Sunday, September 21, 2014

Invasive cover crops - Pueraria Javanica and Mucuna Bracteta

Leguminous cover crops are said to be superior to growing a ground cover of grass.  According to experts, making land fertile with just growing grass take many more years. I don't learn too much of theory which is difficult to understand, but they say Carbon to Nitrogen ratio is important in the mulch, in grass Carbon content is more Nitrogen is less, and in leguminous crop, this is much better. Nitrogen being an important content for healthy crops, leguminous cover crops helps to make crops healthier.

I tried Sunhemp and Velvet beans in coconut area, they are OK, but some time, they don't establish very well. I may have to reseed them again, if germination is bad. As I heard, cover crops like Pueraria Javanica (Tropical Kudzu) and Mucuna Bracteta has to be just established once and after that they will remain for many years, but the problem will be in controlling.

This made me to think about invasive cover crops like - Pueraria Javanica (Tropical Kudzu) and Mucuna Bracteta. Mucuna was seen in rubber plantations in Kerala and they keep a ground cover green even during peak summer. I searched to check if anyone is using in orchards and found two farmers in Kerala. One was a farmer from Kannur, Kerala named Francis and he used Mucuna as cover crop in his pepper crop - www.nif.org.in/upload/pdf_file/francis_pa.pdf. Talked to him and he was recommending Mucuna and even though it is invasive, it can be easily controlled. Another farmer was Jayadevan, Alanellur, Kerala and he was not completely for it, since it just takes over and spreads to different places and it can not be used as fodder. He had used it in one area of coconut farm and that area didn't require any watering, he was planning to replace it. Since there were plenty of red ants, there was no threat of snakes. I talked to Kailashamurthy of Mysore and he suggested to use Pueraria. Pueraria also is used in rubber plantations widely. Later found one farmer in Palakkad who had used Pueraria Javanica in his coconut farm. His name is Anilkumar and he was OK with it, but again it climbs onto everything and even though no snakes are found, it is scary for the laborers to walk through it. He is phasing it out and try to grow other legumes. Some photos of Anil Kumar's farm ..





I found some recommendations in Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming book, about tropical kudzu, so thought of trying it out in one area where I have planted banana. Probably after some 3-4 years, I will also phase it out using grazing or cutting it.

5-Sept-2015

Pueraria Javanica being established in my farm...it is crowding out grass, but climbs on banana,trees etc...










6 comments:

Anonymous said...

a word of caution on both Pueraria and mucuna bractata, they dominate almost all crops. They climb up arecanut tree and dominates the tender bunches. You need to keep them away from climbing coconut or arecanut trees.

Nandakumar said...

True, that is my concern, but right now there are no other choices. If there was a cover crop which will grow as vigorous as Pueraria and Mucuna bracteta and is not climber, then it would have been my choice.

Thanks,
Nandan

Unknown said...

Sir, do you have any idea on how to make hard clumpy barren soil to porous healthy soil...does cover crop help ..

Nandakumar said...

Grow as many cover crops as possible, also leguminous trees like glyrecedia,subabul etc..cut and mulch, soil will improve.Also initially it may be good to apply some cowdung slurry or Jeevamruth, after a while this can be stopped.


Regards,
Nandan

pradeep said...

Finally found a kindred spirit, most of your posts were something I'm doing or researching. Great! I was able to find mucuna bracteata in nurserylive (taking too long to deliver seeds). However couldn't find tropical kudzu seeds if you could you point me, that'll be great

Nandakumar said...

Pradeep,

Nice to see your comments...As of now, I dropped the plan of Mucuna Bracteata since it is harmful to the cattle, stray cattles may eat this. I am planning to use Velvet beans in this place, for this area, and my permanent cover is Pureria..I haven't seen any place where they sell Pureria, I can send you few seeds. Contact details given in the blog

Regards,
Nandan