Preparing the Field

I am getting ready to grow field stock of about 500 trees in Kansas soil. Has anyone killed the grass and left it instead of tilling it up and getting rid of it?

Thanks
Todd

I have not done this, but here are my thoughts. Killing grass normally involves applying glyphosate (Roundup being the best known brand). The bottles I have seen recommend waiting a few weeks to plant anything else. Since the dead roots and grass may well serve as humus in the soil they could be tilled in. If you are planting 500 trees you probably have tilling equipment so I would spray with glyphosate, let the grass die, till it in, spot spray anything that comes up a couple of weeks after tilling, retill in another couple of weeks, and wait until spring to plant the trees. I was told by a county extension agent that if you apply the glyphosate appropriately any glyphosate left in the soil will break down over a relatively short time span. Anything taken up into glyphosate resistant plants may or may not break down which is an entirely different issue concerning the Roundup Ready crops.

Option C. Don't use pesticides or till. Kill the grass by covering it. If you compost that would be the ideal route, but I doubt you have access to that much compost (would be a heck of a bin on your property). Maybe a combination of laying tarp and compost?

For my veggiepatch I just turned the soil up to 2ft depth (2 spades deep), and made sure the grass ended up in the bottom. Worked wonders with only a few patches needing weeding afterwards. but that is only some 100 sqm (900 sq ft). I don't know the area you are prepping now.

Great responses. these are the type of answers I was looking for. I was planning on prepping as much now and spring planting. I do have a large tiller but it is hand so I will probably till and re spray.

Todd