How long does it take for alfalfa seeds to sprout?
It takes between seven and ten days for alfalfa seeds to sprout. Try to thin the stand as soon as the sprouts reach between six to twelve inches. Thinning is the process of depopulating the stand by removing excess shoots. Alfalfas are fast-growing plants and are ideal for making hay and organic manure.
How big do alfalfa plants get?
Mature, uncut plants get up to 30 inches tall and 12 to 32 inches wide. When sown from seed in spring, it takes a full year before alfalfa produces its flowers. In the southern states where the growing season is long and irrigation is used in summer, spring-sown alfalfa may start to bloom by early fall.
Is alfalfa easy to grow?
Alfalfa’s extensive root system nourishes both plants and soil. The alfalfa plant has been cultivated for generations and growing alfalfa in your garden is easy. Keep reading to learn more about how to grow alfalfa. Easily grown and propagated, alfalfa adapts well to nearly any garden, tolerating a wide range of growing conditions.
What month do you plant alfalfa?
The best time to plant alfalfa is spring. The spring planting season runs from mid-April to May. In places where the climate is warmer, you can continue planting alfalfa until September. Choose a site that has good water retention and fewer weeds for successful planting.
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How fast does alfalfa plant grow?
In a few words, alfalfa can be sown during autumn or spring. Suppose we sow the seeds during the spring of year 1. If all things go right, about 60-65 days later, we can normally harvest our first cut.
How much does alfalfa grow per day?
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the primary use of water by alfalfa and averages about 36 inches/year (900 mm) at Kimberly. The ET at peak periods of 0.4 inches/day (10 mm/day) can reach 4080 tons of water per acre and 45 tons per acre per day.
Does alfalfa grow easily?
Easily grown and propagated, alfalfa adapts well to nearly any garden, tolerating a wide range of growing conditions. It makes a good drought-resistant plant too, as it doesn't like wet feet. In fact, too much moisture can lead to mold growth. When growing alfalfa, choose an area with plenty of full sun.
Does alfalfa regrow after cutting?
Alfalfa takes about 40 days to develop the ability to regrow from the crown after cutting. Plants cut before this point need at least one set of leaves remaining to regrow. So, if you need to cut early for something like weed or insect control, cut high.
Does alfalfa use a lot of water?
Alfalfa is a high water use crop because it has a long growing season, a deep root system, and a dense mass of vegetation. The amount of water needed is governed by temperature, wind, humidity, and the amount and intensity of light.
How many years does alfalfa last?
Alfalfa can remain productive in stands from four to ten years or more, but as plant population declines renovation eventually becomes necessary.
What happens if you don't cut alfalfa?
The bad news is that if it stays dry you can't do anything good for it either. As alfalfa continues to just sit there nearly dormant, it will slowly lose feed value and tonnage due to continued maturation as well as leaf loss from insect feeding, diseases, and simple old age.
Does alfalfa need to be planted every year?
A: Yes, alfalfa is a perennial and will grow back every year as long as it receives the proper care. Overall, it is an easy crop to grow.
Does alfalfa improve soil?
Not only does alfalfa help prevent soil erosion, but it also protects and improves the soil with its protective canopy, deep root system, and ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Soil erosion is a major problem in agriculture.
How many times can you harvest alfalfa per year?
Maximum dry-matter yield of alfalfa and most forages is often obtained by harvesting the first cutting of the season at nearly full bloom and harvesting subsequent cuttings at 40 to 45 day intervals until late August or early September, referred to as a "3 summer-cut system." This system produces forage relatively ...
How tall should alfalfa be when you cut it?
2-inch height for the 1st cut, 3-inch height for the 2nd and 3rd cuts, 3-inch height for all cuts during the season, 6-inch height for all cuts during the season.
Does alfalfa reseed itself?
Alfalfa is a crop that naturally tends to lessen its density over time because alfalfa doesn't reseed itself. Planting more alfalfa into current alfalfa fields is not recommended since alfalfa has autotoxicity characteristics. A good population/density is about 35 well-growing stems per square foot.
How much does alfalfa grow?
The average total yield is 20-35 tons per hectare (or 8-14 tons per acre) per year (distributed in 5-6 cuts). Top yields (intensive farming) can exceed 40 tons per hectare or 16 tons per acre per year. You can enrich this article by leaving a comment or photo of your alfalfa harvesting methods and yields.
How many acres will a bag of alfalfa plant?
For pure alfalfa stands, 18 to 20 pounds per acre should be planted. For mixed stands with grass, 15 to 16 pounds per acre is recommended. For broadcast seeding, seeding rates need to be increased by 10 to 20 percent.
How fast does alfalfa grow from seed?
40 daysYou can harvest seeding-year alfalfa as early as 40 days after seedlings emerge. It takes plants about 40 days to become able to regrow from the crown after cutting. If plants are cut before this development occurs — maybe to control weeds — at least one set of leaves must remain on the plant for it to regrow.
What happens if you don't cut alfalfa?
The bad news is that if it stays dry you can't do anything good for it either. As alfalfa continues to just sit there nearly dormant, it will slowly lose feed value and tonnage due to continued maturation as well as leaf loss from insect feeding, diseases, and simple old age.
