Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
clippings in the tree rows provide habitat for mice and voles, and you will
the crop and time of year, the increased reflectance of light from alfalfa clip-
ping-mulched rows can increase fruit sunburn in some climates or help color
fruits where light intensity is lower.
In an innovative trial, British Columbia fruit researchers found that
Equis-
etum arvense
(horsetail or scouring rush) “greatly reduced the annual weed
populations in the tree row without significant competition to established
apples in a high-density planting.” Horsetail is a common and aggressive
“weed” on moist soils and is very difficult to kill. In this case, the weed itself
became an effective weed management practice. Foliar testing of the apple
trees showed that the
Equisetum
caused little, if any, competition with the
trees for nitrogen.
In the same trials, four perennial herbs were tested as possible living
mulches:
Arabis alpina
,
Cerastium tomentosum
,
Saponaria ocymoides
, and
Thymus serphyllum
. The
Saponaria ocymoides
filled in the fastest and
provided good early weed suppression. The
Arabis
and
Thymus
also pro-
duced good coverage and showed promise as living mulches. The
Cerastium
gave the poorest results.
