Alfalfa can be sown from spring to late summer. The number of warm days ahead determines growth and harvest maturity. What we intend to do with sowing them also determines the time and type of harvest.

The green of the alfalfa can be harvested several times a year

Different types of harvest

Alfalfa is grown in the home garden for a variety of reasons. They can serve as an enrichment for our dishes, are an ideal feed for animals and of course their nitrogen content makes them interesting as green manure. Depending on usage, you can harvest alfalfa as follows:

  • Regularly cut off green parts of plants
  • harvest seeds
  • Incorporate plants into the soil

Harvest for fodder or hay

After cultivation, alfalfa can be mown up to four times a year. Whenever they have reached a height of approx. 80 cm. The greens are then dried as hay or immediately fed to animals.

If you sow early in March, you can already harvest the first greens in May. If the alfalfa is to grow perennial, it must flower at least once a year.

Harvesting as a cooking ingredient

If you want to enrich your salad or other dishes with alfalfa leaves, you can harvest young leaves as needed. They are softer and milder than older specimens. Flowers are suitable for making tea.

harvesting the seeds

When the seed pods are dry and brown, the seeds can be harvested. They can be set aside as seed for the following year. They can also be used to grow healthy alfalfa sprouts.

However, harvesting large quantities by hand is tedious work. It is easier if the plants are cut off first and then the seed is threshed off.

Utilization as green manure

Alfalfa in its function as green manure is not harvested in the sense that it does not leave the bed at all. During the winter they remain on the bed and are simply worked into the ground the following year.

Category:

Vegetable garden