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Post By pumpkin
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Post By motdaugrnds
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Post By lawguy
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Post By geo in mi
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Post By ronbre
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06/27/12, 10:40 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NE WA
Posts: 2,275
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Orchard floor planting?
Have a small fenced orchard (30 fruit trees) in which the weeds are taking over.... what would be a good thing to plant? Thinking of wheat, as the chickens are in there as well- clover, something easy to maintain.
Advice?
Thanks!
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06/27/12, 10:51 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 800
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I'd say clover over wheat. I assume you'd be harvesting the wheat and I could forsee two problems. One would be the difficulty in the harvest, assuming you have to swing a scicle, and Second, the depletion of nutrients that the trees would need.
Clover would instead enrich the soil under the trees and once the trees are bigger you could use the orchard for grazing animals larger than chickens.
A third alterative is just ignore the weeds. The land under my orchard is left as is, with the native grasses filling in the space.
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06/27/12, 11:30 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NE WA
Posts: 2,275
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We would leave it, but the wormwood is taking over, as well as noxious weeds. (hoary allysum in our area) I was thinking wheat for the chickens sake, not necessarily to harvest... but nutrient depletion is an issue. I may plant hairy vetch, as that is a native weed that also builds the soil, as well as the clover.
Thanks, MichaelK!
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06/27/12, 11:43 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 800
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InHisName
I was thinking wheat for the chickens sake, not necessarily to harvest... but nutrient depletion is an issue. I may plant hairy vetch, as that is a native weed that also builds the soil, as well as the clover.
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If that is the case, I'd go with all three. I don't have any idea if wheat and clover/vetch co-exist well. You could have some fun here. Try a little patch of wheat by itself, clover by itself, and a mix. Should be interesting to find out what is most productive. Then you'll have an interesting post to tell us about next year.
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06/27/12, 11:59 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 4,353
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maybe lori christie will chime in? she did a permaculure planting in her orchard. I don't remember what she put in there though. Stuff that is useful and helps the trees, I think.
Not much help today, am I? L! Maybe I'll remember after coffee this a.m. =)
Cindyc.
__________________
"Relish your reading. Make note of the melody of the phrases, the architecture of the page. Let the joy of discovery soak right down to your bones!" Dr. George Grant (paraphrased)
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06/27/12, 12:03 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: True Northern California
Posts: 13,459
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This is a vague "rings a bell" sort of thought but I believe that the seeds of many vetches are fairly toxic, I don't know if that is to chickens.
Have you thought about dandelion? I have always considered it to be a great plant.
I think it's going to always be some kind of maintenance issue as the chickens will avoid eating the toxic things so those weeds will prosper. Maybe a rotational chicken grazing might help.
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06/27/12, 12:12 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Northern Michigan (U.P.)
Posts: 9,491
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IMHO, kill the weeds with Roundup and 2,4D. Be very careful not to get it on the tree leaves. Then in late August, after you've controled the weeds, plant Rye. Rye tends to stunt weeds. Then next spring, broadcast clover and orchard grass or brome.
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06/27/12, 12:33 PM
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 284
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We went with clover. It sure attracted the bees!
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06/27/12, 01:11 PM
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II Corinthians 5:7
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia
Posts: 8,126
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We have several different things growing in our orchard; some useful for animals and some for ourselves and some for the fruit trees/bushes.
Comfrey is planted between the bushes and some trees.
Garlic is planted around the trunks to deter insects.
Mint is planted next to the trunk as ground cover (and for human use).
Orchard grass is planted from driplines over rest of orchard area for harvesting (goat's feed).
We also let Evening Primrose grow wherever it wants to as the bad bugs LOVE to eat on it and, by so doing, mostly leave our fruit treasures alone.
We also let wild strawberries grow wherever they want because David harvests the leaves for extracts for human use; and chickweed makes a good ground cover as the fowl love it and it can be mowed up with the grass for goat feed. We also have a sprinkling of red clover growing (the flowers for human use) and it can be harvested with the chickweed, strawberries and orchard grass for the goats.
All these help maintain moisture in the soil and help feed the soil as well.
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06/27/12, 02:36 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: nebraska
Posts: 1,586
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One fact to be considered is if you ever spray insecticide on the trees. If you spray you do not want a bee attracting flowering plant on the orchard floor eg. clover. If a no spray orchard s short clover like white dutch clover may be good. The type of rootstock and maturity of trees should also be considered. Dwarf rootstocks and young trees do not deal well with competition. NE washington, I assume you are not blessed with an over abundance of rainfall. A short early season grass that goes dormant in summer may be idea, canadian blue grass? Possibley a short native grass, blue grama or hairy grama or buffalo grass these would require no mowing.
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06/27/12, 03:21 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: W. Oregon
Posts: 8,754
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Oats and peas planted between rows (we used a grain drill, 1 pass each row) then broadcast clover everywhere except close to tree. Or plant clover with drill, mixed all together, then go crosways seeding clover only. The peas and oats are 1 year, clover will be the anual crop in the future....James
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06/27/12, 04:05 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: West Central Arkansas
Posts: 3,611
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Would mustard work?
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06/27/12, 05:44 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Northern Michigan (U.P.)
Posts: 9,491
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pumpkin
We went with clover. It sure attracted the bees!
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Wow. You posted the question 4 hours ago, you've made up your mind to plant clover and are already attracting bees. Fantastic! 
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06/27/12, 05:48 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by haypoint
Wow. You posted the question 4 hours ago, you've made up your mind to plant clover and are already attracting bees. Fantastic! |
Not the same person.
...and please..do not use roundup EVER. It is owned by Monsanto, which in case you haven't heard, is one of the most evil companies on the planet and is a bane to farmers everywhere. I will never give a penny to that company.
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06/27/12, 10:08 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NE WA
Posts: 2,275
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well, hubby did buy clover today at the feed store, and so I guess that, and a bit of wheat, will be it for this year- wish I could get the invasive chickweed OUT of my garden, and into the orchard! will look into one of those above mentioned grasses... thanks for the great responses!
Welcome, lawguy....
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06/27/12, 10:17 PM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,490
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Most of the large orchards that I am familiar with do not have water sucking, fertilizer using vegetation under their trees. The land is kept clean so the water and nutrients go to the trees.
__________________
Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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06/28/12, 09:30 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 5,205
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Here are some ideas from your own WSU site that may be good for your location and climate: Orchard Floor Management
geo
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06/28/12, 11:39 AM
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Corpus Christi, TX/Williston, ND
Posts: 461
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On a side note, Republic is a beautiful place. One of my favorites. A friend had a cabin up by Curlew and we used to go there to bear/lion hunt. Back when it was legal to use dogs.
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06/28/12, 01:53 PM
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Brenda Groth
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Michigan
Posts: 7,817
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please consider planting a food forest using your orchard trees for the canopy layer, adding in the understory, ground and below ground layers, etc. If you are unfamiliar please google edible forest gardening, food forest gardening, go to Permies: goofballs that are nuts about permaculture or pick up a copy of one of the great food forest gardening books at the library..I also highly recommend Gaia's Garden.
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06/28/12, 08:08 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InHisName
well, hubby did buy clover today at the feed store, and so I guess that, and a bit of wheat, will be it for this year- wish I could get the invasive chickweed OUT of my garden, and into the orchard! will look into one of those above mentioned grasses... thanks for the great responses!
Welcome, lawguy....
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Hey thanks 
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