- Location
- Lincolnshire
We direct drilled winter wheat into a sprayed off grass ley that had been there for 16 years - on sand. There was so much thatch on top that I thought this will take years to breakdown. We had a good crop of wheat off it, albeit quite bad with fusarium and ergot. We chopped and returned the straw.
This autumn if you take you trowel and have a look in that field it appears to be back to pure sand even without cultivation. Maybe the grass roots are there beneath the surface but the thick layer of thatch has completely disappeared.
Being left on the top covered in oxygen I reckon it’s oxidised with help from worms and bacteria. Would it actually have oxidised less rapidly if it had been ploughed under and been less exposed to oxygen? I don’t really know, but the disappearance in 12 months of a thatch of turf built over 16 years has surprised me somewhat and would indicate that building OM is going to be a very slow process.
This autumn if you take you trowel and have a look in that field it appears to be back to pure sand even without cultivation. Maybe the grass roots are there beneath the surface but the thick layer of thatch has completely disappeared.
Being left on the top covered in oxygen I reckon it’s oxidised with help from worms and bacteria. Would it actually have oxidised less rapidly if it had been ploughed under and been less exposed to oxygen? I don’t really know, but the disappearance in 12 months of a thatch of turf built over 16 years has surprised me somewhat and would indicate that building OM is going to be a very slow process.