Improve soil fertility in your food garden with a green manure crop
Learn how to grow your own fertiliser for your organic vegetable garden and orchard with a regular green manure crop. It is a totally natural way to greatly improve soil fertility, creating a productive and disease resistant organic food garden. This movie demonstrates the simple and very low cost process of using green manure crops. It is presented by experienced organic gardening educator and author, Peter Kearney, founder of www.cityfoodgrowers.com , one of the largest organic gardening resources on the web, which can be localised to any town or city in the Australia, USA and NZ. Become a Gardener subscriber of the site to access all the site resources and interactive tools.
16 Responses to Improve soil fertility in your food garden with a green manure crop
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Eduitorg
May 31, 2012 at 9:54 am
Bush & pole beans are legumes, just as cow pea is in the movie. The aim with the green manure crop is to fix as much nitrogen into the roots as possible. If you cut down the crop before it fruits, you will get a lot more nitrogen in the roots. The plant brings a lot of nitrogen up from the root area when it goes from flower to fruit. So my answer is, you can leave them & eat the food & you will get organic matter from the plant & some nitrogen, not as much if you only grew it to cut it down
12peterkk
May 31, 2012 at 10:40 am
Thank you for the information. Can I use my bush and pole green beans, after I have harvested all the beans I want, as a green manure or mulch?
dkulikowski
May 31, 2012 at 11:32 am
Thanks
12peterkk
May 31, 2012 at 11:53 am
Five Stars 5*****
ytmalveo
May 31, 2012 at 12:25 pm
I read recently that CLEAR plastic warms up the soil best and it also gets any weed seeds to start growing so you can then remove them before planting the crop
barkershill
May 31, 2012 at 1:12 pm
I can understand we all have different ways of doing s things with soil fertilisation. My preference is too make all processes simple to apply and that they produce results. I let the green manure crop grow until before seeding, cut it down and leave on soil as a light mulch and within a month plant into it. In this way root areas hold a lot of life in the soil and are not disturbed, protect soil from erosion and fix the nitrogen from the roots. It all breaks down as the new crops are growing
12peterkk
May 31, 2012 at 1:56 pm
The green manure should be covered with soil and tilled in later. It’s more important to mix it into the soil, I believe, and not leave it exposed. Bacteria and fungi thrive in a soil with a lot of mulch, wood chips, compost, and shredded leaves tilled in every season. Wood chips are very helpful for aeration as well, and provide plenty of decaying matter to feed the bacteria and fungi. Fertilize with chicken manure, sea minerals (seaagri(dot)com), and fresh sea water from the beach.
JBC814
May 31, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Very well conveyed! I’ve never tried the lime mix but I’ll definitely give it a go. Thanks for the video.
bulleuston76
May 31, 2012 at 2:53 pm
looks great mate i live in brisbane too
auzziegardener
May 31, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Very interesting, I am in Wisconsin, USA, zone 5. It is October, getting ready for a cold Winter. I have a raised bed, 8’x10′, my only veggie bed I can have. What do you suggest for a cover crop in 30 degree F, so I will be able to grow in April 2012?In April I warm up this bed using black plastic for a month, is the o.k? Or am I killing the good guys? This method of yours is VERY NEW to me. I need EASY & INEXPENSIVE. Hope to share YOUR KNOWLEDGE with other earth friendly gardeners.Thank you.
dkulikowski
May 31, 2012 at 4:16 pm
The lime with the seeds helps them to germinate, leading to stronger strike rates and more robust plants. Lime is a very important part of a healthy soil. You should not overdo it with lime by adding to much to your soil, but with seeds, I only use it in the seed slurry when planting green manure. Only a very small hand full is all that’s needed in a small bucket, say 50gms of lime for enough seeds to cover 100m2
12peterkk
May 31, 2012 at 4:44 pm
What is the purpose of the lime?
shephenkel
May 31, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Thank you
dillonbrownie
May 31, 2012 at 4:56 pm
If you mean in the same bed, you can. I often include edible plants around the edges of the green manure crop such as lettuce, asian greens or I may have a climber right on the edge such as climbing beans, cucumber, peas, Having said that, I think its important to rest your beds from food growing with a green manure crop.
12peterkk
May 31, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Can you grow dreen manure crops the same time as your garden??
1994buttons
May 31, 2012 at 5:34 pm