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Post by davida on Mar 13, 2012 9:47:46 GMT -5
Would planting bush beans around the new trees in my orchard create any unwanted pests or harm to the fruit trees? I certainly do not want to harm the trees but want to plant a bean in every vacant spot (please, stop laughing, Holly).
Thanks for the help,
David
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Post by MikeH on Mar 13, 2012 11:18:09 GMT -5
Would planting bush beans around the new trees in my orchard create any unwanted pests or harm to the fruit trees? I certainly do not want to harm the trees but want to plant a bean in every vacant spot (please, stop laughing, Holly). Thanks for the help, David David, We did last year and the year before. The trees were red mulberries, hazels and crab apples. We planted beans, bush squash, tomatoes, fava, and soybeans. The first year the trees were all more or less the same size but by end of the second year there was a noticeable difference. Those trees surrounded by beans and soy are much larger. Coincidence??? Maybe. Probably. Regards, Mike |
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Post by steev on Mar 13, 2012 11:19:44 GMT -5
Unless water is in such short supply that the trees can't stand the competition, or fertility ditto, what harm could there be? I permanently cover-crop under my trees with weeds, which I know is verboten in conventional practice, but sheesh! Who round-ups and strip-tills under trees in Nature, and yet there are healthy trees growing, whole forests of them. The only likely downside I can see is that the beans might not like the shade, if the trees are big enough to cast much.
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Post by MikeH on Mar 13, 2012 11:28:13 GMT -5
Beans are nitrogen fixers so fertility shouldn't be a problem. We mulch heavily with grass clippings all summer long so water was never a problem even during July when we had no rainfall at all.
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Post by steev on Mar 13, 2012 21:05:45 GMT -5
Not to nit-pick, but potassium and phosphorus are also involved in fertility, as well as other non-nitrogenous nutrients. I was not suggesting that there was likely to be any downside to the underplanting for the trees.
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Post by MikeH on Mar 13, 2012 22:19:15 GMT -5
My bad. What I was trying to say is that because beans fix nitrogen, they won't be reducing that aspect of fertility.
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Post by steev on Mar 14, 2012 0:16:09 GMT -5
Probably not of importance to trees, but in my experience, beans can have a definite deterrant effect on breeding.
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