North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Djubaya" <Djubaya@catchtail.com>]

My method is to plant Comfrey 24-36" away from the base of all my trees.
When it grows to 24" high I cut it to the ground and layer the leaves at
the base of the tree as a mulch. 

The Comfrey also helps let me know when I need to water. It will wilt
when the soil is dry to around 8"- 10" deep.

I also plant fava/Red clover/Vetch/Horse Raddish/Mustard & sometimes
Dicon Raddish at the base of most of my trees as well. These plants pull
nutrients and mineral from different levels of the soil, as well as
different types of minerals.

Another easy much system is to spread rock dust on the ground around the
base of the tree (at drip line) then ring the tree with straw bales
about 36" form base of the trunk (4 bales will usually do) then just cut
the strings and walk away. In a year the bales will be almost completely
turned into earthworm castings. To speed up the process of decay add a
few shovels full of compost or rich top soil.

Good luck,

Djubaya

Sonoma County, California. USDA Zone 8
 
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-----Original Message-----

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

********************************************  

Catchtail Home & Gardens

http://www.Catchtail.com/
 
Djubaya@Comcast.net 

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete"

-R. Buckminster Fuller 

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still
plant my apple tree.

- Martin Luther King Jr., quoting Martin Luther