Plantain paradise.

mikep · Sep 5, 2018

Weired one this. This field had been in arable forever and notill for five years until last autumn when I gave it a spring tine to try to get it planted in the wet.That failed so it was combination drilled this spring with barley. Two other fields next to it with the same history bar the spring tine were planted at the same time. This crop was sh!t and looked awful from the word go, all fields got the same treatment and this was combined last and revealed almost wall to wall plantain. The other fields have very few weeds and this was as clean as the others before this year.
It's so good that is a real shame it's in bunny hugging or I'd run the sheep over it.
I may look to keeping it like that for a year as if they survive it's a hell of a cheap herbal ley.
Question is where the heck did

they all come from?

Jerry · Sep 5, 2018

You sure that's plaintain?

Hard to tell from the picture:

https://christielivingnaturally.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/narrow-leaf-plantain.png

Bury the Trash · Sep 5, 2018

plantain is a n extremly tough surviving seed at depth.
then when brought to germinating depth ..... they like a tight surface (read compaction

)

JD-Kid · Sep 6, 2018

looks more like rape

Kevtherev · Sep 6, 2018

Certainly looks like it.
Has the field ever had it on before?

Dry Rot · Sep 6, 2018

I have a lot here too, but then I've horses who graze tight and I regularly harrow the dung, so a lot of harrowing.

The plus side is that it is apparently a 'good' herb' and seems to be drought resistant.

I've also had a lot of what I can only describe as 'anorexic dock' in permanet grass left for hay. I meant to photograph it but forgot. It grows a stalk about 18" high with long narrow leaves. The horses love the hay which is quite course as a result. Any ideas?

neilo · Sep 6, 2018

We get a lot of wild plantain coming up on a block of old pp. The sheep like it, but it doesn’t yield very much at all, just lies flat and reduces yield of decent grasses. I’m not desperate to clean it out where it’s at low levels, but I certainly wouldn’t be leaving a field of it and expecting much production, that’s why anyone planting it uses the kiwi cultivars.

I’m not sure that’s plantain, zooming in on the picture. :scratchhead:

Normally narrower, more erect leaves IME.

mikep · Sep 6, 2018

It's plantain alright but not the spear leaved stuff from NZ. Never been in the field in quantity but how is it so even?
I only scratched it with the spring tine so no deep cults.

This is a library pic but that's the baby.

yellow belly · Sep 16, 2018

Some seeds live in the soil for many years

After set aside a few years ago we had a carpet of scarlet pimpernel in July with some cowslips
20 years of winter cropping preceded

JD-Kid · Sep 17, 2018

yellow belly said:
Some seeds live in the soil for many years

After set aside a few years ago we had a carpet of scarlet pimpernel in July with some cowslips
20 years of winter cropping preceded

there was. something years ago about after the bombing in ww2 the amount of. plants that grew after it had a few of the. Gardners. very surprised
gorse seed think over 40 years. it will last in the soil

Bury the Trash · Sep 17, 2018

Plantain as a weed grows along our tracks and gateways getting pummelled by wheels doesnt seem to bother it.

it runs to seed readily, craftily and robustly ...I remember trying cut them on the lawn with the cylinder mower

when we got a rotary it cut that long stem tho.

ime stock dont eat it too keenly so there again it will get chance to seed

martian · Sep 17, 2018

Stock quite like the thinner leaved version that gets stuck in Herbal Ley mixes. It has useful mineral content, so is good for them apparently. It's also a magnet for mycorrhizal fungi, so will improve your soils.
Doesn't answer the question where it all came from though, but Mother Nature obviously thought they have a job to do for you and sent them along. Bless her.

mikep · Sep 18, 2018

martian said:
Stock quite like the thinner leaved version that gets stuck in Herbal Ley mixes. It has useful mineral content, so is good for them apparently. It's also a magnet for mycorrhizal fungi, so will improve your soils.
Doesn't answer the question where it all came from though, but Mother Nature obviously thought they have a job to do for you and sent them along. Bless her.

It would have been better if she sent me three ton of spring barley before hand instead of the sh!t crop I got.

martian · Sep 18, 2018

mikep said:
It would have been better if she sent me three ton of spring barley before hand instead of the sh!t crop I got.

I have a theory that Mother N disapproves of drinking. She hasn't exactly smiled on our attempts at growing malting barley these last two or three years.

mikep · Sep 20, 2018

martian said:
I have a theory that Mother N disapproves of drinking. She hasn't exactly smiled on our attempts at growing malting barley these last two or three years.

Must be vegan now mine was feed barley.

mikep · Oct 7, 2018

Just an aside but thanks to that nice Mr Gove the sheep are going on the stubble this week. Hope they know that they are supposed to like it.

Plantain paradise.

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