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  • Alfalfa as a landscape plant

    From bob prohaska@21:1/5 to All on Thu May 21 19:04:42 2020
    Just for fun I'm trying to propagate alfalfa as a landscape
    plant. There seem to be a few feral plants along roadsides
    that can stay green well into summer with no irrigation.
    The flowers aren't spectacular, but pleasant to look at.

    The goal is a low -(ideally, -zero) water groundcover around the
    house that also fixes nitrogen. Pollinator habitat is a plus.

    Anybody else tried it?

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to bob prohaska on Fri May 22 08:29:05 2020
    bob prohaska wrote:
    Just for fun I'm trying to propagate alfalfa as a landscape
    plant. There seem to be a few feral plants along roadsides
    that can stay green well into summer with no irrigation.
    The flowers aren't spectacular, but pleasant to look at.

    The goal is a low -(ideally, -zero) water groundcover around the
    house that also fixes nitrogen. Pollinator habitat is a plus.

    Anybody else tried it?

    i've used it as a green manure crop. it takes a few
    years to get a decent sized plant established before
    you would want to trim it. the stem part of the plant
    is not pleasant to walk on so you wouldn't want this
    as a lawn plant where you plan on walking barefoot.

    i also used birdsfoot trefoil.

    both are excellent green manure plants. can be
    harvested a few times a season depending upon where
    you are at.

    downsides. both can drop a lot of seeds and the
    trefoil is even more so able to spread those seeds
    around.

    i've been removing the trefoil as it just spreads
    those seeds too much. instead i am now using a low
    growing creeping thyme. takes more time to weed and
    is not a green manure crop, but it works much better
    as an edge plant.

    i didn't transplant any alfalfa but planted from
    seeds. with the deep roots that alfalfa can get it
    wouldn't be that fun to transplant. just get a few
    seeds and then grow them. i recommend using a
    nursery crop (buckwheat) when spreading alfalfa for
    a larger area. the buckwheat will help keep weeds
    down and protect the alfalfa while it gets
    established.

    songbird

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  • From John McGaw@21:1/5 to bob prohaska on Fri May 22 16:42:31 2020
    On 5/21/2020 3:04 PM, bob prohaska wrote:
    Just for fun I'm trying to propagate alfalfa as a landscape
    plant. There seem to be a few feral plants along roadsides
    that can stay green well into summer with no irrigation.
    The flowers aren't spectacular, but pleasant to look at.

    The goal is a low -(ideally, -zero) water groundcover around the
    house that also fixes nitrogen. Pollinator habitat is a plus.

    Anybody else tried it?

    Thanks for reading,

    bob prohaska




    Well, I've got safflower plants coming up in great numbers where the seeds
    were dropped from the bird feeder and the squirrels, chipmunks, and ground-feeding birds failed to pick them up. After I finally run out of
    seed and the animals leave the area I'll have to figure out how to clean
    out all of them along with the detritus from between the river rocks that
    cover the area.

    --
    Bodger's Dictum: Artifical intelligence
    can never overcome natural stupidity.

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  • From bob prohaska@21:1/5 to songbird on Fri May 22 21:16:50 2020
    songbird <songbird@anthive.com> wrote:

    i didn't transplant any alfalfa but planted from
    seeds. with the deep roots that alfalfa can get it
    wouldn't be that fun to transplant. just get a few
    seeds and then grow them. i recommend using a
    nursery crop (buckwheat) when spreading alfalfa for
    a larger area. the buckwheat will help keep weeds
    down and protect the alfalfa while it gets
    established.


    I tried starting from seed, but pillbugs, snails and slugs
    ate the vast majority of the alfalfa sprouts. Then I found https://stockingerlab.osu.edu/sites/stockinger/files/imce/PDFs/Protocols/AlfalfaVegetativePropagationByStemCuttings.pdf
    and gave it a try, expecting a minimal success rate.

    The initial success rate was over 50%, and likely most of my
    failures were from wrong (excessive) watering, as I was using
    containers. Direct starts in the ground work around 75% of the
    time. Growth is rapid, with blooming in a couple of months.
    Root development is surprisingly good, quickly coiling in the
    bottom of a 1-quart pot. The first heat test is coming up this
    weekend, with 100+F temps forecast through the coming week.

    It isn't at all apparent that the taproot is essential. Maybe,
    but at least it's possible to set up an initial population. If
    it needs irrigation for the first year that's no worse than
    seedlings.

    The risk of alfalfa becoming a nuisance seems minimal; it's
    been grown around here (southern Sacramento valley) for over
    a century and is still not commonplace. A spectacular contrast
    to star thistle.....8-(

    Thanks for writing!

    bob prohaska

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