Sunday, September 23, 2012

Crimping tall grass


After one part of the monsoon is over, the farm is full of grass. In some places they have grown taller than me. Today I was cutting the grass on the walking path by using the hond string cutter. In one place while cutting the grass, the tall grasses were standing all around, it was little scary. It was taller than me, ie. taller than 5feet 3 inches. I had seen videos about roller crimper for controlling cover crops and was thinking that kind of equipment will be useful here. Cutting that grass is laborious even using the string cutter. So I took one big stick (stem of coconut leaf) and used its stem to press the grass. To my surprise the tall grasses fell down easily and I could do it quite fast. But this is possible only for certain grasses which after falling does not getup and grow. There are some grasses which will grow back easily.

But if we grow a tall cover crop, then pressing them with this kind of tool is possible, once they mature. In organic no-till we can find many videos of roller-crimper and walk behind roller-crimper which does the same purpose. But I felt I was able to achieve the same thing with this thick stick. Here are some photos...











An update....a week later when I visited this area, found that the grass is standing at half height..they had fallen, but came back and growing again..if the grass had already turned yellow, then it wouldn't have got up, but by this time seed also would be there and hence they will come back in the next season. So some thrashing also will be required to keep them down..so just this method of folding alone won't be enough.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Nanda,

I have the same story as yours. Myself also has same type of grasses even more tha 8 feets.

What are you planning to sow amid the grasses after pressing it. You are in which year of Natural Farming, I heard that after 1 years a lot of grasses doesn't appear.

Thanks

Nandakumar said...

Hi Sheo Narayan,

I am in 4th year of NF, but still grass is there, but once sufficient mulch is there, some leguminous creepers are coming now. What I am looking for is to introduce some legumes. I am trying sunhemp and velvet beans.

Keep experimenting...


Regards,
Nandan

Jason said...

The, more than usually natural, big stick for crimping, i'm enjoying, with my nature love and sense of humour. As you say, of course it's only one part of an integrated way with many parts.
Thanks Nandan for the enjoyment, photos and all, Jason.