Alfalfa meal is made from dehydrated and ground alfalfa. Alfalfa normally can come as a meal or as pellets. The pellets can be soaked to help break them up and you obtain your meal.
If it’s a light dosage, 12 pounds of fertilizer per 1000 square feet is ideal. As for medium dosage, it should be 25 pounds per 1000 square feet. 50 pounds per 1000 square feet is ideal for heavy application.
You can work your alfalfa meal into the top few inches or perhaps, spread it as a top cover. If it’s top-layered, the best thing to do is to mulch overtop the meal as this prevents it from drying and blowing off.
For smaller-sized pellets, they tend to break down quickly when exposed to moisture but as for larger-sized cubed or pellets, there is a need for them to be broken down first.
Have some placed into a 5-gallon bucket? When done with the whole process, add some water to cover and wait for nothing less than an hour. A potato masher is then used to break apart the pellets or cubes. Ensure to drain off the liquid from soaking but avoid dumping it out.
How to Use Alfalfa Meal
1) As a Soil Amendment
Using alfalfa meal as a soil amendment is the most basic way of using alfalfa meal in the garden. This can be done by either hand-broadcasting it around your garden with the worms and microbes taking care of it or by mixing it into the soil.
Making use of alfalfa meal as a general soil amendment is an excellent way of increasing organic matter just like how it helps to add nitrogen to the soil. This alfalfa meal breaks down quickly and the nitrogen content in it is always readily available.
When alfalfa meal is mixed with compost and added to the soil in your garden, the organic matter in the soil is increased.
Alfalfa meal can also be used in such a way that a few kinds of wood is added to it alongside compost to improve clay-like soils and make them fit for planting crops. With steady applications of the wood chips, you can have dark, healthy soil with the soil structure and texture is improved.
2) As a Compost Activator
Adding alfalfa meal to your compost helps to provide a source of nitrogen and protein which will help in speeding up the composting process.
The result is obtained and noticeable within a day, or perhaps, two days. Once you add alfalfa meal to your compost pile, the compost pile gets to heat up fast.
Using alfalfa meal in your compost is an excellent way to restart a stalled compost pile. Not only that, alfalfa meals can be used to reactivate a compost pile.
3) Using Alfalfa in Veganic Gardening
Here you need to blend alfalfa meal, gypsum, lime, rock phosphate, basalt, azomite, and kelp meal together and afterward, broadcast it into your garden or you can till it into your garden.
Alfalfa meal happens to be a versatile product that can be used in many ways in your organic garden. With a lot of micro and macronutrients, coupled with growth hormones, alfalfa is a great organic fertilizer option.
Whenever you want to make use of an alfalfa meal, ensure to experiment with different types of applications. You get to enjoy the benefits of alfalfa whether it is used as a soil amendment, tea, a ferment, and even if it’s about combining them all.
Conclusion
Before making use of alfalfa meal, it is best to first of all, carry out a soil test so as not to throw off the nutrient balances in your soil.
