| andyfarmer - 8/18/2013 21:05
We don't have low PH soil here, most is on the high end if anything.
Low areas could be grass/mix, they aren't routinely under water, just very slow to dry out
It isn't necessarily being underwater that kills alfalfa, just keeping the soil saturated at a few inches down will kill the tap roots. We had a bad winterkill here this year, but I lost more alfalfa stand here in June from the constant rains. All my flat gumbo fields have almost zero alfalfa left now even though there was a good amount for 1st crop. Those aren't even low fields, just relatively flat and clay.
I've been using branch-root trait alfalfa for a few years and that does pretty good. It splits the tap root to make a shallower root system when it hits water. It still won't tolerate a long wet period, though.
I would grow reed canary on the low stuff. Also, birdsfoot trefoil does good and makes a good alfalfa like hay, but doesn't yield very high. With either of those, they're a self-propagating crop so you don't have to rotate to something else every few years when your alfalfa stand gets bad. |
converting cropland to alfalfa/hay
