Animal manure vs Green manure - which is best?

[Philthy]

Great advice guys! Thanks a lot

[Feral007]

We've just put in a green manure to improve the expanding fruit forest. It's a mix of subclover, oats, woolly pod vetch and fenugreek.

I''m sure we'll be electrifying the fence to keep the horses out of it, but it should do well to get the soil ready. Due to the size of the patch we'll be whippersnipping (strimming) it short before spring. But we're also of the no dig, and chop and drop crew. No reason not to be.

If you want to dig round here, I've plenty of fence posts that need to go in!

[Martin H]

I've always been a digger, but I think it's time I was more considerate to the soil and moved to no-dig, cut and drop. I need to ask some novice questions ...

Firstly, I understand about sowing green manures on unoccupied ground, so I've bought some caliente mustard and some winter tares ready for later in the year. But, having planted some potatoes yesterday, I wondered if it made sense to broadcast one of them (the vetch, maybe) on the potato bed, with the idea that the potatoes will grow through the greenery?

How about around the onions, I've always heard they hate competition so keeping the bed clean of all other plants would be best?

[Two_Sheds]

I wondered if it made sense to broadcast one of them (the vetch, maybe) on the potato bed, with the idea that the potatoes will grow through the greenery?

I have green manures growing all over the plot, all year round. I only pull them out to plant a crop.

How about around the onions

I had a really good crop of onions the year I moved house: I didn't get to the lotty for ages, and the onion bed got smothered in chickweed.
The onion crop was fabulous.
I think the chickweed kept the moisture in the soil (so it was in effect a living mulch)

[Martin H]

Excellent, thanks T_S. I do love to try new things, but it helps if the idea isn't completely stupid. It won't be a controlled experiment, I'll just try and keep the ground covered and see what happens. And tell you lot, of course.

[Two_Sheds]

I do love to try new things

It's how we get better. If I'm given a bit of "received wisdom", I will question it, think WHY do we do it like that, then I'll try and find an alternative, perhaps that will use less fuel, fewer chemicals, less money, or whatever.

Zazen is much more organised than I am, she does controlled experiments for everything, whereas I can't even manage to keep the right labels on things.
I do try to do half a crop this way, and half a crop the other way, though, to see what happens.

Here are French bean plants, grown indoors on windowsills, planted the same day in the same compost. The smaller one had less light, and was cooler: on an east-facing sill. The bigger one, flowering, was on a south-facing sill.