The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-09-19
TIME TO PLANT
THE COVER CROP
(By Prof. C. |. Lewis

Nnl AS@-
The time for planting your cover
eron has arrived. The use Of cover
erops in onr orchards is increasing very
ranidlv each wear and more and more
growers are resorting to this practice.
IL former years il was thought by
MANY of the growers that It was i'm
possible to obtain success BY planting
cover crops but later experiments
show that failures were due to i'm
proper methods.
In planting cover efops one must
know the right time OF planting, the
kind of seed 20 plant, how to put in
tbe seed and the proper time for plow-
inc under in the spring. In the first
Mace the proper time for planting the
seed is the last of August or the early
part of September and / Is right here
when many growers make failure.
They wait until late September or Octo-
bef before planting the seed. eonse-
ouentlv the plants are interfered with
nv heavy frosts and rains and a very
feeble growth obtained during the fall
months. If the seed is planted in
August or September it will soon
come up and make very satisfactory
growth and 90 into the winter in very
good shane and generally come out
nicely, if it is established while there
is still some warmth and sunshine.
You will need to have little concern
about tramping out this cover crop
while spraying or picking your fruit
You will. of course, tramp down some
of the crop but it will soon come up
again.
Formerly the cover crops were sown
broadcast in the orchards and while at
times very good plants can be obtained
in this way it is much better to drill
the seed in. We find where it is drilled
under it comes up much more uni
formly and comes up quicker. During
one of the dry seasons that we had
two years ago we were able to germin-
ate seed within six DAYS after it was
drilled in. There is enough moisture
in the ground to sprout the seed and
after the first few rains in the fall the
plants will come on very nicely.
In western Oregon where our winters
are not severe we usually drill in Ore
gon vetch, forty pounds of yetch and
one pound of oats or rye to the acre
In buying seed for cover crops you will
not have to purchase clean seed. One
can save considerable money in this
way. Even though the seed is dirty il
will do no harm as the cover crop will
all be plowed under in the spring ant
the weeds will give you no trouble
The unclean is much cheaper than thC
clean seed.
The cover crop will be found t
be very beneficial to the orchard. /
will cover the ground so as to preven
considerable teaching and washing
away of the soil. Ii is also somewha
of a protection in case of frosts or un
usual weather. 1t improves wonder
fully the physical condition of the soil
1t is surprising to see what single
crop of vetch will bring about in th'
orchard. Then again it adds grea
deal Of plant food.
There are certain kinds of cove
crops. The leguminous crops, lik'
vetch, clovers. peas, etc, have th
ability of taking the nitrogen from tn
atmosphere and thus adding that ele
ment to the son, while rape aid coy
horn turnips make potash available.
The writer is interested in larg
orchard in western Qegon and the so
has been in wheat and oats for iift
years and single crop of vetch in
proved the ground wonderfully and th
tree growth has been remarkable
Many of the three year old trees ar
! more than eight feet tall.
One will have much better success
with the vetch in the young orchard
than they will in the older orchard;
1t might be a mistake to plant veto
every year as it might give excess II
|, trogen. If your trees are inclined [
run to foliage and have too much woo
growth, think you will not want
plant very much vetch or any othe
{ iegumiuous crop. Probably rotatio
of crops might be beneficial, that il
vetch ard oats, vetch and rye, co
horn turnip or rape, or one might pit
,, in rye the first year. oats the secor
and rape the third. Just what rot;
: tion you would plant would dcper
upon the growth the trees are making
5 II the trees do not have enough nltr,
gen they would respond 10 numbt
of crops of vetch planted in succession
. In plowing the yetch under you wou
do this at the time you would plo
: your orchard il you had no vetch.