To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] mowing orchards
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:58:56 -0400
My approach is similar to Mark's although I do grow small flowered herbs
in my mulched tree area with the intent of increasing beneficials. I
have grass in 5 foot paths between my rows of trees in beds. These paths
are mowed. I heavily mulch the beds with wood chips, I do some small
amount of hand weeding, I use glyphosate sparingly along the edge
between the mulched bed grass paths. I do not spray in the beds due to
herbs and root stock suckers. I use a weed whacker to create an edge
between grass and bed a few times per season.
I have dwarf trees and their branches start 1 -2 feet off the ground.
They extend over the mulch so mowing is not an issue.