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California Native Perennial Grasses

Cover Crops for Orchards and Vineyards

The use of cover crops in orchard and vineyard crop production is becoming an essential technique. This document is designed to assist your evaluation of this technology.

You may have either considered using or you are using cover crops because of their proven benefits in reducing input costs and increasing both productivity and the value of orchard and vineyard crops. Cover crops offer many advantages over bare soil aisles (“Clean Floor” or “Dead Floor” technology). Recognized improvements include erosion control, water infiltration rates, water holding capacity, micro-organism populations, organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, available nutrients, nutrient cycling, insect and other wildlife habitat.

Summer dormant perennial grasses that are used with an irrigated summer active cash crop in California’s Mediterranean climate offer some obvious advantages over summer active perennial grasses commonly used in lawns or irrigated pasture. Perennial grasses also offer vast advantages over either reseeding annual crops or the yearly replanted “Green Manure” crops. They do not need to compete with other types of seeds in the field to re-establish each year.

Green manure, even when only mown and not disked, is expensive when the yearly replanting costs including seedbed preparation are compared:

	TYPICAL COSTS PER ACRE
	Green Manure Cover		Long Lasting Cover
Item	Disked in	Mown	Reseeding	Perennial

Seed	$ 25.00*	$ 25.00*	$ 60.00**	$ 300.00
Disking	$ 60.00*	$ 40.00*	$ 40.00**	$ 40.00
Harrowing	$ 10.00*	$ 10.00*	$ 10.00**	$ 10.00
Herbicide			$ 40.00**	$ 40.00
Sowing	$ 10.00*	$ 10.00*	$ 10.00**	$ 10.00
Ring rolling	$ 10.00*	$ 10.00*	$ 10.00**	$ 10.00
Irrigation				$ 50.00
Mowing	$ 10.00*	$ 20.00*	$ 40.00*	$ 20.00*
1^st year total	$ 125.00	$ 115.00	$ 210.00	$ 480.00
	Totals After 10 Years
10^th year total	$1,250.00	$1,150.00	$ 820.00	$ 680.00

*yearly costs **first & fifth year costs

Thinking and planting for the long term

Every farm and each operator has unique objectives, management, soils, and microclimates. Native grasses offer some special advantages that every grower should consider. We are convinced that a locally adapted or indigenous native grass should be the cover crop of choice in most vineyard and many orchard production systems.

Why do Native Grasses make good cover?

Properly chosen native grass species will last the life of the vineyard and will require far less input costs. Native perennial grasses can function as a true companion crop – active when cash crop is dormant and asleep when the cash crop is making money.

When a re-seeding annual crop is planted, attention must be paid to the cover crop so that the plants will reseed. Yearly weather patterns with too little or too widely spaced rains to germinate seed are a concern.

The perennial native grass allows the grower more freedom. The operations needed for the cash crop can be the primary consideration. The plants regenerate each year from dormant crowns so mowing times and heights will have less effect on their return each winter. Perennials have deeper roots and stronger crowns than annual plants. This offers enhanced benefits of water infiltration, compaction fighting and, with time, soil interface and plow pan reduction. Deeper rooting also puts more organic matter in the soil and recycles nutrients to the surface that may otherwise be lost to the cash crop.

The advantages are obtainable. We have found through our research and the observation of pioneers like Mondavi, Firestone Vineyards and others that successful establishment of long lasting cover crops is taking place throughout California. Success does require careful attention to needs and objectives, allocation of sufficient resources, proper seedbed preparation and weed control.

Start the process by discussing and evaluating your particular needs

Give us a phone call; we don’t pretend to know all the answers but we do know some of the questions. We will gladly make recommendations and assist you with correct balancing of custom blends of our seeds.

S&S Seeds carefully considers your conditions, suggesting appropriate choices of plants that can produce successful results. We grow many of the plants we offer so the practical aspects of using them as companion crops are well known to us. We also get a lot of feedback on what does and doesn’t work. This, combined with 30 years in the seed business, uniquely qualifies us to give cultural information you can use successfully. We are also available as on-site consultants for a fee.

Call or email us now or visit our web site for more information - We can assist

Thanks for considering S&S Seeds companion crop support services.

Sincerely,