Organic alfalfa is grown without artificial products like fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Weeds are controlled by planting a cover crop like oats, which is plowed up before planting alfalfa. Organic compost and natural controls like predatory insects are used to fertilize and protect the crop. Despite the higher cost, many people prefer organic alfalfa to avoid health problems from artificial products.
Organically grown plants are those produced without the use of artificial products; generally fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Instead, everything applied to such crops must occur naturally, which often means that it takes more work to produce them, but the grower ensures that they have not been touched by man-made chemicals. Organic alfalfa is one such crop and can be grown as feed for livestock that is used to make food or made into nutritional supplements for humans.
When growing organic crops, weeds can become a serious problem if not properly controlled. One method to minimize weed growth is to keep the field planted continuously with organic alfalfa or a cover crop, such as oats. This method keeps the area covered with desirable planting that is usually thick and fast growing, smothering most weeds before they can get started. Just before it is time to plant the alfalfa, the oat grass is plowed up and left to rot so that it doubles as a fertilizer, or what is commonly called green manure, and provides nutrients for the new crop.
Organic alfalfa is also commonly fertilized with old manure from horse or cattle stables or aged organic compost which can include rotting grass, kitchen waste and other plant material. It’s important that anything added to the compost is organic, as chemical contaminants at any stage of the process can mean the resulting alfalfa is no longer truly organic. Most organic crop growers are meticulous about these things and go to great lengths to avoid any possibility of non-organic materials coming into contact with their crops.
Since chemical pesticides are definitely man-made, organic alfalfa growers have to find other ways to deal with the pests that are drawn to the fields. One very popular method is the use of natural controls, especially predatory insects that prey on those insects that might otherwise destroy the organic alfalfa crop. Ladybugs, some wasps, pirate bugs, and praying mantises are all used to control various pests without the need to resort to applying chemicals that could be dangerous.
Despite the higher cost of organic alfalfa, in part because it is more expensive to produce, many people find it worth paying the extra cost to avoid the health problems that accompany so many artificial products that are in common use. When alfalfa is used as animal feed, there is no possibility of harmful insecticides or other chemicals accumulating in the meat or milk of food-producing animals. In some instances organic alfalfa is used to make a human dietary supplement, and most people who choose to use such supplements seem to prefer that the product not be made with alfalfa that is exposed to potentially harmful chemicals.
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