How do I get rid of Alfalfa?

[boilerjoe_96]

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Sorry didn't mean to confuse you. Alfalfa gets cut about every 30 days. So depending on where you live, the weather, and time, one could get 3, 4, or 5 or more cuttings per year. In Canada a guess would be no more than 3. I can get 4 and have seen a guy push it and get 5. Though 5 cuttings will quickly reduce the stand in indiana. As long as you give the plants 30 days to get back to bud stage then the plant stores enough energy to grow again. If the stand had a hard winter, got infested with bugs or disease, sometimes letting the stand get to flower stage helps store energy.

I would think that cutting this late in Canada would be pushing it. Alfalfa needs time to grow back before winter, to store energy and to allow the growth to hold snow to protect from the bitter cold.

With the rain this year, most of what I have cut has had flowers on it. The flowers do turn to seed with time, but it takes a few weeks. Remember alfalfa is autotoxic, so I doubt any seeds falling on the ground will sprout new alfalfa(in same field).

Depending on the grass. If it is a native grass, alfalfa most likely will not strangle it out. I have lost timothy grass in a field(timothy doesn't like to get cut every 30 days or so). But the native grasses, as others have said, will take over given time. Alfalfa is a vigorous grower, will put on an inch a day, but it is not a fighter. The cutting every 30 days will keep weeds down, but not grass.

 

[patandchickens]

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No, it's really not. ESPECIALLY not if you graze or hay it -- that is why people have to reseed alfalfa fields so often up here

-- but even if you just let it stand totally fallow the alfalfa isn't going to take over and will gradually dwindle away to just spotty weeds. It is just not hardy or long-lived enough up here for that.

Heck, you could just pay someone to mow it, if you want it gone in a hurry and if you are not going to hay or graze it. Mow it and leave it lie. (Don't do this if you're wanting to cut hay off the field next year)

Really, alfalfa is not a problem (in Ontario anyhow). People have to spend a considerable amount of time and energy keeping it IN their fields

Also, pasture grass is nowhere near that easy to 'strangle to death'

Pat

 

[nnbreeder]

Get rid of Alfalfa? Good quality that has been tested is high dollar stuff if there are any dairy farms in the area. Have someone cut and bale it on shares and sell your portion. It's like found money. Small squares are up around 8-10 dollars for leafy "rabbit hay" and sold by the ton dairy quality runs 150 dollars and up depending on quality. If I was closer I can assure you I would be the first to volunteer to cut it for you!

 

[Akane]

The flowering alfalfa is beyond it's peak.

I didn't mean it's peak cutting time. You want to cut it before it really blooms. I meant it's peak growing year. Alfalfa will grow like crazy for the first year or 2, reach a peak point where it's at it's best, and then steadily give way to other plants. It may look like it's taking over now but it's probably just reached it's best growing season before starting to give out on you.​

 

[Chick_a_dee]

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Okay, the top field hadn't started to flower yet and it was cut yesterday, the bottom field has flowered now.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
Sorry didn't mean to confuse you. Alfalfa gets cut about every 30 days. So depending on where you live, the weather, and time, one could get 3, 4, or 5 or more cuttings per year. In Canada a guess would be no more than 3. I can get 4 and have seen a guy push it and get 5. Though 5 cuttings will quickly reduce the stand in indiana. As long as you give the plants 30 days to get back to bud stage then the plant stores enough energy to grow again. If the stand had a hard winter, got infested with bugs or disease, sometimes letting the stand get to flower stage helps store energy.

I would think that cutting this late in Canada would be pushing it. Alfalfa needs time to grow back before winter, to store energy and to allow the growth to hold snow to protect from the bitter cold.

With the rain this year, most of what I have cut has had flowers on it. The flowers do turn to seed with time, but it takes a few weeks. Remember alfalfa is autotoxic, so I doubt any seeds falling on the ground will sprout new alfalfa(in same field).

Depending on the grass. If it is a native grass, alfalfa most likely will not strangle it out. I have lost timothy grass in a field(timothy doesn't like to get cut every 30 days or so). But the native grasses, as others have said, will take over given time. Alfalfa is a vigorous grower, will put on an inch a day, but it is not a fighter. The cutting every 30 days will keep weeds down, but not grass.

Okay, that makes sense... the top field was cut I believe 3 times, the bottom twice because it was mostly grasses, although in the last month or so I noticed the alfalfa has migrated into the bottom field. What do you mean by autotoxic? ... Do alfalfa seeds have to be carried by the wind to a vacant location in order to grow new then?

 

[patandchickens]

Autotoxic means it can't germinate under itself or amongst its own crop residue. That is why you need to keep plowing over and reseeding alfalfa fields, b/c it can't perpetuate itself well in an existing stand (and individual plants do not live many years, esp. in this climate), does that make sense?

The seeds aren't really wind dispersed as such (not like REAL wind-dispersed plants anyhow... thistle, dandelion, maples, that sort of thing) -- if you look at them you will see they are little round pellets, sort of like poppyseeds only bigger. It wanders across the landscape at a pretty slow rate. Lots of places, if there is cropland near (or sometimes even if there isn't) you will see it as an occasional weed. But it can't take over an area. As opposed to, say, the purple cow vetch that you probably also have.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[Chick_a_dee]

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Thanks so much Pat!... That clears a lot up.