Old Seeds For Green Manure

[Mumbles]

Evening All

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend, I have spent the afternoon reading about green manure. I have just started work on my overgrown 'no one can remember the last time it was used to grow anything but weeds' allotment.

I have ordered some green manure seeds to try in a few beds that I have already dug over and weeded. I also have piles of 'old' seed and seeds of plants I will never grow.

My question is - as my main objective of using the green manure is to add organic matter to my clay soil, could I mix all these otherwise useless (to me) seeds together, broadcast sow and then dig in in a few months?

Thanks

[hellybore]

Sounds like a good idea, Mumbles! Think I may try this too - seems like a good way to use up old seed you don't want. Sorry can't give you advice tho as I'm no expert

[Mumbles]

Think I'm going to try it, will go through the 100s of packets and report back how it works out ...


Sent from my iPhone using Grow Your Own Forum

[veggiechicken]

I often scatter my old seeds on bare patches - but when they come up, I don't have the heart to hoe them off
I have a mixed bed of carrots, fennel and cabbage

[Scarlet]

The only problem with sowing "any old seed" now is that you will need plants that overwinter and survive the cold.
It's also getting very late in the year to sow anything, the days are getting shorter and the temperature is dropping. Germination will be very slow ( or not at all) and most seedlings won't put on enough growth to carry through winter or give a dense enough covering. I'd just go for the card route now to be honest...
What seeds are they?

[Jay-ell]

Threw a bunch of 10 year old seed that was given to me behind the sheds. Now have massive nastursium covering the area, hopefully it'll set sed and next year come back with a vengeance.

I've used bags of older peas to provide a green mulch in the past and this year I had a couple of bags of aguadulce with use by 2014 so I've plunked them in to grow over winter in an empty bed and I'll chop them down in the spring. I doubt that they'll lock in atmospheric nitrogen over winter as it may be too cold for the bacteria but they should soak up spare nitrogen and build up organic biomass. Plus if I procrastinate in digging them in I may get a few beans out of them (in addition to the bed I've sown to over winter).

[Mumbles]

The only problem with sowing "any old seed" now is that you will need plants that overwinter and survive the cold.
It's also getting very late in the year to sow anything, the days are getting shorter and the temperature is dropping. Germination will be very slow ( or not at all) and most seedlings won't put on enough growth to carry through winter or give a dense enough covering. I'd just go for the card route now to be honest...
What seeds are they?

Off the top of my head I can't remember. I have such a large area to clear, doubt I will get it all done this month. Could I use this mix of seeds next spring to improve beds early in the season do you think?


Sent from my iPhone using Grow Your Own Forum

[veggiechicken]

Aquadulce with a use by date of 2014 will be fine. Hope you like broad beans

[Jay-ell]

I also have Sutton dwarf in half a bed and a wooden trough and I'll probably be planting Bunyards Exhibition in spring. Not just because I like beans but also to help build up my beds with organic matter. Also have Blue Lake, Cobra, Tenderfoot and Purple Teepee French beans and Streamline runners to plant next year.

Different heights of beans to give a tiered effect - with a path down the middle. Oh yes a path a path!

Beans Beans - they're good for the heart,
the more you eat, the more you fart
the more you fart the better you feel
so lets have beans for every meal

[alldigging]

I have used mustard seed from the indian shop. Tons cheaper than anything else.

I did toy with using up old seed but decided I'd end up leaving a hotchpotch patch as I wouldn't want to hoe any veg that came up.

[Jay-ell]

Alldigging, was the mustard seed sold as sprouting mustard or just mustard seed. I know that sometimes seeds can be treated so that they don't germinate.

[Scarlet]

Off the top of my head I can't remember. I have such a large area to clear, doubt I will get it all done this month. Could I use this mix of seeds next spring to improve beds early in the season do you think?

If it was my patch and not been weeded for a very long time I wouldn't bother with the green manures until you've got ontop of your plot. Cover it all over with card now. Uncover and clear a bit at a time. To be honest, if you left most of them covered till Spring they should be ready to go. Bear in mind that you will have lots of weed seeds in there that will grow as soon as Spring comes. Either plant through card or mulch heavily with newspaper, clippings etc around your plants. It's tough the first couple of years....the minute you turn your back there's another load of weeds sprouted.

[Kristen]

If it was my patch and not been weeded for a very long time ...

I agree with covering but another option for a weedy patch (or virgin rough grass) is to strip off the top inch or two and "bury" it, in the same way that a plough share does. If the plot is being dug then it is reasonably easy to, also, remove an inch or two from the top of the next strip to be dug, into the bottom of the trench from the previous strip, and thereby bury all the weed seeds. That's not to say that some will not still germinate but many/most will succumb.

If adopting No Dig, from the outset, that isn't going to be an option, although for virgin grass an alternative (to burying) is to strip & stack the turf, face down, which will make lovely loam after a year or two. If digging I would still bury turf, face down, [rather than stacking] as when it rots down it retains moisture well.