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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 7, 2022 19:27:56 GMT -6
Planning Cover Crops For Your Garden. I didn't see a thread discussing cover crops, so I started one here.I usually plant a varied cover crop of winter wheat, winter peas, red clover, vetch, rye, and radishes or turnips, but the drought last Autumn prevented my seeds from germinating until it was too late. The rains came only days before the harsh freeze that killed my seedlings. That happened to me twice this year, so I was out about $60.00 on seed that never made it. However, in a good year, I'd have a wonderful cover crop to enjoy during this inclimate weather. To me, a good, lush, green, cover crop this time of year is almost as enjoyable as a good lush, green, garden in the month of June. Last year, my cover crop was 26" inches deep when I turned it under in April, just before the April 20th snow. So, this year's lack of any cover crop whatsoever is really disheartening.Because of the lack of cover crop this winter, I've been racking my brain, trying to think of a way to make up for some of the lost nutrients that I would have gained otherwise. I think I have my sights set on spreading some loose alfalfa hay before planting time.I have a tractor, a tiller, and a Plasticulture mulch layer, so I think it might be feasible to till my garden after the mud from our recent snow dries up, then go ahead and raise my twelve rows for planting. I think I can amend the soil along each future row, with dried alfalfa, till it in lightly, then go back and raise each bed before going back to lay plastic mulch later.I'll try to apply biochar at that time as well. That way, I'm not wasting so much material between beds. (I have 10' foot walkways between rows) so there is a huge potential of wasting resources if I amend the entire thing. Last year's cover crop the day before I turned it under. It was 26" inches deep.The end of the day after turning the cover crop over. (Mixed emotions this day for sure!) It was so beautiful before I had to kill it all, but it was so light and airy afterwards that it felt like walking on a freshly baked loaf of bread.The day after I turned it under. We got snow April 20th, 2021 and it got down to 23 degrees that night, killing all the blossoms on all of my fruit trees. Good thing I was kind of late getting around to till my garden or else all my efforts would have been in vain when this freak freeze killed so many of my neighbor's tomato transplants.A couple of days after the snow, I went ahead and raised my beds and pulled my plastic.This is some of the biochar that I've been working on this winter. If everything goes according to plan, I'm figuring to incorporate this biochar into my rows, as I raise my beds this year, but before I come back to lay the plastic ... Right now all of this Biochar is being inoculated with used goose pond water and chicken litter. I'll let it cure for a couple of months before applying any of it to my garden. All of this takes months of planning and weeks of labor, but it all pays off in the end with healthier crops and higher yields. (Plus, it just makes me feel better knowing I tried my best to make things better).
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 7, 2022 19:55:35 GMT -6
Planting Alfalfa As a Cover Crop This article was borrowed from Epic Gardening.
All credit is due them. Home » Alfalfa Cover Crop: Beneficial Nitrogen Topper
Alfalfa Cover Crop: Beneficial Nitrogen Topper Published November 8, 2021 Quick Navigation [show]
You’ve probably struggled with the soil in at least one of your beds before. You may have tried incorporating fancy garden soil blends or tried to loosen the soil by manually tilling with no results. One way to improve the soil in a garden bed is to introduce an alfalfa cover crop.
Sowing an annual cover crop into a garden has so many benefits. Having the foresight to include this practice in your yearly garden plan gives you excellent preparation for the upcoming growing season, especially since you’ll begin with a substantial and enriched soil structure.
So, what’s alfalfa anyway? And what is this concept of cover cropping? And why would we choose alfalfa as a cover crop instead of others? Feel free to read further to find out! Maybe your next seed purchase for planting will be a winter cover crop.
What Are Cover Crops? An alfalfa cover crop is a great addition to your annual winterizing prep. To begin, let’s talk about the agriculture of cover crops. Seed is sown to cover the soil, and the organic material produced will eventually improve the overall soil structure and conditions of the molecular structure of the soil. By adding all of this beneficial organic matter to the soil, you’re also improving the moisture retention capability of the soil. At the same time, you’re providing prevention from heavy weed spread by choosing what should grow in that space. It’s a win-win combination to work into your gardening space!
Some elements of cover cropping derive from companion planting techniques, too. A cover crop can be intercropped between rows of other plants to loosen the soil and prepare it for later planting. This reduces weed spread but also ensures you can work those between-row areas later if desired.
