Regenerative Plotting

[MarkDarvin]

I'm glad you asked that question. Another part of that enormous grad paper from MSU mentioned the Enemy Release Hypothesis.
I'd never heard of that term before, but a quick google and a little browsing, and it looks like the pursuit of understanding why something happens. That's a big thing for me when it comes to regen plotting. I want to make sure I am not the cause of anything that will need to be dealt with later, because quite often dealing with stuff creates more problems.

This year for example, I fixed my flooding problem, but in the process, I killed off most of my clover and chicory, and during a drought. Those were foreseeable problems, but still, a fun frame to put it in.

I may have to add this book to my study. I just hope it's not $500 or out of print.

https://www.cabi.org/isc/ebook/20183119356

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

Good stuff. I wonder if hairy vetch will do the trick when it comes to fighting the knapweed in my degraded soils.

I think the only way to remove a problematic pioneer species is to progress through succession.

Perhaps a yearly throw & mow of rye and hairy vetch (maybe with a few other species) timed at the flowering of knapweed would be a good strategy to suppress it in my previously tilled plots.


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[MarkDarvin]

Good stuff. I wonder if hairy vetch will do the trick when it comes to fighting the knapweed in my degraded soils. I think the only way to remove a problematic pioneer species is to progress through succession.
Perhaps a yearly throw & mow of rye and hairy vetch (maybe with a few other species) timed at the flowering of knapweed would be a good strategy to suppress it in my previously tilled plots.
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I'm on board with that. I cleaned up a burn site from a winter and a half ago, last summer. Had bare dirt all over from moving a pile and cleaning up that burn site. A few of my primary species to cover that was rye and vetch. We all know about rye. I don't think there's enough talk about hairy vetch when it comes to rehabing or building tough soils. It thrived in this spot. All the other stuff came along, but that vetch just excelled.

I was looking it over this weekend. I've been holding off on mowing waiting for a clear sign that the rye is ready to go, and the vetch. Well, I found a cluster of vetch pods that had burst open on their own. I've got fresh vetch seed laying all over in there ready to perpetuate. Plan for now is to mow it this coming weekend.

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

Agreed, i feel like hairy vetch is severely underrated.
Grows phenomenally in poor soil just like rye, Pumps nitrogen into the soil, creates a lot of organic matter, provides some food for deer and other critters. I’m sure plenty more could be said about it.


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[MarkDarvin]

I like to take up close pictures to go back and evaluate the poly.

I think I’m going to pass on mowing this for the year. Al the veg seems good and lush, and I’ve got some WGF in there I want to see out on a seed head.

Get a good look at this, cause you probably won’t see this soil ever again. I’ll leave myself one out on that statement. If it’s still too rough, I may have it worked in 3 years as a way to preserve my equipment.

This is heavy clay subsoil. I had to do some earth moving to manage stuff, which is how I came to farm this deep clay.

I’m going at it with only lime and gypsum, which is all on already. Hooked some very timely rains last month that got this going.

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[Mennoniteman]

I like to take up close pictures to go back and evaluate the poly.

I think I’m going to pass on mowing this for the year. Al the veg seems good and lush, and I’ve got some WGF in there I want to see out on a seed head.

Get a good look at this, cause you probably won’t see this soil ever again. I’ll leave myself one out on that statement. If it’s still too rough, I may have it worked in 3 years as a way to preserve my equipment.

This is heavy clay subsoil. I had to do some earth moving to manage stuff, which is how I came to farm this deep clay.

I’m going at it with only lime and gypsum, which is all on already. Hooked some very timely rains last month that got this going.

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Goodbye dirt, hello clover!

 

[KSQ2]

We're adding hairy vetch to the recipe for fall t&m this year. Do I need to add an inoculant?

 

[buckhunter10]

We're adding hairy vetch to the recipe for fall t&m this year. Do I need to add an inoculant?

Wouldn't hurt for the cost, but if you have had other legumes in this area - you are likely set on rhizobia in soil!

I love HV!! Let us know how you like it!

