Moss!

johngalway

All my land would be graded poor quality peaty grazing (Truth feckin hurts!). Taking a wander today over the bit I'm saving for grass for fresh lambed ewes I'm seeing a lot of moss around the place. I spread 18.6.12 mixed with 0.7.30 according to my now defunct REPS plan a couple of weeks ago. Grass seems to be coming along slowly but surely.

I plan to spread lime this year if I can and I wonder would that help get rid of the moss in any way? Also of what benefit would slag be to the land? Other ideas for getting rid of moss would be appreciated.

I'd prefer if I could avoid spraying, ideally I'd like improvement of the land to kill off the moss but I know little about the subject!

I have no machinery, and the land would really be suitable for machines anyhow.

lanod2407

Christ - I could have written that myself and not changed a word, except I've not spread anything yet!

Certainly looking forward to people's opinions on this one as I've seen the moss increase over the past year or so.

reilig

Lime is the key lads. Have a good bit of peaty land myself and thankfully its clear. You need to get soil samples and spread the recommended amount. Reseeding would get rid of it too, but you would still need to spread the lime.

kerryman12

Unfortunately we would have land in that catagory also!

Dont forget the main reason you are seing so much moss now is that there has been no grass growth for a long time, it really only kicked in a week or two ago. Keeping a good cover of grass ontop will also help to kill off the moss.

AS regards what is the best stuff to spread I cant really help, but I will make the following point on the lime,
reilig is as usual correct from what I understand - just one word of warning though. My father always maintainted that putting two much lime on black groud could have a negative impact as it softens out the top layers alot and can lead to a lot of damage to your ground from machinery etc. This happened in one of our fields the last time we spread lime.

snowman707

[QUOTE=kerryman12;65094001
My father always maintainted that putting two much lime on black groud could have a negative impact as it softens out the top layers alot and can lead to a lot of damage to your ground from machinery etc. This happened in one of our fields the last time we spread lime.[/QUOTE]


agree with you the there

we found slag the best , don't know about the moss but it sweetened the grass ,

have 10 acres on the out farm which we didn't plant in forestry , had intended draining etc but never got around to it

pakalasa

Reminds me of what an old neighbour of ours used to say when he was slagged about going bald at a young age -
' Lads, Moss wont grow on a good field '

reilig

Fully agree with you kerryman. The theory behind it is simple. When you spread the lime, it gets rid of the moss as well as other plants/weeds that are native to low ph soils. The removal of these gives less ground cover - especially for the first few years until the grass thickens up and can mean that the ground is more tender because there are less roots to keep it together.

When you are spreading lime, it is an ideal time to over seed existing grass with grass seed or clover. People have different methods of doing this. I usually spread a thin coat of slurry on top of the lime and then blacken the ground with the chain harrow by going over it at least two times. Then you can spread about 1/3 of an acre pack of seed per acre. This will give your ground more stability against damage from machinery. You will also have a lovely grass growth at a very cheap price.

kerryman12 wrote: »

Unfortunately we would have land in that catagory also!

Dont forget the main reason you are seing so much moss now is that there has been no grass growth for a long time, it really only kicked in a week or two ago. Keeping a good cover of grass ontop will also help to kill off the moss.

AS regards what is the best stuff to spread I cant really help, but I will make the following point on the lime,
reilig is as usual correct from what I understand - just one word of warning though. My father always maintainted that putting two much lime on black groud could have a negative impact as it softens out the top layers alot and can lead to a lot of damage to your ground from machinery etc. This happened in one of our fields the last time we spread lime.

johngalway

I know it's helpful for others, but I'll say it again, no machinery works my land Probably the heaviest thing that traffics it is myself with a 50kg fert bag on me shoulder!

Learning a bit on this thread mind you

reilig

johngalway wrote: »

I know it's helpful for others, but I'll say it again, no machinery works my land Probably the heaviest thing that traffics it is myself with a 50kg fert bag on me shoulder!

Learning a bit on this thread mind you

Is the land too wet to work a machine on or do you just not have the machine???

If its too wet, well then I believe that there is little or no cure to a moss problem because your land would most likely be saturated with water for a large part of the year and the water would leech all nutrients from the soil including the lime.

kerryman12

I hear you John, but you are missing my point slightly -
the bottom line is it will be more suseptiable to pouching
plus to get the lime out presumably a machine will have to do that.

johngalway

reilig wrote: »

Is the land too wet to work a machine on or do you just not have the machine???

It's too uneven, and there are too many rocks and stone walls. I see plenty of sloping fields, but they are without obstacles, mine are sloping and obstacle filled. A ,machine would do more surface damage than it would be of use in improving this piece of land IMO.

Plus I don't have machines lol. A quad may work for some jobs mind you, but no money to hire one so it'll be me and a bucket likely lol, business as usual

kerryman12 wrote: »

I hear you John, but you are missing my point slightly -
the bottom line is it will be more suseptiable to pouching
plus to get the lime out presumably a machine will have to do that.

I understood ya and I think it's of help to people in the same situation who would be, or could be, using machinery I've no cattle, just the ewes and no machines to be worrying about poaching. I also agree with ya about no growth revealing more moss, I was just shocked at the amount of it.

kerryman12

i hear ya, maybe a chopper is the best option:p
to spread it that is

just do it

reilig wrote: »

Fully agree with you kerryman. The theory behind it is simple. When you spread the lime, it gets rid of the moss as well as other plants/weeds that are native to low ph soils. The removal of these gives less ground cover - especially for the first few years until the grass thickens up and can mean that the ground is more tender because there are less roots to keep it together.

When you are spreading lime, it is an ideal time to over seed existing grass with grass seed or clover. People have different methods of doing this. I usually spread a thin coat of slurry on top of the lime and then blacken the ground with the chain harrow by going over it at least two times. Then you can spread about 1/3 of an acre pack of seed per acre. This will give your ground more stability against damage from machinery. You will also have a lovely grass growth at a very cheap price.

Thanks for the well reasoned post reilig, even if it is 3 years later. I've been listening to the line about lime "boiling up" ground but what you say makes perfect sense. I've avoided liming my soft ground as it's easily poached. However it has grown feck all grass worth talking about in the last 5 years so time for a new approach. Moss has taken off this year in the absence if grass growth further highlighting I need to get lime out. I like the lime and over seed idea for this ground.