reprinted from "Sum & Substance," the newsletter of the Greater Ozarks Hosta Society, Vol II, #4, Oct - Dec'98
By Dr Bill Roston and Brian Roston, "Garden of Dreams"
BACKGROUND FOR TESTING WITH ALFALFA:
Since I started growing plants, I have heard that Alfalfa produces a more rapid growth due to a growth hormone found in alfalfa called "Triancontanol." People say "We'll use it...." However, I had never seen any studies on the use of alfalfa with hostas. So we set up a plan for testing the growth after treatment with chopped alfalfa hay tea.
CONTROLS:
PLANTS:
Since the advent of tissue culture, it appears that the use of tissue culture clones would make it easier to compete clone against clone, from the same batch of plants. We started with 20 tissue culture clones of H. 'So Sweet.' They were weighed and put one plant against another plant, that weighed an identical amount. Each plant had only one division. We then treated 10 plants with Alfalfa and the other 10 plants with no alfalfa.
SOIL:
We used a mix without soil (FAFARD #2) in a bed 14" deep. Fafard is uniform and relatively sterile. It is east to dig and work with. We wanted something that would stay loose for easy root extraction.
LIGHT:
The beds were competing side by side with the same amount of sunlight daily. A plastic barrier was put between the competing beds.
FERTILIZER:
All plants (alfalfa and non-alfalfa) were treated every 6 weeks with Miracle Grow from the same standard mixture of 1 tbsp. Miracle Grow to 1 gal. of water. Each plant received 16 oz. The 10 alfalfa treated plants were treated with 16 oz. of alfalfa tea per plant. The tea was produced with 3 lbs. chopped alfalfa hay in 5 gals. water for 24 hours. The tea was put on the plants on the first of every month, April through September. Chopped hay was then placed around as mulch.
DURATION OF TREATMENT:
All plants were treated for the same length of time, from May 1, 1997 to September 1, 1998, almost two growing seasons.
RESULTS:
The plants were dug up including all the roots, on September 1, 1998. Early in the growing season, there was a real noticeable difference in the size of the plants. The alfalfa treated plants broke dormancy a week ahead of the non-treated plants. This would be an advantage in a year where we didn't have a late frost. All 10 alfalfa treated plants out-weighed their non-treated counterparts. (We weighed the entire plant, roots, leaves & flowers). The roots were cleaned thoroughly. The heaviest alfalfa plant weighed 2 lbs. 1 oz. The heaviest non-treated plant weighed 1 lb. 1 oz.The total weight of the alfalfa treated plants was 171 oz. while the total weight of the non-treated plants was 116 oz. A statistically significant difference in weight alone, but we counted the divisions in each plant. All alfalfa treated plants had more divisions except plant #4. Each had 4 divisions. The alfalfa plant #4 weighed twice as much as the non-treated plant #4. The total divisions in the alfalfa treated plants was 59 compared to 42 for the untreated plants. Two alfalfa treated plants had 10 divisions each. The most divisions in the non-treated plants were 6. Again, in division counts, a statistically significant improvement with the alfalfa treatment. There were 8 more flower scapes in the alfalfa treated plants.
CONCLUSION:
If you were growing hostas for production, would it be beneficial to use alfalfa tea as we did in this trial? We had 5 hours labor, plus $7 for the bale of alfalfa hay. All other expenses were equal for the treated and non-treated plants. If we divided the plants and got 17 more divisions from the treated plant and H. 'So Sweet', worth $7 per division, we would have $119 for 5 hours of labor and a $7 bale of alfalfa. From a one ounce tissue culture plant to a 33 oz. plant in less than 2 years is good testimony to the rapid growth of H.'So Sweet'. We have available, Bradfield's, a natural alfalfa fertilizer, which comes in pellet form. We use it also. It has the "Triacontanol," that has not been denatured by heat treatment. It is considerably less labor intensive to use the Bradfield's in a tea than mix the tea using the baled alfalfa. We definitely feel that the improved growth, weight and number of divisions, resulting in this study, merits the continued use of alfalfa.
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