Perennial straw
Our new
bales of straw were
cut from a perennial --- canary reedgrass, which grows in soupy ground
down by a creek. The farmer reports:
"It is
a grass that regrows every year. And is more friendly to the
environment than wheat straw. We do not harvest until late August early
September; by that time all the seeds have fallen off and it is just
like wheat straw except it is a little longer and does not have the
golden color."
Clearly, the demand for
his straw is high. The farmer has just about sold out, having moved
1,000 bales using a self-serve kiosk by the side of the road over the
course of the winter and spring.
I'll try to remember to
report back once I have more of an idea of the pros and cons of using
this perennial straw in the garden. For now, I suspect it'll rot a
little faster since it has more of a grass feel than a straw feel, but
will otherwise work as expected. Stay tuned for further details!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Perennial Straw
My only worry "all the seeds have fallend off"
Comment by
Jayne Wead
— Tue Apr 3 12:54:51 2018
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Canary Grass
Jackie Clay of Backwoods Home mag uses canary reed grass. She says they cut it early before seed heads form. Here's a link to a variety of her posts mentioning it; you might be able to glean some useful info from. http://www.backwoodshome.com/search-results/?cx=partner-pub-7411545515573536%3A8573169461&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Reed+canary+grass%22&sa=Search&siteurl=www.backwoodshome.com%2Fblogs%2FJackieClay%2F&ref=&ss=1872j657536j10
Comment by
Daniel
— Wed Apr 4 10:10:38 2018
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Reed Canary Grass
Reed Canary Grass is not usually a problem unless you have poorly drained soil, it likes wet feet.
Comment by
Nita
— Thu Apr 5 09:43:58 2018
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comment 4
It was called that "Meadow Hay" in mid Minnesota- in dry years it always got cut and harvested, in wet years you couldn't get machinery near it! Grows nearly taller than the tractor.
Comment by
Eric
— Thu Apr 5 19:15:08 2018
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