Spring Lentils as a Companion Crop: Why Indian Head Works in Mixes

0:00 [Music]

0:15 All right Dale, now we have spring lentils. These are Indian head lentils, kind of an old.

0:20 Old variety of lentils as you can see from the lentils, not nearly as much growth as you're going to get out of batch.

0:27 We wouldn't expect that but they are a little bit cheaper, and I think in my opinion they're a little more drought hardy.

0:35 Than what a veg plant is and they're certainly not as competitive.

0:38 So lentils make a really nice companion crop. I would never use these as a cover.

0:42 Crop by themselves. Yeah, they're just not competitive enough. They don't grow fast enough. But as kind of an understory crop is

0:49 Something to add in with some peas and batch it makes a really nice complementary crop to other things. Yeah, one purpose I.

0:58 Really like lentils as a companion crop to a newly seeded pasture where you want to control erosion and.

1:18 Which you know is a big highly competitive plant. It does control erosion and it really competes hard against your new.

1:25 Little seedlings lentils, they're not very competitive but they do kind of make a canopy that helps prevent erosion.

1:35 They're a fair nitrogen fixer. I just love them in that role of blending in with newly planted pastures for that purpose.

1:43 The other thing that's really good about lentils, like most legumes but lentils especially, highly mycorrhizae, very supportive of your mycorrhizal fungi populations. And for that reason I like lentils and blacks. They're both kind of non-competitive, kind of fit into the gaps type plants that really support some of those biological processes.