Sowing Green Manure

I have a question.

Many of the green manures I have looked at indicate they are acceptable for spring sowing.

If you sow it in the spring, when will the bed be ready for use for other crops?

BB

BB, it's my understanding that green manures should be mowed flat or turned under when 30-50% of them are blooming. You don't want to let them go to seed. Some folks till the cover crop under and wait two weeks for it to break down before planting, others just mow it flat and plant through it. Hope that helps.

http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/green.htm

Good thread. I want to sow the buckwheat here in the spring and leave it in my vegetable garden until June and turn it under. Our veg crops are not too productive until then and I will build the soil to make it better. I feel the buckwheat tilled under will inprove the soil structure as well as make for a nitrogen additive. I am going to try them all so let us know how yours does.

So I should time my planting so that I can till it under before my summer crop???

In 7b, does that mean to sow in winter?

BB

I would sew when the soil temps are above 55F. That will allow germination and plant growth. It also depends on what you are planning of growing.

Steve, buckwheat is good to smother weeds and bring phosphorus up from the soil, but it does not add much if any additional nitrogen as a legume would. If fact, I've seen buckwheat plots that are yellow from lack of ntirogen.

My personal cover crop favourite is a mix from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply called "Soil Builder Mix", which is a combination of legumes and cereals. Here is the description from their catalogue:

"Extraordinary yields of Nitrogen (up to 290 lb/acre) and organic matter (up to 49 tons/acre). Chokes out weeds and provides excellent habitat for beneficial insects. We developed this mix especially for vegetable rotations and general cool-weather cover cropping. Soil Builder is not filled with cheap grasses like other mixes. Contains the highest-yielding winter-hardy legumes with cayuse oats added to stabilize the soil, and to nurse and scaffold the vetches. Grows to 4'-6'.

Seed at 3-5 lb/1000 sq ft, or 70-120 lb/acre at a depth of 3/4" to 1" in September or October. In coastal or cool summer zones, Soil Builder can be spring-planted. (Requires Pea Vetch or Garden Combination Inoculant.)

Contains: 40% Bell Beans, 20% Magnus or BioMaster Winter Peas, 15% Lana Vetch, 15% Purple Vetch,10% Cayuse Oats."

I used Soil Builder Mix on hardpan adobe clay last summer. It created a huge mass of biomass on top of the soil, and the roots of the various plants in the mix completely changed the character of the clay into a lovely, diggable soil.


One of their mountain customers had this to say:
"This mix is outstanding. I'm new to organic gardening and this is my first year planting a cover crop. Very good germination, the crop is fast growing and very healthy. I live in the sierra foothills around 1100 feet. Hard frost was not a problem. "

Peaceful Valley's hard copy catalogue has some of the best cover crop info that I've found in any one place.

Check out the cover crop solutions chart available at a link on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/yn3dcc


http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/newsltr/v7n4/sa-10.htm

I suppose some combination would be better. I have to do some research for the site you gave me. Thanks GM for the insight.

Gardenmermaid: I have an area of very unpleasand soil -- hard, gritty, lot of clay. But it is in the shade. In your experience, would the Peaceful Valley Farm Supply stuff grow at all in the shade?

Is it full shade or partial shade?
I checked the cover crop solution chart on the PVFS web site. They recommend red, crimson,strawberry or medic clover mixes for shade, as well as the erosion mixes. The erosion blends are varying mixes of clovers and grasses. The Soil Builder mix might work in the shade and just be a bit leggy. I grew it in partial shade with great success.

http://www.groworganic.com/item_SEC100_Basic_Erosion_Control_Mix.html

Great thread. I've just ordered the catalogue from PVFS.

My vege garden would be 75% shade during winter so doesn't get used (except by the neighbourhood cats). Last winter I covered it with clear plastic to keep it clean and weed free but I would love to grow a cover crop, starting in late fall if it was possible. GM - do you know whether that would work. As you know, we don't really get too cold here in winter so I guess that the lack of sun and winter rains are the biggest considerations.

wgnkiwi, I've been experimenting with yellow sweet clover as an undersown cover crop this year. Because it is undersown, the clover is shaded by the leaves of the main crop. I've posted a picture of one of the parsnips I harvested a couple of days ago, and two roots from the sweet clover that was growing adjacent to the parsnips.
The clover roots are ~4 months old. It hasn't been deterred by shade yet. Yellow sweet clover is a biennial. It is a vigourous grower and grows taller than the white and red clovers. As a cover crop, sweet clover is considered a "subsoiler", meaning it is good at breaking up the deep soil. Imagine those 9" roots drilling through your clay hardpan!

Green manure. You've got me thinking about about sowing some good cover in my vegetable garden, letting it stand over the winter, then tilling it under in early spring. It seems like that would be better than leaving the soil tilled under and bare all winter like I usually do.

I've built up real good rich garden soil with lots of compost in it. I'll be done with the garden in early October. That would give me about 3 or 4 weeks before nighttime frosts start, and maybe 6 or 8 weeks before hard freezes.

Is there something I could plant that would increase natural N and Ph and work within that time frame?

Bronx Boy - it may do you well to do a sowing in fall.

Wow, GM, those roots are huge! The parsnip's looking mighty tasty too LOL. Thanks for the information. I think I'll be sowing clover at the end of the year as well. And I'm going to try your experiment in some of my other garden beds too.

Wah! I was so sure when I saw that picture that it was "parsnips without clover" and "parsnips with clover", lol.

But it still looks very worthwhile. I have some very clay-ey soil that I'd like to overseed, but both white and red clover are listed as invasives here, so I've resisted using them. I'll have to look up yellow...

Good point. Does anyone have any information on whether the yellow clover becomes weedy or invasive? Can it just be harvested before it goes to seed, and is that the end of it?

This may sound like a dumb question but what does the Fall mean in Zone 7B. I'm still amazed that potatoes and peas should be planted anywhere from December to February down here. Back home that would mean planting in 6 inches of snow. LOL

BB

Well, I would say the best folks to ask that would be your local extension office - or any neighboring farmers. Otherwise, I'd hazard a guess and say late October. Just for grins, giggles and laughs....