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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-090
Sainfoin
Onobrychis viciifolia
Sainfoin is a non-bloating perennial forage legume whose condensed tannins, 4-10 percent, both improve palatability and act as a natural dewormer, with trial evidence against Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora in calves; it also feeds bees twice a year and is one of the few forage legumes here that poultry eat directly, with documented gains in egg production. Nitrogen fixation is unreliable - nodulation often fails even with proper inoculation - so treat any nitrogen it produces as a bonus, never a guild's fertility backbone. It needs sharp-draining, calcareous, sandy or cobbly ground; heavy or waterlogged clay causes outright stand failure through crown and root rot.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 7–8.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3.2 ft
- Mature spread
- 4–20 in
- Plant spacing
- Plant
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Adzuki Bean
Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
Adzuki is the odd one out among the beans in this group: a very hot summer is actively too hot for it, since heat above about 35C damages…
Herbaceous · USDA 3–11
African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
African Eggplant, also called gboma or scarlet eggplant, is a West and Central African relative of eggplant that gives two harvests from one…
Herbaceous · USDA 8–12
Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
Agrimony is a slender herbaceous perennial of sunny, disturbed ground across Europe and western Asia, grown mainly for the tannin-rich leaves…
Herbaceous · USDA 5–9
Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Alfalfa is a deep-rooted perennial legume grown worldwide as one of the richest forage crops available, its taproot running six metres or…
Herbaceous · USDA 4–11
Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
Amaranth greens are one of the few leafy vegetables actually built for peak summer heat rather than one that just tolerates it - sown once…
Herbaceous · USDA 2–11
Anise
Pimpinella anisum
Anise is a single-season annual grown for its aromatic seed, which flavors bread, sweets and spirits like pernod and ouzo, while the young…
Herbaceous · USDA 4–9
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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