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  • onion bed prep question

    From T@21:1/5 to All on Thu Aug 1 15:33:38 2024
    Hi All,

    My onion bed is empty except for the purslane I am using
    for ground cover. I am getting ready to re-seed it.

    I have my alfalfa meal ready to go.

    Do I first pull out the purslane or plow it under?

    And do I plow under the alfalfa under or just water
    it in. Package say I can just water it in, but your
    advice?

    I plan in seeding new onions the last week of August.

    Many thanks,
    -T

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  • From T@21:1/5 to songbird on Thu Aug 1 21:20:05 2024
    On 8/1/24 19:36, songbird wrote:
    T wrote:
    Hi All,

    My onion bed is empty except for the purslane I am using
    for ground cover. I am getting ready to re-seed it.

    I have my alfalfa meal ready to go.

    Do I first pull out the purslane or plow it under?

    And do I plow under the alfalfa under or just water
    it in. Package say I can just water it in, but your
    advice?

    I plan in seeding new onions the last week of August.

    Many thanks,
    -T

    how big of an area?

    10 feet long by 2 feet wide by 1-1/2 foot deep.
    1/2 peat moss and 1/2 lake bottom silt. I call
    it a ground trough.


    are you trying to control and reduce the purslane
    population?

    No, I want it for ground cover. And I occasionally eat it.
    When it grows around my plants, it keep evaporation down too.

    So plow it under? It will have zero problem as it
    reseeds itself on a massive scale.

    in an arid climate you'll probably want the meal
    mixed in at least a little bit to keep it from drying
    out and blowing away. keep the area moist enough to
    give the bacteria and fungi something to work with.
    also you will probably have to weed it again more
    than once the next month if you keep it moist enough.

    Will do.

    if you can smother the area with cardboard after
    removing the purslane then you shouldn't have any
    other sprouts until after you take the cardboard
    back up. some people use black plastic or old
    carpeting or whatever else they can find but
    cardboard works pretty well as some oxygen does get
    through it.

    Thank you
    -T

    songbird

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From songbird@21:1/5 to All on Thu Aug 1 22:36:05 2024
    T wrote:
    Hi All,

    My onion bed is empty except for the purslane I am using
    for ground cover. I am getting ready to re-seed it.

    I have my alfalfa meal ready to go.

    Do I first pull out the purslane or plow it under?

    And do I plow under the alfalfa under or just water
    it in. Package say I can just water it in, but your
    advice?

    I plan in seeding new onions the last week of August.

    Many thanks,
    -T

    how big of an area?

    are you trying to control and reduce the purslane
    population?

    in an arid climate you'll probably want the meal
    mixed in at least a little bit to keep it from drying
    out and blowing away. keep the area moist enough to
    give the bacteria and fungi something to work with.
    also you will probably have to weed it again more
    than once the next month if you keep it moist enough.

    if you can smother the area with cardboard after
    removing the purslane then you shouldn't have any
    other sprouts until after you take the cardboard
    back up. some people use black plastic or old
    carpeting or whatever else they can find but
    cardboard works pretty well as some oxygen does get
    through it.


    songbird

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)