Re: Growing alfalfa for plowing under
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Growing alfalfa for plowing under
- From: J* M* <m*@bcgrizzly.com>
- Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 11:41:54 -0600 (MDT)
At 08:48 AM 7/10/97 -0600, 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.
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Please do not try seeding alfalfa into your soil. It is both slow and
expensive but it is also a devilish weed when it is in the wrong place and
I guarantee that you will define your garden as the wrong place if you get
it there.
Cover cropping or green manuring is a very beneficial practice in which
some crop usually a cereal grass is planted and allowed to grow to the
stage of beginning to form buds and then plowing it into the soil. This
puts valuable humus into the soil and perhaps even more importantly, it
prevents much wind and water erosion. I think that there is nothing more
damaging to soil than to leave it bare. I am not a big advocate of the use
of herbicides but I do think that their careful use is far less damaging to
the environment than is summer fallowing (that is weed supression by
repeated cultivation). That leads to incredible amounts of the best soil
ending up on river and lake beds and coincidentally ruining fish spawning
grounds. We try to keep our soil growing something at all times.
Buckwheat is not bad but it can't be sowed in the fall. It needs warm soil
for germination - generally a July or August sowing here. If sowed in
cooler weather, many of the seeds will wait until the next summer to
germinate and thus becomes a weed. For fall(Sept) sowing, annual rye is
good for winter protection of the soil and is easy to work in the following
spring. It is expensive though. Our advice from Agriculture Canada is that
you get the most bang for your buck from oats. One advantage is that it
will germinate readily in very early spring or the heat of summer. It grows
quickly and is a good weed supressant and it provides more solid materials
in the shortest time. In addition a patch of juvenile oats is most
attractive with it's lush green. If you feel it necessary you can help with
a serious weed problem by spraying over the oats with a broadleaf herbicide.
Before the organic brigade starts coming at me with sharpened dandelion
diggers, I would like to say that there is nothing natural or organic about
hoes or tillers. The closest which nature comes to these implements is
gophers, moles and earthworms and they do not lay the topsoil bare as they
work. Rotary tillers in particular can do damage to your soil. If you till
repeatedly at the same depth you will create a hard pan which will present
drainage and other problems. If your space and your energy permit it, the
best implement is a spade for tilling a garden bed.
A final thought. I am wondering if the often recommended method of "double
digging" is a good practice. On the surface it seems to me that it is not
wise to change the soil profile by exchanging top soil with sub soil. I
would welcome comments on this.
Off my soapbox and apologizing for the length of this message.
John Montgomery
onashee@bcgrizzly.com
Vernon BC Zone 5
Where last year we had record precipitation and st this time in 1997 we
have already had as much precipitation as we had by mid Sept. last year.
