My biggest problem is keeping my labels in place. Charles is not real careful no matter how often I remind him to find the label before he pulls or cut something down. After all these years he pretty much knows the weed from the good plants.
Green Manure/Cover Crop
Finding a guy you can depend on is a real prize, isn't it? I have a 'handyman' kind of guy here, luckily - if he can't do it, he knows who can.
But he had no idea what a hosta was, so I think I'll keep him working on other stuff, lol!
That buckwheat is great as a green manure crop - I'm impressed.
Here's my vegetable garden only 3 weeks after planting buckwheat. The buckwheat has buds and it's about to bloom already. We have at least another week of non-freezing weather in our forecast, so maybe it'll bloom before the big chill.
Question - should I till it in this fall after it freezes, or should I let it stand dead all winter and till it under in the spring? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to doing it either way? Thanks.
This message was edited Oct 15, 2007 8:41 PM
Ozark - I usually till mine in, and then get another sprouting of seeds; you know - the lazy ones that didn't bother the first time around!
But we don't freeze here, so I don't know what the outcome would be for your zone.
Has anyone used sorghum sudan grass? We are getting ready to cut ours down. I would like to know if you have experience with it.
To prepare for fall, would you remove pole beans, or turn them under?
To prepare for fall, would you remove pole beans, or turn them under?
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Remove them, for sure.
Many things we grow carry fungus diseases over in the soil from season to season, and beans are among the worst about that. I not only remove the plants, but I make sure I pull the roots up and remove as much plant debris as possible. Bean plants don't go in the compost pile, either - they go in the burn pile. Same thing for cucumbers, melons, anything in the squash family, and tomatoes.
I till other plants under, the ones which (as far as I know) don't carry disease. Those include corn stalks and debris, anything in the cabbage family, okra, beet tops, etc. - most anything that's not a bean, a squash, or a tomato is OK to plow under.
Isn't sudan grass the stuff that is good for cattle feed and poisonous for horses?
I agree that organic matter, compost, and cover crops are great for improving clay. It really needs lots of organic matter, humus, call it what you will.
I believe that it also benefits from adding some long-lasting coarse stuff, to provide mechanical "structure" while the clay is mellowing enough to form clods and clumps and maintain open air spaces and good drainage pores.
Someone mentioned Turface, but isn't that expensive?
I really like shredded or chipped pine bark. Mulch can be cheap, but you might want to screen out the very biggest pieces and chip them down to 1/8 - 1/2" for maximum drainage benefit. It lasts much longer than peat, and is coarser than peat or coir - all good things. I think that all sizes of bark help some, especially long fibers, chips & shreds.
Bark "powder" mixes intimately with the clay and encourages some penetration of air into small clods, while larger bark pieces prop things up so that air and water have a chance to perk between clods (unless the clay is still so plastic and goopy that it just squeezes into all the gaps).
You really do need "enough" OM for soil to work at all, but while that's marginal, I think that grit & bark help, too.
I also like very very coarse crushed rock or grit, like 2-3 mm or 1/8th inch. Sand is "rounder" than crushed rock so it doesn't help open up soil structure as much as crushed rock..
Many will say that adding coarse stuff doesn't help unless you can add ENOUGH of it that the gooey clay can't just ooze into all the gaps. They are probably right. You might need up to 40% coarse stuff to get much drainage benefit from that ALONE.
But it seems to me that AS you are improvng the OM content of the clay with cover crops and compost, say for the first 2-3 years, ALSO adding as much coarse structure as you can afford does help SOME with improving drainage and aeration.
I've had clay with insufficient OM revert to soupy pudding the second year (some of the compost was digested, and there just was never enough in the first place). Bark and grit kept it usable so I could grow in it while continuing to add OM.
Corey
Does anyone know about pH requirements for buckwheat? My backyard seems to be a sandy which I believe is just ground up rock. It's about 6" deep and then there is a layer of red clay. I had the sandy stuff soil tested by the state ag school people (sampled about 10 or 12 places) and it range from pH of 4.2 to 4.6 - pretty acid. They told me how many tons (or some big measure) of dolomite to add to the soil per acre to get to neutral pH or grow fescue - I forget. I don't think I can spread that much lime. with my lawn spreader.
I think the buckwheat would really improve the "sandy soil". It's all sloping so it tends to either run off or drain over the red clay bottom.
In a few days I am sowing forage radishes [Daikons] as a winter cover crop in an area that is cleared now. the radishes will finally winter kill and leave good and deep OG with nitrogen.
