In year 1, a chisel plow and middle buster were used to prepare the field in May 2011. The field was then irrigated and solarized for 1.5 months with clear greenhouse plastic in order to reduce weed pressure. Upon removal of plastic, a row-maker was used to make three 1.5m long rows per replicate for a total of nine rows. Drip tape was installed down the center of each row during the rowmaking process.