Hi, we are working at trialing the Maresha planter in South Sudan. When we watched it being used in Tanzania, there was not any existing vegetation.
But this year there was some early rains in South Sudan. The grass in knee high. Does anyone have sugestions on how to plant CA into knee-high grass without chemicals. Thanks,
Grass is a challenge. If you have non-itching mucuna seads or another vigorous bean variety, you can slash down the grass and plant right into it. Mucuna (or any other vigorously growing bean) will overgrow and kill anything on the field, put in lots of nitrogen and will also provide you with food (although mucuna is bothersome to prepare, you need to soak it, and boil it twice while replacing the water to reduce the cyanoids in it).
It also depends on the rains. Mucuna need enough water to grow well. In our area it doesn’t work in drier years. But if you have let’s say over 700mm of rain, it works well.
By next year, you’ll have a much nicer prepared field for other crops.
Hello Mike and Martin,
I just came across your post and became curious about the preparation methods used for mucuna.
Do people consume it regularly when it is prepared according to the techniques you described? So far, I have never heard of people eating mucuna regularly, since I understood that the antinutritional compound L-Dopa is quite difficult to remove completely. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this.
In your region, have you also experimented with Canavalia or Dolichos lablab as alternatives to mucuna in regions with lower rainfall?
Best regards,
Hello @Mike_Martin! I am not familiar with the Maresha planter. However, with tractor-pulled mechanical planters, some people have found more success planting into standing green grass than into a mat of chopped grass that is laying in many different directions and that has not dried completely. The standing grass can be controlled after crop planting but before crop emergence. For a thick uniform stand of an annual grass, some people wait until the grass is flowering, and then they cut the grass and lay it down all in the planting direction (i.e., the grass stems and leaves being parallel to the crop row as much as possible) before planting the crop. Though you are working with farmers who have limited access to mechanization, you might still find ideas and resources from the Rodale Institute to be helpful (Organic No-Till - Rodale Institute). All the best with your work!
Hello Paul,
in Mtwara region of Tanzania mucuna beans are eaten regularly (I’ve been told from a participant of one of our courses who is from that region), as are Canavalia. They soak the mucuna beans seven times in water before cooking them.
We have planted both Canavalia and Lablab in our area. They work better, but Lablab grows slower initially and does not surpress grass as well as Mucuna. Canavalia is the most drought resistant and high yielding, but not very good for grass suppression, and you have to soak and boil the seeds repeatedly to remove the toxins.
I also tried lima beans, and at least in better (wetter) years, it seems to do well in our area.
Hi Mike,
When you write CA, do you mean conservation agriculture (no till)?
I have worked in no till systems but they used chemicals. They would plant into wheat and maize stubble/crop residues and the residues would protect the emerging seedlings from wind and give them a good microclimate… they would also act as mulch but spray herbicides at planting as a pre emergent so that the crop would be mainly weed free for the first little while following which they’d do mechanical cultivating or selective herbicides.
In general though ,crop residues make weeding a bit harder and they require more specialized planting equipment that has some source of coulter or trash disc (also called a trash wheel, residue manager or row cleaner) to slice into the soil and spread the residue to the sides of the planter line.
A normal maresha plough planter from what I know of them would be designed to be used on fields at the beginning of the season ( free of weeds) or that have been ploughed with a maresha plough and be free or weeds and residues.
I know of no planters that could plant into knee high grass…ok some probably could but it’s gonna be hard work on any animals to pull it through the grass roots… but say you find the equipment and manage … How w are you gonna control the grass after - that is the big question?
If one has grass pasture one could mouldboard plough it to completely invert the grass and expose bare soil and then plant into that bare soil. I imagine you would be very against if you are into conservation agriculture/ no till.
Most CA I know of use herbicides more as they seek to use mechanical forms of cultivation less.
If you don’t want to do full inversion tillage… Then plant early in the season ( on time ) and never let the weeds get so big and then you could get away with shallow cultivations (duck foot cultivator) that effectively act like a scuffle hoe and cut the roots a few cm below the soil surface but don’t invert the soil. That way you could kill the grass when it’s just emerging and plant at the same time… And then follow up with hand or animal cultivations to keep on top of the weeds.
If the grass is already knee high. I am afraid to say anything you plant is just going to be smothered by the grass… Even if you find a planter capable of working in grass that high I don’t think your crop will be a success. The grass needs to be killed if a crop is going to survive
From what I know maresha planters are a planting mechanism behind a maresha plough… They aren’t exactly CA / no till equipment. Instead they are an ard plough with a planter on the back.
Hope some of this helps and sorry if I misunderstood things.
All the best with it!
P.s. what are you wanting to plant? Also, just how thick is the grass… that makes a big difference. What do the locals say?