Re: Hairy Vetch a weed?
Fgu3@aol.com
Thu, 19 Feb 1998 15:59:12 EST
Art,
We have been using hairy vetch here on our farm for about six or seven years
now. Vetch and oats are our winter cover crop mix ( in Southern Maryland oats
over-winter) which, consequently, is our sole fertility source for tomatoes
and other summer crops. Our yields are satisfactory and volunteer vetch is
not a problem with summer vegetable crops. Just as Steve Groff wrote, small
grain crops will suffer from volunteer problems with hairy vetch. However,
volunteers of a different source are our savior. We walk our feed oat fields
with volunteers from local civic groups, and pull out flowering/seed setting
hairy vetch. Since we plant no more than a five acres, it's fun and
educational for the human volunteers. As an organic operation, 2 4 D is not
an option, but it would be an easy and reliable tool. The monitoring which is
required to manage for volunteer vetch in a small grain crop would, in my
opinion, be offset by the benefits the hairy vetch offers.
Best Wishes,
Jonathan Moscatello
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".