Living With Living Mulches

• Undersowing LM into a spring cereal (oats preferably or wheat) after 2 weed harrows has worked best.
• LM needs to be short and uncompetitive – Mark has used 70% wild white clover, 30% medium white clover.
• No yield penalty in the first year.
• Autumn cereal crop in year 2 needs to be vigorous and competitive; Mark suggests rye, oats and wheat (not modern cultivars) in order of preference.
• Simtech direct drill is effective. Mark used normal seed rates but with hindsight should have increased the rate.
• Autumn drilling of cereal in year 2 works. Best result came from mid-September drilling of cereal rye.
• Graze hard with sheep before drilling. Over-winter grazing is good (dependent on weather), but sheep need to be off before stem extension of cereal (end of Feb).
• Clover reduces tillering causing a yield penalty (8-30%+).
• Establishment is a lot cheaper, but also lots of benefits like N accumulation, grazing, soil health etc.
• Need to think of how LM can fit into the whole farm system.
• One rye crop completely wiped out with slugs.
• Direct sowing non-clover elements of a herbal ley at the end worked brilliantly.
• LM works better for annual weed control but favours perennial weeds.
• Deep dive on living mulches will be published on Agricology soon.

Listen to the audio to find out more!