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Re: *!?#@! CROWN VETCH

On March 25, 1998, Carl Kurtz wrote:

^We tried to reconstruct a diverse prairie community in a field infested
^with a number of colonies of crown vetch 5 years ago.  For one year
^preceeding planting, we first sprayed the patches, then kept the soil 
bare
^by disking throughout the entire season, planting in the fall.  It 
appeared
^that while we may have killed the mature plants we spread vetch seed over
^the south 1/2 of the field and it came up and established small patches 
by
^the dozen.  We then commenced spraying it once a season with 2-4-D, to
^avoid killing the establishing grasses and it now appears after five 
years
^we have achieved nearly complete control.  It is almost impossible to 
pull
^and get all the roots from even a small colony.  In retrospect I would 
have
^planted the field to corn, then soybeans before planting the prairie.  
Our
^established prairie now looks great, but is short on forbs where we were
^forced to spray the crown vetch, and we will have to monitor it for years
^in the future.

Karl, what is your thinking about planting the field first to corn, then 
to 
soybeans?  Someone earlier commented that the crown vetch seeds persisted 
in
the soil for several years.  Would planting your field first to corn, 
then 
soybeans have altered that in some way? I'm curious because I have a 55 
acre
field which I intend to restore to prairie beginning in three years and 
I'm
thinking about the best way to prepare the soil.  Currently it's rotated 
with
corn and soybeans.  Is there something useful about this?


Gordon Fuqua
e-mail: pfuqua@ix.netcom.com
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