Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello there,

We’re putting together a feature on autumn-sown green manures for the November issue of Grow Your Own – and we’d love to hear what you guys have to say on the subject. If you’ve got any experiences, anecdotes, recommendations or advice on fava beans, ryegrass, winter field beans or any other green manures, post them here and you could see your name in print. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Grow Your Own team

Hi, I have tried a lot of green manures and can reccomend most of them but my personal favorate is fava beans, the manure is no better than the rest but they are a lot easyer to sow, grow and harvest but it will be intresting to see what everone else thinks
Hope that helps a little

i can't offer any advice, only to say that I sowed a bed of hungarian grazing rye in the old onion bed. First time with green manure. I have a lot of seed, going to try to cover most of the plot.

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Phacelia tanacetifolia is another good one, not so hardy but hey, we may never get another frost now (some hope) if you leave some to flower I'ts a great attracter of insects like bees & hoverflies & looks good.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I have never grown green manure, but realise I probably should. I am always worried about it seeding and then sprouting forever in the plot? Can this happen if you leave it too long? Are some types better than others for not going to seed?

My hungarian rye is being overtaken by annual weeds in the three small beds I have sown it in. Is it too early for the south? I will hoe and try again.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

Last year we grew a large area of mustard , but to be honest couldn't tell you if it made any difference. Had intended to do the same again this year but couldn't find a large packet of the seeds at the local garden centres. Would have done a comparison if I had. Maybe next year will get the seeds from one of the catalogues.

Don't usually use green manure because I try whenever possible to add a crop of something as I harvest another crop....I use a loose crop rotation ie never plant somehing from the same family in the same place.

Would the ideal green manure not be a half-hardy plant that was killed off by the first frost? I don't know, just thinking out loud

I know of one chap who always broadcasts leef beet as he takes out his potatoes, then digs it in after a while

Interesting point is that. I didn't use any feed, manure or rich compost this year. I got good crops from just about everything.

That's not to say I wont be using it in future.

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I am fairly new to vegetable growing, so this is the first time I am using green manure. I have sown mustard on the patch that I have earmarked for potatoes next year

I have some fava beans anyway - do I plant them, harvest then dig the lot in?

Hi,

I'm using Caliente Mustard for green manure on my plot, partly because i work for the company that sells it, and also because i believe it to be one of the best green manures. The green manure effect is not its only benefit however - the gas produced when chopping the plant can be incorporated into the soil and helps to reduce soil disease and weed seeds, amongst other things.

Just to clarify the gas given off is ITC (isothiocyanate) and is produced by all members of the brassica family - this mustard has just been bred to produce high levels of it.

I used it in an area of my garden last year that had just been cleared and was covered in weeds - it kept the weeds down fantastically for nearly the whole summer (didn't grow anything on it so don't know about soil improvement) You need to incorporate it GREEN to get the benefit - it isn't frost hardy so Autumn sowings are best, incorporating before the first frosts (and before it sets seed). Other mustards will do a similar job but have longer growing seasons and have not been bred specifically for the job, but unless your a commercial grower its really not an issue.

more information here: http://www.victoriana.ws/Product.asp?PID=700

When digging in green manures, leave a few weeks before sowing.
I sowed some green manures one year on a small patch, can't remember what they were. Also sowed a small border of Phacelia - flowers very pretty and was laden with buzzes.
Organic gardening catalogue and Tuckers do a range of green manures.

Phacelia tanacetifolia is definitely my favourite. It seems to grow well down here in the South no matter when I sow it. I strewed some seed over what will be a new veggie patch a week ago and it is already romping away merrily. When chopped into the soil the tilth it produces is beautiful.

The reason I choose Phacelia instead of the others is that it does not affect the crop rotation. Fava Beans are Legumes and count as such in the rotation so you need to be careful where you sow them. Mustard is a brassica and presumably has all the same pests and diseaes. Alfalfa, Clover, Lupin, Tares, etc are all Legumes which will fix Nitrogen via their root nodules.

I think the only other ones that don't affect the rotation are Buckwheat and Hungarian Grazing Rye. I've sown some Buckwheat for the first time this year but the Rye I sowed last Autumn did not grow at all.... maybe the birds ate the seed!

The HDRA do a brilliant booklet about Green Manures, what to grow where, when, how and what the benefits etc of each one are.

Regards,
Mo

can u mix the seed? i.e have more than one type in a bed?

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Facinating stuff...just goes to show what a commitment to organics can do!

Thats worth knowing protea. One or two of the guys in our chrysanth club were disgussing whether to steralise their soil this year. I might suggest this to them as it is a two pronged approach

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Definatly worth a go, might be a bit late to get a crop incorporated now though - they'd have to try to overwinter it (sow late September/early October), but if its a small area they could always bung some fleece over it to keep it going. we've had HUGE plants from overwintered crops (7ft tall and i'm not kidding!).

There's also a mustard seed meal that might be of interest to them but you'd better PM me as i don't think its appropriate for this site.

We're ploughing up our field shortly and planting over-wintering green manure before we divide the field up in the spring (half for veg beds & soft fruit, the rest planted as lawn). It's never been used for anything (grass and weeds) and needs ploughing/rotavating and the rolling before anything can be done with it.

We're thinking of using Phacelia tanacetifolia as it doesn't affect the crop rotation.
Does this sound OK, or is there another green manure better suited?

Cheers

OWG

I use Phacelia, the great thing about like mustard is the height, if you live in an exposed area, a late sowing of Phacelia gives you a nice green carpet. The following year you can then dig it in or leave patches to flower. It's a great green manure because it acts in two ways, locks in the nutrients over winter and stops the heavy rain washing them away and when it flowers the following year it brings in bees, hoverflies and even dragonflies! Tried rye grass but the wind just flattens it around here and you spend more time trying to support the stuff.

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Best wishes
Andrewo
Harbinger of Rhubarb tales

I know it may be a bit expensive, but see if you can hire a turf cutter (like they use on Ground farce) then you can stack the turf for making compost - well worth the effort.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Being new to this grow you own business, I have grown a couple of green manures and tried to dig them in before they flowered - what a job that is.... I chopped the plants up with a spade but no matter how deep I attempted to dig the bits in they seemed to surface again in the next spade full. Is there a knack to this? I also had really rubbish broad beans this year, loads of pods but totally empty - any ideas why?
Teresa