Green Manures

[Holly]

Hi everyone!

I've just started at Grow your Own and I'm looking forward to many fruitful months with the team . I'm particularly excited about being able to draw on the advice and tips that so many of you have to offer on this forum!

Not that I'd want to wish away any of this glorious weather, but I've been looking ahead to composting season and I wondered what grow-your-owners would recommend from their experience. I'm particularly intrigued by green manure this year and wondered if anyone has any tips to share.

Which crops work best as green manure? Is the process more labour intensive than other composting methods? How do the results compare to other techniques? Are there any unseen benefits/drawbacks of planting green manure crops?

I'm really looking forward to hearing your advice, some of which might be edited and published in the September issue.

Thanks!

Holly

[HeyWayne]

So if you're here....who's gone.....?

Welcome aboard by the way.

Green manures - I've never used 'em I'm afraid.

[Florence Fennel]

I've never used green manures either, not yet anyway. Up to now I've been able to find something to grow, so don't have empty beds!

[greg77]

green manure process comes from the fallow cycle of crop rotation and the crop was simply plowed back in.clover and vetch are most popular to add nitrogen and alfalfa whose roots grow very deep and bring nutrients to the surface.

[Holly]

Thanks.

But it looks as though this fallow system isn't widely used, judging by the responses. I think I'm going to look into other composting techniques for the time being!

[Jardiniere]

wait til next year ...i am determined to use some green manure in the autumn ....

[Holly]

Hi Jardiniere!

Yes, I'm still really intrigued by the idea of green manure- I was wondering why it appeals to you too?

[zazen999]

I usually try to keep most of my plot covered year round with something or other; but sow green manures on any open patches to add organic to the clay, bring insects to the plot, to stop weeds colonising it and to keep it looking good.

[SarzWix]

I'm looking into the green manure thing, because I have some patches of really poor soil, and it isn't all going to be in use over winter. So far it seems that Winter Grazing Rye fits the bill best for my needs because I don't want to muck up my rotation by using something classified as legume or brassica, but I've got a month or so to decide. Suffolk Herbs sell quite a few different types of green manure, so I've bookmarked their online shop.

[Skotch]

I use peas both for produce and as a green manure. 2 benefits really - you get the fruit (peas that can be used fresh or dried for storeage) as well as the shoots and you can then just dig in the green stuff when you are ready.

[Two_Sheds]

I've used the following:
- grazing rye: slow growing, hard to germinate in the autumn, and the very devil to dig up again.
- phacelia: superb, shallow rooted, the bees adore the flowers. It's just not winter hardy
- alfalfa: was OK. I didn't grow enough of it to make notes, and none of the seed I saved was viable
- crimson clover: very pretty flowers, bees love them. Didn't self-seed enough & I didn't want to pay for more
- limnanthes (poached egg). My total favourite green manure/ground cover. Winter hardy, shallow rooted, pretty, bees love it ... self-seeds readily (!). I personally prefer the all-white variety (I hate yellow)

[Snadger]

Now here's a thought! Why not bio-fumigate and add green manure at the same time by using Caliente mustard?

Plant Solutions Limited - Biofumigation and Green Manure - Caliente Mustard

I've tried using other green manures and if you'll excuse the pun, they just don't 'Cut the mustard'

I am all for adding organic matter to the soil but have found the amount added by green manuring is negligible and theoretically it will rob the soil of nitrogen as it rots down.
Better to use green manure than covering land with unsightly black plastic. Far better to try and plan to have edible crops on land at all times. Nature abhores a vacuum so any land without a crop on it will get a covering of weeds. Not such a bad thing as some weeds make good green manure (Chickweed springs to mind)


Limanthes as a green manure is the only floral exception to keeping land 'vegged' at all times as it holds moisture, is pretty and it attracts hoverflies!

[Two_Sheds]

some weeds make good green manure (Chickweed springs to mind)

You have to be careful that your weeds are acting as hosts for pests & diseases though: chickweed supports whitefly apparently

I don't dig my green manure in either: I rot it on the compost heap instead. When the ground cover is taken off for planting, well-rotted compost is added to the planting hole or as a mulch.

[Snadger]

You have to be careful that your weeds are acting as hosts for pests & diseases though: chickweed supports whitefly apparently

I don't dig my green manure in either: I rot it on the compost heap instead. When the ground cover is taken off for planting, well-rotted compost is added to the planting hole or as a mulch.

Well hopefully, if the whitefly are munching away at the chickweed they are leaving my cherished plants alone!

[StephenH]

I've just bought some green manure seeds: Phacelia, Mustard, and Field beans. I'll bung 'em in wherever I'm likely to have a bed bare for any length of time, come the autumn. The field beans could alternatively be grown on as a food crop, because they are the same as broad beans, but a bit coarser, I believe, but perfectly edible. Apparantly, if you let Phacelia flower before digging it in, bees adore it.