Re: nurse crops

**R* M* M* <r*@comcast.net>**

Tom, one technique growers here in Oregon suggest for rooting rhododendrons is to use willow water. Place willow shoots in a bucket of water and after they've developed a root system use that water to keep the planting medium for the slow to root rhododendrons. Your comments make me wonder how much more widely this might be used. One question about your nurse crop planting...do you sow oats and clover or alfalfa all at the same time?

Rose Marie NIchols McGee
www.nicholsgardennursery.com
On Jul 4, 2013, at 11:17 PM, tloallergyfree@earthlink.net wrote:

> 
> When I farmed in Minnesota we often used oats as a nurse crop with a mix of red clover and alsike clover. The oats would be cut and harvested in early fall, and as oats are an annual crop, they wouldn't be there to compete with the clover in late fall....or the next year.
>  There were several reasons for using oats with clover; one, the oats made a cash crop that year, whereas the clover wouldn't be ready to harvest (for hay, or as cattle pasture) until the next year. This is probably the main reason for the nurse crop of oats. The second reason, as already mentioned, is that the oats sprout and grow fast and crowd out many weeds. The small clover seed grows just fine in and among the oat plants. We sometimes used this same oats nurse crop with alfalfa.
>  In a very different way, I now often use cuttings of ivy or willow as nurse crops for more difficult to root cuttings of other species. The ivy and the willow cuttings root fast and seem to impart something symbiotic to the other cuttings. Also, because the roots of the ivy or the willow soon fill the small containers, this keeps the slower-to-root cuttings from getting waterlogged (and then rotting), as the ivy or willow roots quickly soak up water. 
> 
> Tom Ogren
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp <thehoosiergardener@gmail.com>
>> Sent: Jul 4, 2013 6:18 PM
>> To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] nurse crops
>> 
>> I researched this online and with someone else before posting. I saw the Wikipedia explanation, but it just wasn't coming through to me. 
>> 
>> So in the example I gave, you'd sow oats and legume at the same time and the oats would die and the legumes would take over?
>> 
>> jems
>> 

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