permaculture

["Yaya Balinci" <yaya@telus.net>]

Is pigweed the same as ameranth?
What are the benefits of morning glory (bindweed)?
Regards
Yaya Balinci

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon@mindspring.com>
Newsgroups: permaculture
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2000 12:50 PM
Subject: Re: Chemical Residuals


> On Sun, 19 Nov 2000 12:57:44 -0500, Hugh Lovel <uai@alltel.net> wrote:
>
> >
> >Lawrence London writes:
> >>
> >>I get tired of hearing complaints about kudzu, Johnson grass, pigweed,
> >>morning glory (bindweed?) and other wonderful plants.
> >>So much of the public has been brainwashed into believing that these
> >>are generally bad, useless and a nuisance, when the opposite is true.
> >>Many have neither the interest or imagination to envision a world
> >>where these plants are respected and used in a multitude of ways. I
> >>have an old ag textbook, in fact several of them, that describe the
> >>culture and management of kudzu for animal feed,
> >>i.e. a standard, often used forage crop. If it were taken seriously
> >>for its value as an economic plant then management of it would also be
> >>taken seriously, i.e. not letting it become invasive. That is an
> >>interesting challenge for farmers. Of course the state of present day
> >>agriculture precludes this mostly because of the dominance of larger
> >>conventional farms and the pricing structure of farm products.
> >>Lawrence F. London, Jr.
> >
> >
> >This is ever so right-on Lawrence!
> >
> >For example, travel where you will you NEVER see a pasture with animals
in
> >it that has kudzu. Why? Because it is easily grazed to death and is the
> >very best of animal feed. If we managed it rightly, of course, we would
> >turn the animals in and graze it down a bit and then take them off again
> >for a spell so we didn't kill it. Everything from cows to rabbits loves
it
> >and gets fat and shiny from eating it. It is one of the most beneficial
> >plants for the soil as where it grows for any length of time the soil
> >becomes rich, dark and crumbly. If the many, many acres in parks,
roadsides
> >and waste/wild lands presently overrun in Kudzu were fences and grazed
> >instead of herbicided we would take a major step toward environmental
> >repair  in the world.
>
> There is _no_ excuse for herbiciding these plants, no reason at all
> when there are better, less expensive and damaging alternatives
> for control.
>
> Controlling Johnson grass and wild mustard, and to a lesser extent
> Bermuda, crabgrass, pigweed, lamb's quarters and a number of other
> invasive, persistent annual and perenial weeds in working farm fields
> where grass/grain/bean crops need to be grown, is a serious issue for
> conventional farmers. Johnson grass, for example, is a huge problem if
> allowed to spread by seed or by rhizome as well. The seeds get in the
> tractors and implements and get spread to other fields if not blown
> off with air or water hose.  These plants compete with crops for
> space, nutrients and water, but worse, if allowed to go to seed, get
> harvested, especially in hay, and get spread wherever the hay is
> distributed; if out in the field for beef cattle, sheep or goats, then
> it will be there when that field is put/rotated from grazing to crop.
> The bottom line is to eradicate it mechanically and with cover crops
> before putting in grass/grain/bean crops or even use it for grazing.
> I will have to say that I _know_ that this can be done as I have done
> it on a small scale. With the right kind of tillage, fertilizing and
> cover cropping you _can_ replace Johnson
> grass-Bermuda-pigweed-crabgrass-infested fields with fescue and
> lespedeza - or kudzu! Follow this with a no-till cropping system
> where the soil is not inverted or otherwise disturbed where the weed
> seed bank can germinate and you will be on your way to
> clean soil for food/forage cropping. This scheme can be employed on
> cropland with varying grades, even hillsides.
> The trick is to begin by tilling with chisel plow, Soil Saver or
> Yeomans plow then follow with hilling discs, compost and seeder.

> Hilling discs create much more than mere ridges and furrows; if
> adjusted properly (40hp tractor with a pair of opposed
> hilling disc sets) they will leave a giant hill between the tires of
> the tractor. If tilled properly, at the right time, in advance  of
> hilling, the dirt will resemble a brown ocean breaker rolling along
> as it passes through the discs to fall into a neat, wide rounded pile
> as the tractor moves across the field. Plants that grow on these hills
> will flourish and grow over and cover the deep ditches between the
> hills. You get aeration, shade, moisture retention and  less
> competition for seeded crops from weeds that may initially germinate.
> The fescue will begin to dominate but the lespedeza will prevail over
> time crowding out nearly everything else. This is a one-time procedure
> to interrupt the cycling of weeds and will require that the restored
> field be left fallow for a number of years. A little hand pulling of
> Johnson grass seedheads and plants may be necessary the first year or
> two. I did this and got rid of it entirely;  the fescue and lespedeza
> rapidly filled in the gaps left behind. A field repaired this way can
> be grazed or put in orchard or small fruit over time.When I had my
> field done I had the hilling discs cut a single hill, with accompaning
> ditches on either side, across the field, perpendicular to the other
> hills, which themselves ran _with_ the grade, every forty feet (the
> span of a small Rainbird sprinkler). This created a dam to obstruct
> rainwater runoff and increase water retention and percolation in the
> soil, a kind of mini-swale. I feel that this is a technique that would
> help many farmers solve a variety of problems that may have with
> some of their fields. Land improved this way could easily be adapted
> to alley cropping schemes.
>
> I will take pictures of my experiment and put them online. It would be
> fun to experiment on a larger scale, like 1000 acres with plenty of
> equipment, compost, water, good soil and a big bankroll.
>
> >Johnson grass, water hyacinth, bamboo and many other despised plants
should
> >be looked at in the same fashion. You are so right! So right! And also so
> >right on the current institutional arrangements being in the way of these
> >beneficial things happening. This is why I ran as the Green Party
candidate
> >for Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture in 1998 and is why a vote for
> >either Gore or Bush in the latest election was a wasted vote.
>
> I would love to see a good mixture of Greens, Libertarians, Democrats
> and Republicans run US politics without any one of them dominating.
>
>
>
> >
> >Warm regards,
> >
> >Hugh Lovel
> >Union Agricultural Institute
> >Blairsville, Georgia
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> Lawrence F. London, Jr.
> lflondon@mindspring.com
> london@metalab.unc.edu
> http://www.ibiblio.org/london
> http://www.ibiblio.org/permaculture
>
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