Hi Tom,

Could you possibly indicate more precisely where Harriet provided these tips? Is there a specific thread you are referring to?

The area is 5ha and we have a couple thousand fruit trees. Banding compost is obviously better done before planting but in our case I see that it could be worth it. By that I mean that if it works, its worth it!

The grasses are mowed two to three times during the winter. The grasses are mostly oxidising rather than decomposing. The state of the biomass is visible to the eye.

I have been doing research and worked out a strategy that I will do a trial on this autumn. Our challenge is to align mineral cycles whilst limiting competition. We could implement a cover crop that matures early in the winter, and gets mowed and raked onto the tree lines as early as February. This is the time when are fruit trees start budding and needing the most nutrition. Rains continue till April (on a good year) which gives the biomass a couple of months to decompose – leaving a small amount of residue on the surface. The conditions created by mowing and raking would allow for decomposition. We then need to play with the maturity of the cover crop, and potentially working out solutions to terminate it so that it stops competing with trees around then also (we are organic certified).