WINETECH Technical Yearbook 2020

Recommended sowing rate kg/ha

Approximate seed cost R/ha

Treatment

Performance

White mustard + forage rye

3 + 30

Very good/excellent

675 800 675 800

Forage oats + triticale + forage peas

20 + 40 + 15

Good/very good

Rye

45

Good

Triticale (2 species)

100

Average

Average (by hand) Excellent (planter)

805

Phacelia

7

Premix: Oats (3 species) and stooling rye

40

Very good

693 600

Forage radish and vetch

2 + 10

Good

Average (by hand) Very good (planter)

950

Faba beans

80

Forage oats, triticale, forage pea mixture in the work row (left) and phacelia in the work row with medics on the bankie (right) at Kanonkop, Stellenbosch.

Medics (on the bankie )

5

Excellent

495

hand on the grapevine row underneath the drippers, was a huge success at this site. Although medics is not aggressive in its growth habit, it did reach just below the cordon wire at various points in the block. This required a team to walk through the block and trample the medics flat on one occasion early in the season. At the time of evaluation, the medics was nearing the end of its life cycle and would be expected to set seed and die off by the end of spring. Site: Cavalli, Helderberg Soil description: Granite-based duplex Sowing date: Late April 2019

Cover crops at the Helderberg site produced good biomass in general. The forage barley and pea mixture produced reasonably high biomass. The forage rye produced a higher biomass than the forage barley. Forage rye has a longer growing season than forage barley, which should be taken into consideration when select ing a cover crop species to suit planned sowing and termination dates. The forage radish, triticale and vetch mixture yielded good biomass, although the radish produced a small bulb.

The bitter lupine and vetch mixture produced high biomass , and provided good weed suppression. The oats, radish and vetch mixture produced a low, but dense stand with good biomass and good weed suppression. The triticale stand was average as was its weed suppression. The rye produced a taller stand with better weed suppression. The phacelia, a later-growing species, produced a good stand with medium to high biomass, excellent weed suppression and purple flowers in first two weeks of October.

Medics on the bankie at Kanonkop, Stellenbosch.

WINETECH TECHNICAL YEARBOOK 2020 134