North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] Best groundcover for (home) orchard

Comfrey is a great soil builder, but it's not good in the orchard.  It brings up minerals from deep in the soil and really loosens hard, clay soils, but it's so juicy it's a mess to mow.  Best use I ever saw of it was by a woman who had two acres separate from the orchard.  She cut it regularly with a sickle bar mower and put it in the orchard as mulch.  Her peaches and nectarines were the best I've ever tasted anywhere.
-Lon Rombough
>

> Not using chemical herbicides or mechanical tilling, 
> I'm not going to be able to keep the ground bare.  
> What would be a good groundcover?  Does dutch clover 
> or subterranean clover add too much N for the pears 
> and apples?  vetch?  How about comfrey - that uses up 
> N and is deep rooted, does it compete with the trees? 
>
> Is "orchard grass" as difficult to keep under control 
> as the grass and weed mix we have now?  We have to mow
>
> every week or two, which is way too much work.
>
> Lisa in Ashland Oregon
> USDA Z7 - Sunset Z7 - 1800' - 19" annual rainfall
>
>
>  
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