Companion Plants in OSR

[MDA]

Just read an interesting article on companion planting a legume mix alongside osr as a method of inter row weed control.
It is claimed it would also mop up nitrogen and other nutrents that would potentially be lost over winter and also contributes to soil structure and drainage of the land.
After winter if the frost has not killed the legumes off, herbicide could be applied and the breakdown of the plants would then release nutrients back into the soil ready for the osr to use in spring.
Most of the trials of this method have so far been done in France, with some in the UK. As well as the herbicde reduction, the French have also noticed a reduction in the need for pesticides, though no-one was quite sure why.
I just thought it may make an excellent cultural control option for growers and may have a lot of potential.
Any thoughts??

 

[franklin]

Sounds fine, so long as the Elk for cranesbill; Fox for charlock; Centium for cleavers; Galera for thistles doesn't kill them!

 

[MDA]

But i think the idea was to get a fast striking coverage of these legumes to smother out problem BLW's, they did mention in the report herbicide choice could be a problem, but there may be some different herbicides coming onto the market soon that maybe more compatable.

 

[franklin]

Winter beans are fairly robust; wont die from the Kerb, and could be removed with Galera I think in the spring.

Have you a link to the article?

 

[MDA]

The report was from Agrovista that turned up as a flyer here at our office, there may be something about it on their website.

 

[llamedos]

I have seen a video by Frederick Thomas, in french but with english subtitles, it is a couple of years old now I think I will have a trawl through google see if I can find it, I think it was really abut agroforestry, but he spoke about the synergy of say legumes and crucifers(sp) and how the former help the latter, through their root systems, and how in a natural environment a single species would never happen, so farmers needed to mimic that nat' enviroment.

 

[llamedos]

Found it easier than I thought

you may have to use google translate to give you the English subtitles

 

[franklin]

Got English subtitles already. In yellow. Above the French.....

....but I can manage without either

Also, I would add that our winters may not be as harsh as they would expect overseas, so winterkill of the legumes is less likely.

 

[stroller]

I see Agrovista want £65/ha for the seed surely it would be cheaper to make your own mix?

 

[Pedders]

or buy mine
you can use legumix which is a peas tic beans and vetch mixture ...drilled at 20-25Kg Ha would cost £15.00 £20..Ha ish ...leave until spring then knock out anything left after frosts with Galera

 

[Andy Howard]

Sounds fine, so long as the Elk for cranesbill; Fox for charlock; Centium for cleavers; Galera for thistles doesn't kill them!

Does this not highlight a problem with rape. You need so many different herbicides throughout the year just to grow a weed. Or does it highlight that people grow rape too often? Our companion mix will get galera in the spring if necessary and it will be the first blw herbicide. Next year in a different field it may be different

 

[jammygit]

with the OSR being drilled at 3-5 kg/ha, and the mix at 20-25kg/ha, how would you manage establishment? Wheat drill and fert box? Broadcast the OSR? Broadcast the cover crop? Two operations?

OSR having trouble mopping up Nitrogen!!

I like the ecological idea but can it seriously be contemplated?

 

[Richard III]

I tried a bag of Colsa Fix from Agrovista, I like it but I'm not sure I'll get my money back on it yet. It was just mixed in with the seed and drilled on the 29th August. They claim a higher germination percentage from the Rape and this would certainly seem to be the case, I've no idea why though.

So far the only inputs are a low rate of graminicide.

 

[jammygit]

and then there's the pigeons, or not?

I read it as intercropping, not weed control, surely least disturbance is the best weed control?

Is it the grass weeds that escape under the osr canopy that are the problem? Charlock seems to compete directly with the OSR not in the gaps; Cleavers and thistles late season - so would the mix work by an alleopathy?

I think it confuses (me) the idea of farming for biodiversity with farming for statistical biodiversity.

The farmer prepares the ground for his crop, which he hopes will have an advantage with the conditions than any other plant. Initially/ultimately this country would be forest, not that biodiverse, apart from the areas of swamp, chalk, sand etc where the fittest species survive, again a monoculture in their zones (grassland, rushes, er). Companion cropping (which I don't doubt is a good thing in nature) seems more relevant for predator (evolutionary) control than soil organic matter which I would prefer to be made up of similar species, ref our coal supplies

 

[jammygit]

with methane being the anaerobic decomposition of OM (been growing corn round here for years, aye..)

 

[martian]

I tried a bag of Colsa Fix from Agrovista, I like it but I'm not sure I'll get my money back on it yet. It was just mixed in with the seed and drilled on the 29th August. They claim a higher germination percentage from the Rape and this would certainly seem to be the case, I've no idea why though.

So far the only inputs are a low rate of graminicide.


View attachment 23666

We tried a couple of bags of this too, without much hope of ever seeing the outlay returned. It has to be said it is much the most even bit of rape we have. Fair bit of blackgrass coming up below, but no BLWs to speak of. We tried a bit last year, it all got winter killed, some time after the rape got slug killed, which wasn't a fair trial hence giving it another go this time.

 

[stroller]

My unintentional companion cropping, this was 10kg/ha of cabernet straight from the heap after spring beans, I have just sprayed galera, as in some place the beans were too thick and over whelming the osr plants. The best patches are an even mix of beans wild oats and osr. I will definately try an intentional mix on next years osr.