Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[dconine@dotnet.com]

I liked the logic of one speaker at a recent local farm meeting; he said that 
Nature makes seeds a certain size and weight to determine how deep they will 
go in the soil. In other words, Almost all seeds are designed for frost 
seeding, as long as they get enough time to 'settle' from frost/thaw and 
rainfall without getting washed away or eaten by birds and mice. 
They will find their depth and germinate. 

You can look up 'frost seeding' (hoping that's the term you need), and there 
are some university sites for tips and seeds per acre, etc. 

Most of the alfalfa and clovers work pretty well. I've done some where I used 
the grain drill to scatter seed on a grassy field where I didn't get a good 
stand, and the alfalfa came in pretty nice (unfortunately, it's hard to tell 
where you missed without markers until second crop comes in ;-(..)

For grains, I recommend oats, as the hulls protect them from rot a little 
longer, and they germinate early, but I'm in a colder climate, so don't go by 
that for your area.  They will help shade and hold moisture so the alfalfa or 
clover get a better start. Check the extension sites, and search for 'hay 
frost seeding' or just 'frost seeding'
IF you can get out and roll the seed down for better soil contact when the 
ground is still frozen, but starting to thaw, it could help a lot with 
germination rates (and cost of seed).

Dan
Wisconsin

> Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:23:11 -0700
> From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
> Subject: [Livingontheland] My turn
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <200702172323110190.08855284@mail.lobo.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> 
> I'm having trouble searching for something. Anyone tell me what kind of
> grains or legumes will sprout by broadcasting on bare ground or stubble
> without any soil cover? I need a large area with greenery for rabbit
> diversion and compost material.
> 
> 
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
> 
>