How long does it take for alfalfa to grow?
In milder winter areas of the southern U.S., alfalfa may also be sown 60 days before the first fall frost to grow before its first winter. Winter cold kills back the above-ground leaves and stems, but in subsequent years it regrows again in spring and then blooms. Mature, uncut plants get up to 30 inches tall and 12 to 32 inches wide.
When does alfalfa produce flowers?
Alfalfa produces mauve to purple flowers starting in late spring. A highly nutritious food for wildlife and domesticated animals, alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is called "the premier forage legume in the United States" by the University of Kentucky.
Why is alfalfa important to farmers?
Importance of Alfalfa. Farmers in the United States grow alfalfa to produce a sweet-tasting and nutritional hay for livestock, including cattle, dairy cows, goats and horses. Farmers cut the alfalfa just before the flower buds open, let it air dry and bale it. Cleared fields then regrow.
When does alfalfa bloom?
The next spring it regrows and reliably produces its first flush of blossoms anytime from May to July, depending on location in the United States.
Where did alfalfa come from?
Native to Iran and the Caucasus, humans cultivated alfalfa, also called lucerne, across other parts of Asia and Europe. Settlers in the 1700s brought alfalfa to North America, where it it both grown as a field crop and has escaped cultivation to become a meadow weed.
What animals eat alfalfa?
When alfalfa sprouts up as roadside or meadow weeds, deer, rabbits, elk, geese and other game and water fowl use the plant for food or nesting material. Alfalfa flowers are a significant source of nectar for honeybees in North America, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Where did alfalfa originate?
Originating in Asia, the first written record of alfalfa is a mention in a Chinese tome from 2939 BC.
How to get high quality feed without sacrificing too much volume?
To get high-quality feed without sacrificing too much volume, try harvesting just as the first buds start to bloom.
When you seed a legume, do you have to pick or till?
When you’ve seeded this legume as a cover crop, for mulch, or to add to compost, it’s essential to either pick or till the plants before they go to seed.
Is alfalfa a picky plant?
While alfalfa isn’t a particularly pick y plant to grow in the garden, you do have an added incentive to avoid pests and disease.
Can ruminants eat alfalfa?
If you intend to grow a crop to feed animals, keep in mind that ruminants that graze on fresh alfalfa might experience bloat. At the same time, alfalfa contains saponins that limit how much you can feed to swine or poultry.
Can you plant alfalfa in raised beds?
Whether you’re planting a single raised bed or a whole field, the basics of starting an alfalfa crop as a home gardener are quite similar.
Can you feed alfalfa pellets to rabbits?
If you mainly associate alfalfa with pellets for rabbits and guinea pigs, you’re in for a wonderful home gardening surprise.
How long does it take for Alfalfa to grow?
The first cutting of a new stand should be delayed until the plants are strong and vigorous and have a good root system, generally 70 to 90 days after germination for a spring seeding. Also, in the North the first cutting should not be made at an early stage of growth or the plants will be injured from low food reserves.
How to stimulate Alfalfa regrowth?
Stimulate Alfalfa Regrowth. If the soil needs any nitrogen, a nitrate-containing fertilizer can be topdressed at a low rate after a cutting to stimulate regrowth. Fertilizers containing ammonium nitrogen should not be used because ammonium will stimulate early flowering rather than vegetative growth (leaves and stems).
What is the best way to grow seed?
Once you have good soil and a good, healthy stand, there is no reason for not setting a small plot aside for growing your own seed, adapted to your own soil and climate. To produce high quality seed, the soil needs a higher level of ammonium nitrogen (after the plants have attained some growth) and an adequate level of manganese. Bees are also necessary for legume seed production (not grasses). Either honeybees or wild bees (bumblebees, leaf-cutter bees, and alkali bees) can do the job of pollinating the flowers. Hives of honeybees can be rented from honey producers if there are not enough in your area.
How to know when to cut a plant?
The best method to judge when to cut is to use a refractometer to measure the sugar content of plant juice every day or two as blooms begin to appear. When the sugar readings reach a peak or begin to level off, that is the time to cut. That is generally at 25 – 50% bloom. The appearance of new shoots from the crown is another sign to watch for, but is not as reliable as bloom stage or the use of a refractometer.
How to cut alfalfa?
Cutting Alfalfa. Cutting should be done with a sickle-bar or cutter-bar mower, which gives a good, clean cut to the stems. High quality hay will dry quickly and does not need to be crushed or crimped; in fact, this torture treatment can cause loss of nutrients from the crushed tissues.
What happens when you cut alfalfa stems?
If you cut open several stems with a knife, you may begin to see the growth of “solid stem alfalfa,” in which the entire stem is filled with succulent cells, not air.
When to cut alfalfa for recovery?
Traditional studies have shown that the long-range greatest yields and best recovery growth are produced when alfalfa is cut at full bloom, although in the Southwest, greater yields may be obtained if cutting is done at 10% bloom (first bloom), but in the hottest weather stand density and yield will be reduced. (A . I. Virtanen, P. K. Hietala, & Ö.U. Wahlroos, Suomen Kemistilehti, vol. 29, no. 1B, p. 143, 1956.)