Darren,
I was wondering what your
experience has been with establishing a large number of
trees in regards to weed/grass control and soil health. I recently planted a
apple orchard of around 1000 trees. I'm currently trying to determine what the best
course of action is to reduce the competition for the trees. I am fully aware of the downsides of herbicides and really do not want to use them, but I'm not convinced that there is a better option. I've thought about using
wood chips, but they they get expensive fast and depending on soil activity, I may need to replace them yearly. I have also thought about plastic/weed fabric, but I am concerned with that approach creating vole habitat and how the soil biology will be affected. There would be less air exchange as well as less
carbon being added to the soil with plastic.
How do you recommend commercial orchards and/or timber plots control grass to establish trees? If spraying a 1m x 1m area around the base of every tree for 3-4 years, will this severely affect the soil health? How would a soil drench of
compost extract after (1 week?) each spraying help?
I am located in western Oregon with 4 months of summer drought and 8 months of winter rain (40 in/yr). The soil is compacted clay loam, but well drained. The pH is around 5.5. Last October we did the first pass with a Keyline plow.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
