I know this doesn’t look like an alfalfa field.  Most alfalfa is grown for hay and is broadcast planted at very high plant populations which forces the plants to compete against each other for sunlight and grow very tall.  This alfalfa is grown for it’s seed.  I don’t want it to grow “vegetative” because it will waste all of it’s capacity to convert sun to energy into growing stem.  I want the plants to harvest sunlight and put all the energy produced into it’s fruit.

This alfalfa is planted in a line and will grow up and then out to fill the available space between lines.  This row spacing also gives us the ability to “cultivate” and undercut the weed seedlings that would grow and compete with the alfalfa for nutrients and sunlight if not controlled.  Obviously, with less resources available, the alfalfa would not be able to produce as much fruit.  This is why weeds are so unwanted.