Re: Growing alfalfa for plowing under, and black medick

On Thu 10 Jul 1997 Mark, Maureen wrote:
> 
> Buckwheat or rye is normally used for this purpose as you don't need to =
> sacrifice acreage.  You sow it late summer and plow it under in the Spring. =
> =
>  I 'm not sure why alfalfa is not used for this purpose.  Perhaps its is not=
>  =
> a fast growing, or perhaps it is more expensive.
> 
> Maureen
> mark.maureen@fin.gc.ca
> Ottawa -- where we have ideal weather, a few days of rain during the week =
> and marvelous sunny warm weekends
>  ----------


Make sure that's ANNUAL ryegrass you plant, not perennial, or you'll 
have to contend w/it forever! Annual makes a dandy cover crop for fall 
and winter, but it dies and you just plow it under in spring, wait a 
couple of weeks for it to break down, and then plant. Or you can sift it 
out and put it in your newest compost heap.

Alfalfa plants put down such prodigiously long roots that you'll have 
THAT forever too, not that that's bad, because you can keep it mowed off 
and add that to your compost heap. We have black medick in our lawn and 
fields (a short-growing legume w/little yellow balls of bloom), but it 
has short roots and we could yank it up and plant grass if we so chose. 
But it's so pretty and short that we don't (we have an acre-plus of 
lawn). When we mow and rake the fescue fields the medick takes over 
there too. The name comes from the nearly-black seedpod it produces, and 
the island of Medea. 

Barb Johnson        ljohnson@cland.net
Southwest Missouri Ozarks     USDA Zone 5b     AIS Region 18 (MO & KS)
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