Overseeding alfalfa

Don't think I'd try it. Alfalfa produces a toxin that doesn't let other alfalfa grow. Best bet would be corn or soys for a year, then back to alfalfa. Had a neighbor no till some corn into one of my weak alfalfa fields. Looks great.
 
Works one in 20 times on old established alfalfa. Just often enough for a someone to say sure it worked for me....

But typically the old alfalfa kills off the new stuff with the auto toxicity so it is a waste of time. The old plant has a 20 inch zone around it.....

I hear it does work if this is a newly planted alfalfa stand, less than 12 moths old or so? The toxins haven't built up yet.

Interseed an oats in spring to help a bit for one year, or a more expensive grass type to really help out.

Plant a new alfalfa field this fall yet, and put the old alfalfa patch in corn for a year next year?

Paul
 
The accepted theory is the toxin lasts in the soil 3 months - good, growing, active nice months were critters are active in the soil breaking toxins down - before it is safe to seed alfalfa seeds again.

This is why it very occasionally works, every decade or two to interseed alfalfa fields with more alfalfa. You hit a period where the weather is nice, but the alfalfa is so dormant from dry or something that the toxins do mellow away.

But most of us like to plant so etching else for a season and the. Come back with new alfalfa. Its hard to kill every alfalfa plant the first time, any stragglers will mess you up if you try to plant back too soon....

Paul
 
I sprayed some with Roundup one time,no tilled it to wheat,then no tilled it back to alfalfa the next summer and it still failed. I always plow it up,go to corn for two years and then back to oats and alfalfa.
 

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