Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Old 06-06-2009, 04:14 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2009
Posts: 25
Default Using Yellow Rattle as natural grass suppressant in an orchard - any ideas

I have an orchard on the side of a hill, that is really impossible to
cut the grass.

I do not want sheep etc, as the trees are bushes.

I was wondering if using Yellow Rattle would solve some of my
problems.
  #2   Report Post  
Old 06-06-2009, 04:17 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,907
Default Using Yellow Rattle as natural grass suppressant in an orchard - any ideas

In article ,
gray wrote:
I have an orchard on the side of a hill, that is really impossible to
cut the grass.

I do not want sheep etc, as the trees are bushes.

I was wondering if using Yellow Rattle would solve some of my
problems.


Or a herd of guinea pigs?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
  #3   Report Post  
Old 06-06-2009, 04:45 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
K K is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,966
Default Using Yellow Rattle as natural grass suppressant in an orchard - any ideas

gray writes
I have an orchard on the side of a hill, that is really impossible to
cut the grass.

I do not want sheep etc, as the trees are bushes.

I was wondering if using Yellow Rattle would solve some of my
problems.


No - it isn't at all dramatic in its action.

There are several closely related plants which are to a certain extent
parasitic on grass, lousewort is, I think, another. They are all plants
of fairly wet areas (where getting nutrients from the soil can be a
problem - hence the development of an alternative method) - yellow
rattle is the most tolerant of drier soils, but I think it would not be
totally happy on a bank where the soil is likely to be quite dry in
summer.

If you do want to use it, scatter the seed where you have raked out the
thatch, so the seed has a good chance of hitting the soil and not
sitting on top of a lump of dry grass. Be aware that it is an annual, so
has to regrow every year from seed - either from your own plants, or you
will have to source new seed every year.

It does have an effect - the coarser grasses seem to be affected (1),
and after a few years the area where the yellow rattle is will have
shorter finer grasses. But it will take years (2), and you obviously
won;t be able to cut the grass at all since you'll need to allow the
yellow rattle to go its full cycle and produce seed.

(1) A patch that I have been keeping an eye on has a dense growth of
yellow rattle growing amongst long grass. I have been watching this area
for about 5 years. This year, for the first time, I can see that the
area where the densest yellow rattle was now has thinner and shorter
grass (and also less yellow rattle!) - the yellow rattle has now spread
and is now amongst grass which at the moment is 18inches high.

(2) If the trees in your orchard grow sufficiently well, they may shade
out the grass in the same sort of timescale that it would take the
yellow rattle to work.
--
Kay
Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
yellow rattle Janet Tweedy[_2_] United Kingdom 3 17-08-2012 11:56 AM
Orchard - Orchard-South-2.jpg (1/1) Donn Thorson Garden Photos 0 27-05-2009 10:46 AM
Rattle grass again, for Rhiannon Sands Chris Hogg United Kingdom 2 19-06-2005 10:08 PM
rattle grass Rhiannon Sands United Kingdom 3 09-06-2005 07:10 PM
Newspaper as grass suppressant Robo Australia 8 24-11-2004 12:39 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:31 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 GardenBanter.co.uk.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Gardening"

 

Copyright © 2017