Plenty of sunshine again on Thursday but there were some hefty showers about in the afternoon one of which we were treated to down on the plot.
I thought it might be a good time to report on the progress of my experimental green manure crops. As I mentioned on yesterday’s blog I haven’t managed to get any red clover to germinate in three separate sowing through summer. On the other hand winter tares and phacelia have been much more successful.
I sowed my first bed of winter tares on 25 July once our early potatoes had been lifted. It had germinated by the 13 August although it didn’t appear as thick as I imagined it would be when I sowed the seeds. I was in two minds whether to sow some extra seed amongst the emerging shoots but in the end decided against. I assumed as I’d followed the sowing density on the packet I ought to see what would happen.
By the end of August the winter tares were starting to thicken up but it still looked a little bit sparse to me. I was a little bit surprised that it wasn’t getting much competition from germinating weed seeds but that seemed to be the case.
Now by early October it’s filled out well and I can see that I would just have wasted seed had I scattered extra in late August to make up for what looked like rather poor germination.
It will be interesting to see how this over winters. As this green manure is a nitrogen fixer this bed will be planted up with brassicas next season to make best use of this. This may fit in nicely with my four yearly crop rotation system on this part of the plot. Winter tares should be dug in before flowering but I’ll just have to leave some to see what the flowers are like to satisfy my curiosity.
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Thanks for the update Martyn. I must admit that I missed the green manure boat this year. Instead I've got a carpet of weedlings to dig in where the potatoes were. These look like legumes so fit into your rotation. I am weary about brassica green manures because they could perpetuate clubroot. I have dabbled with Rye grass and some other green manure (which was killed off by the frost) but haven't got a working strategy as to when and what to sow - so keep up the reports!
ReplyDeleteHi Mal
ReplyDeleteYour correct in thinking that the Winter Tares are a legume. I too have not grown any brassica green manures for the same reason as we do stuggle with club root on the plot. I thought about Rye grass but some sites suggested it was hard to dig back into the soil so I chicken out.
Phacelia grew well for us and can be fitted into any crop rotatation (a member of the Hydrophyllaceae family). Might be a problem with its winter hardiness. I'll keep a check on its performance and winter temperatures.