OG??
ogm rather...organic matter.
Help! I planted buckwheat as a cover crop this Summer and then went back to school in addition to working full time, so left everything in the garden to go to seed, Will all that buckwheat seed sprout again next year if left to fall to the earth or should I try to collect some of it to dry inside?
mauryhillfarm - I've always tilled my buckwheat under while it's in bloom to prevent it forming seeds. I'm sure you'll be seeing a bunch of buckwheat come up in the spring, now that it's gone to seed. That shouldn't be a problem - just let the buckwheat seedlings sprout then till them under before planting your garden.
So far as saving buckwheat seeds, I wouldn't bother. $3.85 worth of seeds from the farm supply is enough to sow my whole 35' x 50' garden.
We planted field peas and green beans in our garden to harvest and also to plow under as a cover crop. I have read the message here which says you should remove all the beans lest they harbor disease. Another message says to plow them under. What do you all recommnd and why?
I have a luscious cover crop of tillage radishes [daikons] They make a lot of organic matter both in the soil and above. They winter kill in the north.
http://www.tillageradish.com/history.php
My Daikons put up a lot of foliage, flowers and seeds, but the roots were very disapointing: 1.5" x 3/4" radish plus a skinny tail. I expected them to be 10 times as long and twice as thick.
That's despite planting them in the my second-most amended, least-heavy clay raised bed!
They were reccomended to me as a way to "break up heavy clay soil". Instead, they didn't even pentrate heavily-amended soil!
Corey
Corey, What kind of daikons did you sow?
I have one that is nearly 4 inches in diameter. It is that large for 6 inches above the ground and likely that for a foot in the ground plus the taproot on down.
Hazzard's for 2011
Radish R8639
Raphanus sativus
Daikon Minowase
Pure white 16" x 3" < - - - - - ten times longer and 4 times times thicker than I got.
sow summer or fall, 52 days
The closest I see in DG Plant Files is 'Mino Early Improved',
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/105989/
Kitazawa Seeds has #103 "Minowase Summer Cross Hybrid", distinct from their #091 "Mino Early". They say each veriety would form roots 10-16" long.
I'm assuming that the problem is that even the soil I have improved the most is still heavier than what most people think of as "heavy clay soil". But several people suggested Daikon raidishes for "busting" or "drilling" "heavy clay".
And yet, Bok Choy, some other brassicas, and flowers have grown in it - very vigorously, last year and fairly vigorously this year. Snow Peas grew very vigorously in it this year, after they got past the very slow, cold spring.
From the tall stalks and profuse flowers, I thought they were doing wonderfully, until I pulled a few.
Maybe "profuse flowers and seeds but no roots" are radish's version of "bolting", but I never heard of radishes bolting. Do they need heat to be happy? My summers are cool, especially this last summer!
I might have guessed that the roots were drowning, and yet the "skinny tail" went down quite deep and the soil was fairly loose (by my yard's standards).
Also, these were planted within 8" of the 16" tall wall of a raised bed - loosely fitting concrete pavers stood on end, so both drainage and aeration were assured.
Maybe Dailkon needed lots more compost, and this bed hasn't had much compost added in a year.
I might have thought that skimpy roots meant OVER-fertilization, where the plant didn't NEED any more roots to get mineral nutrients ... but this bed has had even less fertilizer added than it has compost, like 1 light sprinkle in early spring. .
Pathetic!
BTW - my Bok Choy in this bed was much less vigorous this year than last year, and bolted MUCH sooner than last year, until I started one batch of Bok Choy in mid-summer. Too cold?
Corey
Corey,
It could be the timing for a good root cover/manure crop. I planted at the end of August and some more in early September. These will not go to seed here at that time of year, but will winter kill. If yours went to seed, they were planted too early in the season for maximum root development.
Mine were raphanus sativus var. niger from Fedco Seed and were called forage radishes [daikon].
>> too early in the season for maximum root development.
That would make a lot of sense. This summer was so cool that most of it was "too early" for anything that needs warmth.
I'll try again next year, with several smaller sowings, later in the summer.
Corey
Corey, Since you are listed as zone 8a, it could get tricky as yours might not winter kill.
Thanks, but my spaces are small enough that hand-weeding is very practical.
Indeed, in the heavy-clay areas I'd like to amend on the cheap, I should BE so lucky as to have something overwinter and come back!
Corey