Berry Herbicides Alleyway Sods and Living Mulches Perennial grass sods have been managed within orchards and other perennial horticultural crops since the advent of mowers and, more recently, flails. Often, tall fescue or orchardgrass become the dominant sod along with a mixture of annual and perenni al weeds. Native bentgrasses often become the climax species in many western Oregon hillside sites. Advantages of perennial sods include preventing soil erosion, improving traffic conditions, enhancing water infiltration and percolation into the soil, s uppressing pests and interacting with beneficial organisms, modifying orchard temperatures and light conditions that improve fruit quality, reducing dust and mite infestations, and providing substrate or food and habitat for a multitude of soil-borne orga nisms.
Sods can compete with crops, interfere with irrigation, or sometimes enhance certain pests.
Management focuses on minimizing the detrimental effects while enhancing many of the benefits. Improved turfgrass varieties of perennial grasses include dwarfs that require less maintenance or disease tolerance. The improved turfgrasses enhance choices in various horticultural crops such as irrigated orchards, berries, and field-grown nursery s tock or sometimes dryland production of grapes and Christmas trees. Because certain grasses establish very slowly, mixing fast-growing varieties such as perennial ryegrass will greatly improve crop management and flexibility while suppressing initial weed infestations. Types of Perennial Grasses Tall fescues and orchardgrass are vigorous, long-lived grasses that tolerate diverse climatic and soil conditions.