green manure is a sustainable organic fertilizer
www.permies.com Helen Atthowe of http shows off her sustainable organic fertilizer experiments starting with a pasture that is dominantly used for grazing and some haying. The goal is an organic minimum till and no till vegetable production system. The area started with smooth brome, weeds like oxeye daisy and goldenrod, and legume/nitorogen fixers alfalfa and red clover. After turning over the sod, the green manure / living mulch was planted. Dominantly red clover and triticale. The green manure crop turned out to be very water dependent. Relevant threads at permies: www.permies.com www.permies.com www.permies.com music by Jimmy Pardo
11 Responses to green manure is a sustainable organic fertilizer
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Pretty cool video. Check out Holistic Management International, they advocate mob grazing as a means to reverse desertification, increase biodiversity and provide a living for farmers/ranchers.
FreeReinFarmsCO
November 26, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Annuals, and biennials grown as annuals, are inherently poor at recycling nutrients. The size of the root system determines ability to soak up soluble nutrients, and annuals grow a root system from nothing each time they are planted, and at their peak it is a smaller, less efficient system than perennials have. Killing perennials to grow more annuals and trying to make it long term sustainable, is generally trying to defy physics.
arthurcnoll
November 26, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Rotation out of production does not solve the problem. The volume of soil that plants have their roots in is finite, outside nuclear reactions matter is not created or destroyed. Nutrients may be chemically-physically locked up in soil particles, and given time may be broken free by bacteria, freeze- thaw cycles, but this just means depletion happens in steps. Either the nutrients are recycled after being eaten, or they must be added in from somewhere else, or the situation cannot last.
arthurcnoll
November 26, 2011 at 5:15 pm
@arthurcnoll
The clover seems to add P and K as well as micronutrients. In our research it added very high levels of K and Fe, esp. mid to late season. But, of course, if you keep harvesting lots of veggies off of a piece of land (removing lots of biomass, even permanent living mulch won’t keep up with nutrient replacement. Rotation out of production is also key.
hatthowe
November 26, 2011 at 5:26 pm
An alternative nitrogen-fixing crop for the drylands might be tepary beans, which are pretty xeric – the Tohono-O’odham dry farm them in the mouths of arroyos in the Sonoran desert.
Appealsman
November 26, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Wow you all are some kind of pioneers. Very professional. I am soaking this up!
smilewait4flash
November 26, 2011 at 6:32 pm
This would logically add nitrogen, to increase the clover. But for all the other vital nutrients, you will simply be mining the pasture to feed the vegetables, which isn’t sustainable.
arthurcnoll
November 26, 2011 at 6:42 pm
she needs some passive water harvesting, maybe a swale system?
simonk512
November 26, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Helen knows her stuff. This is great.
SuzyB1988
November 26, 2011 at 7:55 pm
That’s Helen? I didn’t expect her to be such a handsome woman.
Your podcasts with her were awesome.
I’m eager to see who’s right in your nitrogen fixing plant, nitrogen sharing disagreement
I have a little cucumber sprout here at the condo that just sat in my deck garden for weeks and weeks but when I planted alfalfa to cover the soil on that planter, the cucumber plant started growing. I’m kind of leaning toward some degree of nitrogen sharing, but I’m a diesel mechanic, not a permaculturist
vention4wh
November 26, 2011 at 8:38 pm
i never comment on your channel but, i love you guys!…just wanted you to know…
MARTIALLAWLESS
November 26, 2011 at 9:34 pm