Topic: Green manure a must(ard)

[Sprout]

Have grown mustard as a green manure for the first time. Noticed a few little yellow flowers appearing and so strimmed it back a week ago and left it to wilt a bit. Dug it in on Saturday and am just reporting how easy it was. (Had phacelia last year but left it too long and so was a bugger to dig in!). So if anyone is thinking of trying mustard, and it fits in with your rotation, go for it.

[Barnowl]

I've grown some Giant Red Mustard, planning to eat some and dig the rest in in due course. Only planted 3 weeks ago and already cropping size. Very tasty, and seem to be keeping the weeds down (although I sowed too densely so not surprising  :) ).

[Sprout]

I can confirm the weed supressing qualities of mustard. I too sowed quite thickly and in only a couple of weeks, the ground was completely covered.

[vee]

I've just dug in Phacelia and it was really easy. I was very pleased with it as I was worried it would make digging harder, but it didn't.
The trick must be to dig it in whilst the leaves and stems are still soft. I would definitely use it again next year. This is my first year of using a green manure and only tried it on a small area in case it was hard to dig in.

[saddad]

Vetch or Tares are good as well, but Hungarian Rye grass is problematic. If you can leave a corner of Phacelia to flower the bees will love you for it, and it's pretty... red mustard is a great salad if a little hot once it gets going..
 8)

[tonyveggie]

When using green manures to suppress weeds do you have to have dug most of the weeds out before sowing? Hope that isn't too dim a question!

[manicscousers]

we use phacelia because it doesn't interfere with the rotation, I agree the flowers are lovely and bring in the bees, also it's quite easy to hoe in, then we cover it with plastic or weed control for the winter

[STHLMgreen]

Hi, I've never tried green manure but am reading about it. I looked up
'Phacelia' on Wikipedia and it said:

BEWARE: Contact with Phacelia can cause a very unpleasant rash similar to poison oak and poison ivy.

Anyone found this to be true?

(In the picture, the flowers are beautiful anyways)

[saddad]

I've never had a reaction to it, or parsnip leaves either... as OH would say.. well you're not very sensitive are you!!!
 ::)

[calendula]

it is often stated that green manures are best dug in early, not only because it is easier but because you get the best benefit out of it BUT only if you are about to use that part of the land as soon as you've dug in the green manure, 'cos if you dig in early and then don't plant much of the goodness will have leached away

for example if you've sown mustard on a plot designated for autmn sown/planted broad beans then great - dig it in now and then soon the autumn beans will be appreciating this food

on the other hand if the land is to be left until spring then an over wintering crop such as tares would have been better

then there are green manures for all types of soil improvement needs and crop rotation to consider and some are very good for underplanting, providing important nutrition for surrounding plants such as fruit trees or fruit bushes etc - they are a very valuable addition to land management and getting the best out of the hard work we put in

[Kea]

I was thinking of using lucerne as a green manure on the part of the plot I grow my squash. If I clear the ground in early spring i have a gap until I plant the squash so if I planted the lucerne then just cleared metre squares at squash planting time and let the squash grow over the lucerne so that when the squash died back the lucerne would be there to stop the weeds coming back. It says (somewhere...sorry I read stuff then can't remember where I read it!) you can leave lucerne for 2 years. However the lucerne might be hard to dig in after two years perhaps I should dig it in and resow?

[Andy H]

Alan Titchmarshs site is good and got a bit about green manures.
I did a few patches last year as a test and this year I have covered one whole plot in Tares(2/6`s)   Mustard(1/6) and the other half in fodder raddish. The tares are a good weed stopper and I will just shallow roti it in. If let go too long then the woody part of the stems take nutrients as they have to rot. the raddish is easy, the winter frosts kill it and you just dig it in when ready.

today...

[OliveOil]

I sprinked Prinks mustard at the weekend on my pea bed and in the chooks pens for next spring!

[supersprout]

 :o :o Andy that is a textbook pic! :D

[Andy H]

All I did was grab the worst of the weeds and went over the lot with a roti
Then pigeon stepped the paths out :D
The distance being how far I could chuck the seed. rake the surface weeds and debris to the "path" and scattered seed. All in about 4hrs ;D

It looked a state before that and the "manure" grew quicker than the weeds did, so it worked!

When nearly ready to use in spring I will shallow roti the top 6"
then the wife can get planting ;D