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| Pellets or the meal? The pellets are cheaper (about $12/40lb bag) but I've heard the meal is better. I've also read that the alfalfa hay is great for composting. Can it also be used for mulch as well?
I'm looking for a way to have a strong, sustained, slow releasing nitrogen source in my garden bed and alfalfa was suggested to me. Anxiously awaiting your expertise...... |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Given the drought this year and the lack of Alfalfa the cost of using this for our gardens may not be very sustainable. Do you have deciduous trees where you live? They produce a more sustainable source of organic matter for gardens. |
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| can't comment on costing greenpastures, but if it is readily available and affordable for you use it, i would think in whatever form you like, the hay would be good in the compost here we might use it as mulch. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden
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| The pellets should be the same as the meal (if they have a feed label you can compare) it is easier to use the pellets as feed so they probably sell many times more of them. Another thing to look for is that the weights of the two bags may not be the same (50 lbs. is standard for alfalfa pellets here.) After watering a couple of times the pellets will fall apart. The alfalfa hay that I have used for animal feed looks like it would make a very nice mulch - very weed free and it even smells good. When you open the bale and loosen it up, do it on concrete or a tarp so that you can collect all of the finer leaves that will fall out - the leaves are the best part. Hope this helps. Best of luck! |
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| Alfalfa is a wonderful soil amendment as it's a deep rooted plant that brings up minerals that other plants may not. I use alfalfa pellets as our local feed stores don't stock the meal. I've never heard there's a difference in the nutritional value. I soak the pellets in a bucket of water and add some to each watering can when I hand water. Eventually the residue is spent and I spread that on top of the soil. I don't find it expensive, I paid $10 for a 20kg bag which goes a long way. Using alfalfa hay for compost or as mulch would likely be good altho the cost for me would outweigh the value. If you have a small garden and don't need much it might be OK. Good quality early cut alfalfa hay is expensive and later cuts will be have more tough stems which may not compost easily. Could be run thru a shredder first. |
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