question about alfalfa and weeds.

[funny farmer]

My nieghbor down the road had a 20 acre feild that was planted in rye a couple years ago and is now gone to weeds. The weed that took over is called tansie, or stinkweed, when its mature i has a yellow crown and is very toxic to pregnant cattle. What i was hoping to do if he lets me, is to go over it with a disc a couple times and plant alfalfa with oats for a cover. I was wondering if I'll have to spray this weed or will the alfalfa crowd it out. Is the autotoxy in the alfalfa just for it's offspring or will it work on controlling other plants? I think this is the right forum for this with the most responses. Any comments appreciated, thanks

 

[jimg]

The 'auto' in autotoxic means its toxic only to itself.

Some of the answer depends on when you plan to plant. If youre going to wait until fall then weed competition will be greatly diminished + you dont have heat stress + winter rains. Planting at a higher than normal rate then would be even better insurance. However, Id plan to spray some sort of herbicide the next spring just to make sure your stand has the best chance possible. If you dont need to then all the better. If youre going to plant right away Id burn everything down (chemically) + add a pre-emergent into the mix + use a MUCH higher rate of seed. Once you have weeds under control then Id be meticulous keeping it that way.