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sherwood_botsford

Cover crop in container tree production.

I run a small container based tree and shrub farm. In Canada there are no herbicides licensed for use in a container. I grow a large enough variety that it would be a difficult to implement such a system anyway.

So I till to exhaust the seed bank of my fill dirt; I mulch the pots to reduce weed growth, and I spend a lot of time weeding.

Curiously in pots where the dandelions have gotten away from me the tree appears pretty much like it's neighbors.

Does anyone have experience with planting a cover crop in a container? I have the water resources to increase the water, but right now my suspicion is that right cover crop may actually decrease my water need:

* We get heavy dew most nights. (4 steps through the grass and your feet are soaked.) A cover crop has a lot of collecting area. Evaporation of this water reduces soil heating.

* A cover crop that cascaded over the side of the pot can reduce the heating of the pot

So far I've not found any research on this, but one horticulture worker at Northern Alberta Crop Diversification Centre thought it would put too much water stress on the trees. However I think he was thinking forestry seedling production when I said container tree nursery.

So:

Is this a really bad idea?

If it's not a really bad idea, what are candidate cover crops. At this point I'm considering:

* Dutch white clover -- doesn't turn off customers, spreads

through the pot, some cascading, most of the root system in top 2-3 inches of pot.

* Stink weed. -- even shorter than clover, very shallow root system. Fast reproduction cycle, easy control.

* sheep's fescue. -- PFRA recommeds this when establishing shelterbelts on slopes where bare earth would cause erosion.

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