When I was young, we somerfallowed our ground every 4 or 5 years by plowing under a tall crop of sweet clover to restore fertility.
Often we planted rye on that ground in the fall to control wild oats. It's amazing that rye plants send roots into the wild oat seeds and render them unable to grow. It was common practice before chemicals became available. We could count on 2 years of no wild oats after raising a crop of rye.
When I went to college, the professors were preaching that it was less costly to buy nitrogen in a bag (that was the way it was sold back then) than to somerfallow. With the price of fertilizer now, is that still true?
I know there is a cross over point where the end result ROI would be better with somerfallow than with fertilizer. Has anyone tried to calculate that point? Seems everyone is pushing for maximum yield, no matter what the cost of production.
Often we planted rye on that ground in the fall to control wild oats. It's amazing that rye plants send roots into the wild oat seeds and render them unable to grow. It was common practice before chemicals became available. We could count on 2 years of no wild oats after raising a crop of rye.
When I went to college, the professors were preaching that it was less costly to buy nitrogen in a bag (that was the way it was sold back then) than to somerfallow. With the price of fertilizer now, is that still true?
I know there is a cross over point where the end result ROI would be better with somerfallow than with fertilizer. Has anyone tried to calculate that point? Seems everyone is pushing for maximum yield, no matter what the cost of production.
