When to plant green manure for the garden? The best green manure for the garden

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 20:55

Our ancestors knew that the soil could not be left open for a long time. The folk proverb “Dig in oats and rye - you will take a big harvest” exists for good reason. Experienced farmers are well aware that the soil left “naked” even for just a few weeks begins to change its structure for the worse and becomes depleted. Open areas are almost instantly "inhabited" by weeds, pulling the last juices out of the ground. In order to avoid such a problem, “bare” plots and allotments are temporarily sown with special plants called green manure. There are several varieties of them.

Benefits of secondary crops

Garden green manure can be planted both on open land and as an adjacent crop. Their distinctive feature is a very well developed root system. This determines their beneficial effect on the earth. Penetrating deep into the soil, green manure roots not only loosen it, but also pull up useful microelements located in the lower layers. In addition, plants of this variety enrich the heavy earth with air, and protect the sandy earth from decay. The green mass of green manure at a certain moment is cut off and buried in the soil. In the future, it will serve as a very good top dressing for garden plants. So the benefits of using these secondary crops can be very large.

The best green manure for the garden

The following plants are most often used to improve soil in vegetable gardens and planting crops:

• lupine;
• phacelia;
• colza;
• rapeseed;
• buckwheat;
• oil radish;
• rye.

When to plant

Usually green manure is sown for the garden in the fall - after harvest. Previously, the site is cleared of weeds, loosened and carefully leveled. If desired, you can plant auxiliary crops in the spring. However, when sowing in May, early-ripening varieties of crops should be chosen. Seedlings in this case are placed directly in the planting of green manure.

Lupin

This plant is perhaps the best green manure for the garden. It belongs to the legume family. Its main distinguishing feature is not only a very dense, but also a long root system. The fact that lupine enriches the soil with such important microelements as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus much better than many other green manures has already been noticed.for a long time. In addition, the roots of this green manure extract their nutrients from a very great depth, without affecting the upper layers.

Most often, lupine is planted in the soil in early spring. Previously, in the area allotted for this plant, shallow trenches are made and they are carefully spilled with water. Then planting material is sown in them. The distance between rows of lupine should be about 15 cm, between individual plants - 7 cm.

Eight weeks after planting, the grass is mowed and embedded into the ground by 6-8 cm. It is not difficult to determine the moment of this operation. Buds should appear on the lupine.

Phacelia green manure

What other good green manure plants are there? In second place after lupine in popularity is such a variety of this culture as phacelia. Its main advantage is that it grows very quickly and at the same time accumulates just a huge amount of green mass. This green manure is also valued for its unpretentiousness. Phacelia is just perfect for improving poor rocky and sandy soils.

You can plant this crop at any time of the year. Phacelia seeds are very small, and therefore they are pre-mixed with sand. The optimal depth of planting material is 2-3 cm, and the consumption is 150-200 g per hundred square meters. Mow phacelia about two months after sowing during intensive flowering.

How to plant rapeseed and rapeseed

These siderates for the garden belong to the familycabbage. As a soil improver, colza and rapeseed show themselves best when planted before winter. Typically, these auxiliary crops are used in potato plots and in fields for cereals. The main advantages of colza include precocity and the ability to develop well on slightly acidic and waterlogged soils. Rape is gaining a lush and dense green mass very quickly.

These siderats are sown in August or September. Previously, grooves are made in the ground with a depth of 1.5-2 cm. The distance between the rows should be about 15 cm. The seeding rate for colza and colza is 150-200 gr. per hundred.

Siderat buckwheat

This auxiliary plant is most often grown under fruit trees and shrubs. Its main advantages include the fact that it does not dry out the soil at all, and its green mass enriches the soil with such valuable trace elements as phosphorus and potassium. In addition, buckwheat is one of the growth record holders. Before mowing, this green manure manages to grow a green mass half a meter high and roots up to 1.5 m. In addition, this plant feels great on very poor and acidic soils and suppresses weeds, including wheatgrass. In gardens, it also prevents the appearance of wireworms.

The rate of consumption of buckwheat seeds during planting is 600 g per hundred square meters. It is recommended to sow it no earlier than May, since the plant is heat-loving. Planting of buckwheat is carried out in rows with a width of 15 cm. Seeds are buried in the soil by 2-3 cm. Buckwheat is mowed before flowering. green masspartially dig into the soil to a depth of 15 cm, partially left on the surface.

Using rye as green manure

This plant enriches the earth with such trace elements useful for garden, horticultural and agricultural crops as nitrogen and potassium. Also, rye can be used to improve the land after nematode-infected potatoes.

If the owners of the site are looking for good winter green manure for the garden, this plant can be almost ideal. Rye is sown from mid-August to early September. Her seed consumption rate is approximately 600 g per hundred square meters.

Siderat oil radish

This green manure is capable of growing both thick root and green mass. The main advantage of oil radish is that it enriches the soil with nitrogen fertilizers. In addition, it is able to suppress the development of various pathogens in the earth. This green manure is usually sown in early August. The consumption of its seeds should be about 30-40 g per 10 m2. The optimal depth of their embedding is 2-3 cm.

Very often, oil radish is planted on the site as green manure in combination with spring wicca or other legumes. In this case, the accumulation of nitrogen in the soil is even more intense.

Basic rules for landing green manure

All green manure described above are usually planted in rows. But if you wish, you can use another, more convenient, method. In this case, the seeds are simply mixed with sand in a 1x1 ratio and scattered across the field. Howevera uniform landing with this method may not work. In order for the green manure to subsequently grow as an even thick carpet, a rake should be walked across the field with scattered seeds. Those who decide to use green manure for the garden, among other things, will also have to prepare some kind of non-woven covering material. It can be, for example, spruce branches. In the area closed by him, the seeds will be completely protected from birds, which are always willing to eat them.

Selection rules

As a green manure, you can use any culture suitable for this purpose. However, when choosing, you should follow one simple rule. It is strictly forbidden to plant green manure on the site as predecessors for garden crops of the same family with them. So, for example, rapeseed or buckwheat cannot be sown where cabbage or beets will grow in the future. Green manure for the garden is usually used on heavy, sticky soils to loosen them.

You should not use the same green manure on the site year after year. Soil fertility can be effectively restored only by alternating these crops. And, of course, you can not leave auxiliary plants in the plots until flowering. Young green manure mow better, and their green mass is rich in various microelements.

Thus, we have found out what green manure is for the garden. When to plant these plants, and which varieties of them to choose best, you also now know. Cultures of this variety help to significantly improve the structure of the soil,protect it from weeds and make it much more suitable for growing garden plants. But, of course, only in the case of strict adherence to the landing technology.