reduced germinable seeds -- reduced weed seedlings -- high levels of seedling mortality -- lower density of mature weeds - reduced weed seed rain, and thus, continued reduction in the germinable seedbank. There are proven weed seedbank management strategies applicable across all farm scales, and others that are more scale-dependent. Timely disturbance and cover cropping can encourage germination and seedling recruitment to deplete the germinable seedbank. Timely termination of cash and cover crops can preempt weed seed rain. Solarization or tarping has been enthusiastically adopted by small-scale farmers as a strategy to smother winter annual and perennial weeds, as well as to deplete the surface germinable seedbank, creating a stale seedbed. Highly effective weed seedling control, supported by supplemental hand weeding both maximize debits to the seedbank, while minimizing credits. Likewise, there is a large cultivation toolbox to draw upon, both between- and in-row tools, and evidence that stacking tools can improve mean efficacy while reducing variability, but farmer adoption remains low. Many of the tools are manufactured in europe, and thus have historically been difficult to source. Farmers are sometimes skeptical regarding tool performance on their farms, with varying slopes, soil textures, stones, and residue. Low adoption is due in part to farmers, researchers and extension personnel alike who too often perpetuate the belief that cultivation is an art, mastered only by selected farmers featured in videos, bulletins or speaking at winter meetings. Lastly, a lack of reliable, evidence-based research on optimal use of these tools under diverse soil, crop and weed conditions inhibits adoption by risk averse growers of high value crops. Our aim is to work with innovative farmers, equipment manufacturers and researchers to address these barriers to adoption. Integration of weed seedbank management (gallandt, 2014) with robust, highly effective, advanced cultivation tools (brown and gallandt, in press; gallandt ET AL., 2018) will establish a positive feedback loop of improving weed control. Specifically, we will demonstrate that reduced seedbank and seedling densities will lower weed survival and reduce weed seed rain thereby improving weed management outcomes over time. To this end we have established four interrelated objectives:(1) characterize and optimize efficacy and selectivity of advanced cultivation tools, including stacked tools, in controlled environments and field conditions;(2) optimize organic weed management through integration of mechanical tools with preventive and cultural approaches;(3) conduct field experiments on small-, medium-, and large-scale organic farms, comparing farmers' standard weed management practices to those which integrate preventive and cultural approaches with advanced and optimized cultivation tools; and(4) develop a network of engaged farmer experts, equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and researchers who use and share data and experiences to improve weed management outcomes.