Renewing
Category:
ALFALFA
Alfalfa may be renewed and also renovated where the stand
secured at the first has been insufficient, where it may have been
injured from various causes, where it is being crowded with weeds, and
even with useful grasses, and where the land requires enriching.
The stand of alfalfa secured is sometimes thin and uneven. This may
arise from such causes as sowing too little seed; whether over-dry or
through the crowding of the young plants. When this happens, in many
situations it is quite practicable to thicken the stand by disking the
ground more or less, adding fresh seed, according to the need of the
crop, and then covering the seed thus added with the harrow. Such
renovation would be comparatively easy on clean land, were it not for
fact that the alfalfa plants already rooted overshadow the young plants,
always to their injury, and sometimes to their total destruction. The
spring will probably be the best season to attempt such renovation, but
there may be instances where the winters are not severe, in which autumn
seeding will succeed as well or better than spring seeding. Because of
the uncertainty of the results of such renovation, the aim should be so
to prepare the land and sow the seed that a good, thick stand will be
secured at the first.
Should the alfalfa fields be spotted, because in places the nurse crop
lodged and smothered the plants, or because excessive moisture destroyed
them on the lower portions of the field in an abnormally wet season,
the renewing process is simple indeed. It consists in disking those
parts so thoroughly as to destroy all vegetation that may have become
rooted on them, and sowing seed in the usual way without a nurse crop.
But should the low places be such as to hold an excess of water at any
time of the year under normal conditions for days in succession, even
though it should not rise to the surface, the attempts to make alfalfa
grow successfully on these will prove abortive.
When weeds and grasses crowd the crop, the plan of disking the fields to
destroy these is becoming quite common, especially in the West. The work
is usually done in the early spring. In doing it, disk harrows are
driven over the field, usually two ways, the second disking being done
at right angles to the first. The disks are set at that angle which will
do the least injury to the plants, and that will at the same time do the
work effectively. This can only be determined by actual test in each
instance. Some of the crowns of the plants will be split open by the
disk, which some authorities claim is an advantage in that it tends to
an increase in the number of the stems produced, an opinion which is by
no means held in common at the present time, and yet there are
localities where it has certainly proved advantageous. Occasionally, a
plant will be cut off. There can be no doubt, however, that such
disking, when necessary, does tend to clean the land and also to
strengthen growth in the alfalfa crop, on the principle that cultivation
which does not seriously disturb growing plants is always helpful to
them. The frequency of such diskings will depend on the needs of the
crop. Some advocate disking every spring, some every other spring, and
some not at all. That plan which disks the ground only when it is
necessary to keep the weeds at bay would seem to be the most sensible.
This would mean that sometimes, as where crab grass has a firm hold,
disking may be necessary at least for a time every spring. In other
instances it would be necessary only every second or third season, and
in yet other instances not at all. However, some growers in dry areas
advocate disking frequently, as, for instance, after some of the
cuttings of the hay, and with a view to retain moisture. It is at least
questionable, however, if disking so frequently would not soon tend to
thin the plants too much, to say nothing of the labor while the work is
being done.
The idea of stirring the surface soil in alfalfa fields is by no means
new. In England the plan prevailed to some extent years ago of harrowing
the fields in the autumn with heavy harrows until, when the process was
completed, they would take on the appearance of the bare fallow for a
time. In the Eastern States and in some parts of Canada the harrow is
used instead of the disk, but usually the latter will do the work more
effectively and with less cost. Frequently, when the disk has been used
on alfalfa, it may also be advantageous to run a light harrow over the
ground to smoothen the surface.
With a view to renovate the crop and increase the yields, in some
sections, as in the Atlantic States, it has been recommended to
top-dress alfalfa fields with farmyard manure every autumn. This, no
doubt, would prove very effective, but it would also be very expensive,
unless in the neighborhood of large cities. It would be impracticable
without neglecting the needs of the other crops of the farm. In the
mountain areas of the West, it has been found that the cost of
fertilizing with farmyard manure is in the meantime greater than the
increased production in the alfalfa is worth, but it may not be always
thus, even on these rich lands. Some Eastern growers also apply more or
less gypsum. This is generally sown over the fields after the crop has
begun to grow in the spring.
Renovating alfalfa fields is much more easily and effectively done, as
would naturally be expected, in areas where conditions are highly
favorable to its growth than where these are only moderately favorable.
In some of the mountain valleys instances have occurred in which alfalfa
fields have been plowed and sown with oats, with a result, first that a
good crop of oats was reaped, and second, that fairly good crops of
alfalfa were harvested the following season without re-sowing the field.
Next:
Sources Of Injury To AlfalfaPrevious:
Securing Seed
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