Alfalfa is a nutrient-dense feed that is widely used by livestock farmers. Did you know, though, that alfalfa meal may also be used as organic fertilizer? Weeds are rarely seen in high-quality alfalfa meals.
It enriches your soil with nitrogen and trace minerals. It also includes triacontanol, a natural fatty-acid growth booster.
Alfalfa makes a great cover crop. It not only grows quickly to act as a weed blocker, but it also has very deep roots. These roots operate as natural tillers, breaking up and aerating clay soil.
Growing a crop of alfalfa is surprisingly simple. Distribute your seeds evenly throughout the soil’s surface. You can either soak them in or cover them with a thin layer of soil.
They take a long time to get going, but once they do, they can grow to be 3 feet tall.
Adult plants should be pruned and fermented once they’ve reached full size and begun to blossom.
This fermentation is anaerobic, meaning it takes place without the presence of oxygen. Sugars are converted to acids such as lactic acid during fermentation.
The result is silage, or haylage, as alfalfa silage is also known. The natural sugars break down after roughly two weeks under anaerobic circumstances.
The haylage that results can be fed to animals or dried and processed into meals.
It is commonly crushed into pellets or cubes as an easy-to-store feedstock after being processed into a meal.
Gardeners will find it easier to store as a result of this. It’s vulnerable to pests like mice, so keep your meal, pellets, or cubes carefully stored.
What Does Alfalfa Meal Do For Plants?
Alfalfa meal is a horse feed that also works well as a fertilizer for flowering shrubs and perennials. It includes vital micronutrients for your plants.
It usually works best when combined with an organic fertilizer that is appropriate for the sort of plant you are growing.
When new growth emerges in the spring, incorporate alfalfa meal into the soil surrounding your plant for maximum benefit.
Apply the meal only once to plants that flower only once. Shrubs and perennials like peonies are instances of such plants.
It’s ideal to add an alfalfa meal every six weeks to plants that bloom throughout summers, such as roses and dahlias, or repeat bloomers, such as delphiniums. Per standard-size tea rose, 2 cups can be used.
Acid-loving plants including camellias, hydrangeas, evergreens, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, magnolias, azaleas, dogwoods, and rhododendrons, among others, should never be fertilized with alfalfa meal.
The reason for this is that alfalfa meal is alkaline and so incompatible with such plants.
It is also critical that you use a dust mask or other adequate safety equipment when using it to prevent breathing the dust.
Metal can be used to store the bag. Leaving the bag out in the open attracts rodents in any case.
Alfalfa meal is also good for fruit trees since it delivers phosphorus to the soil that is needed for root, stem, bloom, and fruit formation.
Alfalfa meal aids in the addition of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and trace minerals to roses. Not only that, but it also contains “triacontanol,” a natural growth booster.
Read also: Does Alfalfa Meal Attract Rodents?
Is Alfalfa Meal Good For Vegetable Garden?
Flowerbeds, herbs, fruit, and vegetable gardens can all benefit from organic Alfalfa Meal. Alfalfa Meal Tea, applied twice a year, is extremely beneficial to roses.
Alfalfa Meal Tea ingredients would boost ALL vegetable and fruit species. Regular treatments would be beneficial to heavy feeders.
How Do I Use Alfalfa Meal In My Garden?
Around rose bushes or other shrubs of that size, spray around 2 cups (473 ml.) of the meal. Apply a broad line of the meal across hedges and widely throughout large plantings.
With a rake, stir the alfalfa meal into the soil, then water the plants regularly.
Is Alfalfa A Good Fertilizer?
Alfalfa Pellets are a good source of nitrogen and work as a slow-release fertilizer.
Alfalfa also includes trace minerals and triacontanol, a natural growth stimulator that is beneficial to roses.
What Plants Benefit From Alfalfa Meal?
Plants that bloom continuously throughout the summer, such as roses and dahlias, and recurrent bloomers, such as delphiniums, benefit from alfalfa meal applied every six weeks. 2 cups per standard-size tea rose is a good rule of thumb.
