
Chicory Is a Biological Plow and Sponge, All
in OneBy Don Comis June 24, 1999Chicory, a hardy plant that can survive
the sidewalk jungle, may be just the thing for pastoral rigors as well,
according to a scientist with the Agricultural Research Service,
USDA's chief scientific wing. With its carrot-like taproot, chicory can plow its way down to great depths
through hard, marginal soils--and even cracks in a sidewalk. In a pasture, it
relentlessly recycles excess soil nitrogen into protein for livestock before
the nitrogen can pollute groundwater. The deep rooting could also explain how
chicory stays green and leafy in hot, dry summers--to keep feeding sheep and
cattle after most pasture plants have stopped growing. Chicory's nitrogen appetite seems endless.
ARS agronomist David P. Belesky found
that this biological sponge can soak it up even at commercial fertilizer rates
as high as 425 pounds an acre. At ARS' Appalachian Farming
Systems Research Center in Beaver, W.Va., Belesky and colleagues have been
testing three varieties--Grasslands Puna, Forage Feast and Lacerta--on
Appalachian pastures for the past four years. Now they're checking the plant's appetite for nitrogen, phosphorus and other
nutrients in composted turkey litter cleaned from turkey houses. It could
become the preferred fertilizer for pastures in West Virginia, because it is
inexpensive and readily available from nearby turkey farms.
British United Turkeys of
America, a turkey-production firm with breeding operations in southern West
Virginia, is helping with the tests. Belesky and colleagues are testing the chicory in a pasture mix of
orchardgrass and white clover. They want to see whether the deep-rooting
chicory and orchardgrass can soak up any nitrogen and water missed by the
shallow-rooting clover. A story about the research appears in the June issue of
ARS' Agricultural Researchmagazine and on the web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun99/turk0699.htm Scientific contact: David P. Belesky, ARS Appalachian Farming Systems
Research Center, 1224 Airport Rd., Beaver, WV 25813-9423; phone (304) 256-2841,
fax (304) 256-2921, [email protected]. Story contacts Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center U.S. Department of Agriculture | |