Now that we are finished harvesting the barley, I wanted to do an up-to-date post on our alfalfa seed we planted this spring.  It is very similar to our established alfalfa seed, but requires a few extra steps in the spring. We started off by using our no-till drill and drilling some wheat as a cover crop.  We had edible beans on this field last year, so the field was pretty bare and we were worried about the field blowing when the alfalfa seed was emerging.  We let the cover crop get a couple inches tall before we planted the alfalfa seed directly into it.  As the alfalfa plant emerged, the wheat protected it from the wind and kept the field from blowing which would have injured the newly emerged alfalfa seed plants.

Drilling the cover crop

Here are some pictures of the newly emerged alfalfa plants. When the alfalfa plants were big enough, we killed off the cover crop so it would not take water and nutrients away from the alfalfa plant.

Then with some water and heat, the alfalfa plants take off!

Being spring seeded, these plants will not get as big as our established alfalfa seed plants, but they seem to pack a big punch with a lot of blooms!

Also like the established plants, there are so many pretty colors!

The cutter bees were put out about 1-2 weeks later than the established alfalfa fields since the plants do not bloom as early.  The bees have done their job by now and we will actually start harvesting this field in a couple weeks.  I look forward to posting pictures and videos of alfalfa seed harvest.  Happy harvesting everyone! 🙂