| Chicory is a
biological plow and sponge, all in one |
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, dcomis@asrr.arsusda.gov
June 24, 1999
Chicory, 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, West Virginia, 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 Research magazine 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, dbelesky@asrr.arsusda.gov. USDA news release
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