Author Topic: Green manure?  (Read 1856 times)

peanuts

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Green manure?
« on: April 08, 2021, 13:04:51 »
Advice please!  The quarter of our veg patch where I will be sowing direct all our beans needs rotovating very soon. It currently has a forest of rocket, coriander and oak-leaf lettuce, which we are eating happily. 
We have a light clay soil, which is perhaps a bit on the poor side at the moment. We're going to be adding commercial bought manure before rotating.  I'm wondering whether we would be best strimming our salad to shred it, and rotating it all in, as a sort of green manure in a couple of weeks?  Or whether the salad  growth is taking too much out of the soil now, and we'd be best pulling it up?
Thanks for any helpful comments.

Paulh

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Re: Green manure?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2021, 14:57:53 »
I can't see that the salads will rob the soil of the nutrients that the beans will need, especially as the beans will be much deeper rooted. And you're intending to put manure on the bed anyway. Leave the salads for as long as you want to eat them!

peanuts

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Re: Green manure?
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2021, 16:08:52 »
Yes we will add 'manure' but it is a commercial one, so not 100% manure, but sold as such.  We've not added real manure for  6 years or so, because of the problem of mole crickets, which were attracted by the trailer loads of cow manure we had from the farm next door! They also like our kitchen compost matter.  so anything that goes back onto the soil has to be gone through with a fine toothed comb!

Being  self-sown lettuce/rocket/coriander, they actually all have tap roots as long as dandelion roots, so I guess I will have to lift them individually, as i doubt the roots will get chopped up sufficiently by the rotator.

 

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