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["Gloria Morris" <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>]

On 2/14/07, EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:
> Well, I can't grow alfalfa here, either.  I think maybe our summers are
> too hot?  I don't know.  We do have clay, but my pasture is rocky
> acidic, not loamy acidic. :)  There's no way you can harrow it.
> I've done the hand broadcast thing on my 7 acre pasture, so I know
> what's involved in that...wow, what a job!

Bev, my soil was on the acid side of the pH scale. Chicory will grow
in that, as did the alfalfa. You have to lime the soil from time to
time to moderate the acidity. Frost seeding does not require that you
be able to harrow the ground. Frost seeding depends mostly on the soil
heaving as it goes through freeze-thaw cycles. I just ran one of those
flexible harrows such as one uses to drag a pasture and break up
manure, to aid a bit in soil contact - that's the only implement I had
availalbe! But if you couldn't get even one of those drags across the
ground, if you planted before spring thaw you might get a stand. I
don't know, though, about the maximum temperatures that either chicory
or alfalfa can tolerate, nor do I know if either requires a longer
period of winter dormancy than your climate offers.

> This is kind of off the topic, but it has me worried...Glo are you on an
> ancient sand blow?  Something that might have been created in the
> 1811-1812 New Madrid quakes?  If so, you probably have a high water
> table..something to think about and prepare for.

According to the DNR, geologically speaking, Sand Ridge is what it is
because the sand deposits were left here when the waters from melting
glaciers at the end of the last ice age deposited massive amounts of
sand here as the waters drained away down the river valley. Following
the ice age, there was a period of extreme dryness and warmth, which
is how we ended up with cactus here (unusual for Illinois). We are
over a big aquifer. But I suspect that the water table might also be a
high where I live. I'm in a bit of a valley here, and I note that
there are no basements amongst my neighbors' homes, except for a few
homes with walk-out basements. That is one thing I need to ascertain
before I build a storm/root cellar. I may have to look into an
above-ground shelter, or mound earth over a semi-buried shelter.

Gloria