Growing on old meadow - no flowers or fruit

I am planting in a field that has been meadow since the Domesday Book except for a few years when it was used for pig /sheep grazing. A local farmer (forced to farm on Essex clay! - yuk) was saying what wonderful soil I had???? He said we had vetch (I think) which means the soil is acid ( in Essex!!!). The problem I have is that despite digging in the ash from my woodburner & chucking around potassium sulphate - flower/fruit production is awful - if at all. Soooooo I have bought some more - any idea as to how much & when re my nitrogen rich soil.
ros



From: Rosalia

Wish I could help you. Might be a good idea to post this under the soil forum or garden forum :-)

Try asking on the farm forum, they should know how to treat a bit of land like that.

Thanks for that
Ros

Hi Ros

If you haven't done it already, get a soil testing kit.

Too much of one of the big three can have an inhibiting effect on flower and fruit production, even potash! Once you have the test results then you can get a better idea of what is needed.

Have done that Baa. High in phosphorus - depleted potash & nitrogen.
Ros

Could the vetch the farmer told you about be the same as the crown vetch here that is planted along the highways to hold the soil so it won't wash away? It must enrich it as it really speads and blooms besides. Just wondered.

Don't know but i'll find out.
Ros

Vetch? You're very lucky... collect the green seed pods in early Summer and cook them in stock like mushy peas. Makes a nice thick soup, especially with a slice or two of Continental sausage, like a Dutch pea soup.

Seriously, it works (I ate all my vetch this year). My 1/4 acre paddock is similar to yours, only probably worse, being 8 inches of hard clay over a hardpan of chalk and flint. It is also infested with perennial weeds, notably couch and marestail. So I rotavated it (yes, that multiplied the weeds!), added masses of strawy horse manure, then let the worms drag it all down.

Result: good nitrogen and a neutral pH of 7, though the manure should have made it more acidic (probably the chalk buffered it).

Had I been low in phosphate, I'd have grown vast amounts of comfrey then laid the cut leaves below my planting holes. Comfrey seems to concentrate phosphate even from soils that lack it.

I'm now growing everything imaginable on the paddock - by setting the modules into upturned plastic flower pots on top of the soil. That is, flower pots with the bases cut out. These are filled with a mix of compost and topsoil.

The flowerpots stop slugs climbing up, as I ringed them with bands of grease and soot. They also suppress weeds, and weeds growing alongside them are no threat. So now I welcome the marestail - it doesn't bother the plants and makes a good hair rinse that is purported to restore colour in grey hair!

I have some 140 heirloom tomatoes growing like Topsy, and a dozen squashes pollulating all over the paddock.

In fact, I wrote a book about restoring 'hopeless' soil: The Lazy Kitchen Gardener, that's just sold 2200 copies.

(Sorry, end of commercial!)

Do try using upturned pots on top of your soil, then you can fill them with whatever soil mix you wish and the tap roots can still penetrate the lower soil for moisture.

It works.

Good luck

John Yeoman

This message was edited Monday, Sep 10th 11:07 AM

John

What a bunch of good ideas. I'm not going to each my bush vetch though, give me peas anyday. Horse manue does sour the soil somewhat with repeated applications but well rotted sheep/cow or chicken manure doesn't seem to have the same effect.

Only problem with comfrey even on a large site is getting rid of it after its done the job. Any other plants with similar properties?

I love the idea of the lazy kitchen gardener I'm going to have to look out for that one!

Dear Baa (ewe are being cryptic, aren't you?)

The comfrey cultivar Bocking 14 does not creep (get it from the HDRA in the UK, which developed it). It's very civilised. But if you use common Russian comfrey you can contain it by planting fennel all around it. That contains -or kills - everything, I'm told.

Or just sink deep wooden planks around the plot. That deters moles and mice too, from any plot.

Good luck

John Yeoman

At the minute my planting method is as follows & seems to work.
1. wait for rain so you can cut through the concrete like "turf"
2. Dig a hole as big as you can & mix compost with the soil together with some growmore & bonemeal & a handful of grit
3. Plant
Ros :)