Sunday, March 02, 2008

Perennial peanut as a green manure crop

All over ECHO they use perennial peanut as a green manure crop. It also acts, clearly, as a weed block and a living mulch. ECHO agrees with me in rejecting IFAS's warning against using mulch (green or otherwise) near citrus trees. As long as the tree has some airflow, fungal problems are unlikely and the benefits outweigh the unlikely detriments. All over the farm, I noticed that they mulched with plant debris from the surrounding crops -- avocado leaves and branches (unchipped) piled high around avocado trees, mango trimmings under mango trees. I'd read everywhere that such use of a crop's own detritus was a sure-fire pathogen vector, but it doesn't seem to be the case in practice. Once again, what logic dictates, nature ignores.
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