Improving Heavy Land For Alfalfa
Categories:
Grains and Forage Crops
My land is very heavy, red loam, and crusts over very hard in dry
seasons. I would like to know if it would be best to use barnyard
compost over the surface as a mulch, or would it be best to use plain
straw for that purpose?
A very heavy soil can be brought into better surface condition for
alfalfa by plowing in stable manure as soon as possible after the fall
rains, in order that the manure may have opportunity to become
disintegrated and mixed with the soil by the time for alfalfa sowing,
which is from February to April - whenever the heavy frosts of the
locality are over. For a small piece, you might get a better stand by
using a light mulch of disintegrated coarse manure or even straw,
scattering it after the sowing, but for a large acreage this would
involve too much labor. It is not desirable to work in much manure or
other coarse stuff at the time of sowing the seed, but you can make a
light surface application after the plant has made a start.