Fallowing
It is usually not desirable to have to plan a fallow period into a rotation, but it may be necessary if weeds cannot be controlled during cropping or fertility building. It may not be necessary to stop cropping for a whole year, but instead to employ a bastard fallow i.e. no crop for part of the year. Tillage without a crop for a season is sometimes referred to as a black fallow. Fallowing the land for part of the growing season, as a bastard or summer fallow, can be as effective as a full fallow, is more suitable for lighter land and can be fitted into most rotations.
Fallowing is often best during the summer when cultivations can take place and the drier periods allow for root desiccation. This technique is more useful in plough-dominated systems rather than grassland management. One aim is to cultivate the soil progressively deeper over time, exposing underground plant parts to desiccation at the soil surface but in this case dry weather conditions are essential. Ploughing begins in June/July allowing time for an early crop to precede it. A bastard fallow is often used after a ley to reduce perennial weeds before sowing a winter cereal. There is also an opportunity for birds to feed on wireworms exposed during soil disturbance.
Fallowing has been shown to reduce perennial weeds within a rotation. The aim is to kill the vegetative organs of the weeds by mechanical damage and desiccation. For a full or bare fallow, heavy land is ploughed in April to give the weeds time to start into growth. It is cultivated or cross-ploughed 10-14 days later to produce a cloddy tilth. The soil is cultivated or ploughed at frequent intervals to move the clods around and dry them out. By August the clods should have broken down and the soil is left to allow the weed seeds to germinate. In September/October the weeds are ploughed in and the land prepared for autumn cropping. If a cereal is to follow the fallow, wheat bulb fly may be a problem because it lays eggs on bare ground in July. This can be overcome by sowing a green manure such as mustard to cover the land during this period.
Although there is the benefit of reduced weed control costs in subsequent crops after an effective fallow, the economics of taking land out of production for a full year together with undesirable effects on the soil and the environment, make the use of a bare fallow unlikely for weed control in the organic system. There is no financial return during the fallow period while labour costs accumulate during the fallowing operations. As an alternative to fallowing, cleaning crops such as potatoes and turnips allow repeated hoeing for weed control (but are not suited to heavy land).
A similar effect to that of fallowing can be achieved with rapidly developing crops like radish (Raphanus sativus) that are harvested before the onset of weed competition. The short interval between crop establishment and harvesting in this crop encourages weed seed germination but does not allow the weeds time to set seed or reproduce vegetatively.
Further information:
- Download our leaflet on fallowing (a 41kb pdf file)
- Tackling Weeds In Cereals: Wholistic (sic) Approach Is Best. Paper by Lawrence Woodward (IOR-EFRC) available from this site .
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