 

[KSQ2]

Wouldn't hurt for the cost, but if you have had other legumes in this area - you are likely set on rhizobia in soil!

I love HV!! Let us know how you like it!

Good to know, thanks! We will be throwing it into established clover.

 

[MarkDarvin]

We're adding hairy vetch to the recipe for fall t&m this year. Do I need to add an inoculant?

I've never bought it. My vetch was grand champion this year. I was very impressed with it.

 

[Mennoniteman]

We're adding hairy vetch to the recipe for fall t&m this year. Do I need to add an inoculant?

The rhizobia can survive in the soil for up to five years in the absence of a legume. If no legumes have been grown in the past five years you need innoculant. Hairy vetch isn't going to do well with the rhizobium bacteria present in the soil.

 

[RGrizzzz]

Planted green this weekend! (uploads are disabled)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vRGHCddfxGw2gouA9

 

[MarkDarvin]

Lots of exciting stuff in this pic. First, I’ve gotten cowpeas up this far without them getting snarfed up.

Two, right next to it is flax. I originally planted flax just for diversity and pollinators. I pulled one up last weekend, and it’s got a medium sized tap root that is drilling straight down.

Three, the grains are looking good too.

Whatever grass was growing along my ditch is long dead from the drought. But not the clover. And the cereals are coming up with the clover. Still need some rain though.

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[MarkDarvin]

Made it through the worst of the drought. Hooked an inch of rain this weekend and the temps are dropping into the 70s/50s now. Here’s where my perennials stand now.

Now I need the soil to deliver some tonnage. I’ve got 30 days to go before first frost.

Where I did soil patching to fill in pot holes or ripped up the ground with tracks, the grains are coming well. The pockets of clover/chicory that didn’t flood out are doing well too.

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[MarkDarvin]

I’ve officially made it thru tue drought. That was a record breaker. All is set, this is the last look I got at my plots. Now time to stay away until showtime.

This is a really big deal. I got my spring wheat and winter wheat up in my clover. That’s never easy with just a mower and bucket.

I’ve been trying to understand why I have this dry edge around my ditch. At first I thought it was my clover living and the sedge dying. I think it’s a dead zone because it was close to the empty ditch and just dried out from the side.

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[MarkDarvin]

I had really good biomass in a rye/vetch plot that was also filling up with clover and alfalfa I planted last fall. Here's what it looked like a few weeks before I mowed it down. It was nice and thick, and the vetch and other legumes were in there as well, and they seemed happy as hell. Nothing seemed to be hurting for space. Here's the before picture. I'll put up the today pictures in a separate post here in a second...

 

[MarkDarvin]

It had been bone dry all summer. Late august and early September finally brought a few inches of rain. I went out to look at it today, and I had a hard time finding my rye residue. I was hoping for some durability and I think it’s getting eaten up quickly. I have to go back out tomorrow and look again. I’m not ready to claim I’ve got super residue cycling just yet.

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[MarkDarvin]

I did some more digging today. My thatch is still there, it’s just been completely punched thru by the clover/alfalfa. I took a pic of the edge of my plot which was solid grass, but probably half to a third the biomass of that rye. The grass only duff is lying there on display. No decomp or even ground contact yet.

The clover has completely pushed thru it, and the stem count is so high, I can’t rake open a spot to see the ground without ripping out my forage. The only visible rye left is where a big duff booger accumulated in front of the mower.

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[Mennoniteman]

It had been bone dry all summer. Late august and early September finally brought a few inches of rain. I went out to look at it today, and I had a hard time finding my rye residue. I was hoping for some durability and I think it’s getting eaten up quickly. I have to go back out tomorrow and look again. I’m not ready to claim I’ve got super residue cycling just yet.

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The bad part about rye is the residue after mowing can clump up and be so thick on piles it chokes out the clover, your picture looks good, just the right amount to feed your clover carbon for a year.

 

[MarkDarvin]

Color contrast is starting to show against the landscape.

It’s always neat to see when the deer really switch onto a plot. I also get nervous about durability. I hope it lasts to December. I’ve got lots of food elsewhere, but we’ll find out.

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