Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
face for 20 years. On soils that experience moderate to severe frost heaving,
sod-forming grasses are probably better suited as perennial alley crops if
sufficient soil moisture or irrigation is available for their establishment and
maintenance.
White Clover
White clovers can make good orchard cover crops. They establish quickly,
provide good weed suppression, and add nitrogen to the soil. White clover
stands are often fairly short-lived, however, and typically need to be re-
seeded every few years. In my Idaho trials, white clover thinned out to a few
scattered clumps within 3 years, leaving mostly the sheep and hard fescue
grasses. Depending on your location, certain other clovers can also be used
as orchard cover crops and are longer-lived. In practice, blends of several dif-
ferent clovers are more effective than monocultures of a single species.
Table
ing white or yellow sweet clover (
Melilotus
sp.), which are highly aggressive,
invasive, and hard to control in orchards. These crops are best used for for-
age production and are classified as invasive species in some areas of North
America.
One drawback with all clovers is that their roots, rhizomes, and seeds
are attractive to rodents. Should you choose to include clovers in your orch-
ard understory, also include an aggressive rodent control program (see page
Orchard Grass and Tall Fescues
These are used successfully as perennial alley crops in home and commercial
orchards. They require more frequent mowing than low-growing fescues, but
they are more aggressive at competing with weeds and tolerate frost heav-
ing in the soil much better. Orchard grass and tall fescues produce large
amounts of clippings that can be blown into the fruit crop rows as mulch. A
commercially available blend of perennial ryegrass and creeping red fescue,
known as Companion grass, has proven popular in many different kinds of