This process supports the stability of future yields while feeding the land in a synergy that can’t be attained anywhere else. Today, cover crop seeds are broadcast in an area that needs improving or protection from erosion or weed development.
Types of Cover Crop There are 4 different types of cover to consider. Each has its proper use and function. Consider these before you get to planting.
Grasses Firstly, there are grasses, which are great to plant when you want to scavenge leftover nutrition from a previous crop. We’re talking wheat, ryegrass, and barley. When you chop them to the ground and till them in, the high carbon content in the plant lingers while the nitrogen releases into the soil. With all cover crops, there will be a period of breakdown required before the nutrients are plant-available.
Legumes There are legumes planted to fix nitrogen in the soil, which may be a better choice if you want a garden that guarantees strong root growth. Legumes like clover and vetch break down faster than grasses and help with erosion control. Often, people will plant legumes with grasses to offer a dual purpose to their cover cropping practice.
Brassicas Brassicas are a great cover crop that you can eat. They produce a lot of good biomass which helps prevent garden loss soil in fall. They also contain molecular compounds that are great for pest control. But they are often planted among other cover crops because although they are beneficial they aren’t as powerful as others.
If you grow a root veggie brassica like radishes, they’ll also loosen the soil.
Broadleaf Plants
Non-legume broadleaf plants are similar to brassicas in that they have rapid growth in the fall and provide good biomass to your garden soil. Spinach is a great choice for fall because it will survive winter, too. They may scavenge nutrients from the last season’s crop.
So, what exactly does a cover crop do to benefit new plants that will exist there in the future?
Benefits of Cover Cropping Alfalfa field In commercial farming, alfalfa covers get tilled into the soil to improve it. Source: USDAgov Here’s a list of the benefits a cover crop can bring to a garden or farm.
They prevent soil erosion. By sowing grains and grasses, you’ll have a firmer soil structure that can withstand rain and hold its structure more easily.
They manage soil fertility. By plowing a broadcast crop under before it can go to seed, you give your garden a great source of green manure that can be broken down slowly. The crop’s remains fertilize the soil over a long period of time, providing nutrition a long way down the line. The roots also loosen soil and aerate it.
They help you maintain soil health over time. As the crop breaks down, the fertility of the soil continues to improve. This involves not only higher nitrogen-fixing content, but also better relationships with mycorrhizal fungi, which are necessary for healthy soil.
They manage water runoff. This relates directly to the soil erosion piece we discussed above. Because the soil is more structurally sound, it and the crop’s roots can store and absorb more moisture, preventing soil runoff. Retained moisture also means a lot less watering to be done on your part. They keep out weeds. Because they are densely broadcast, there’s no room for weeds to emerge. This means fewer weeds in your garden moving forward too.
They reduce disease spread. Diseases can come from a bad soil source, insects, or from neighboring gardens and farms. Some covers suppress disease cycles and may be particularly effective against fungal diseases. Many of these crops contain elements that are toxic to certain fungi and nematodes too.
They manage pests. You can grow covers as trap crops to keep pesky insects out of other parts of your garden. Some cover crops attract beneficial insects as well.
They benefit wildlife. Cover crops attract birds, bees, and other animals that can help support pollination in your garden. This allows you to be a steward of the land for wildlife too. Higher pollination rates and higher rates of birds in a garden mean fewer pests, better production, and higher yield.
What is Alfalfa? Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a perennial in the pea family. Also known as lucerne, it is used as a forage crop all over the world. People grow an alfalfa crop to feed farm animals or to use as green manure. It’s a popular animal feed, plus when dried and ground is a nitrogen-dense fertilizer. It can even be chopped and dropped on the surface and treated like a straw mulch.
It has a long history from Iran, its country of origin, all the way to your sandwich. You may already know alfalfa sprouts are widely used today in food.
People tend to grow alfalfa plants as an annual cover crop because growing alfalfa brings several benefits to the garden. Medicago sativa provides organic matter that has proven time and time again to improve soil health.
Planting alfalfa is simple and easy, too. Even better, this perennial is a good source of food for humans and animals alike. Alfalfa sprouts contain high amounts of protein. If farmers decide to allow an alfalfa sprout to grow into seedlings, they can use them to feed their livestock with the resulting hay, rather than purchase wheat straw or alfalfa haybales from a feed store.
Pros Of An Alfalfa Cover Crop Alfalfa hay Alfalfa is popular as livestock feed as well as a soil improver. Source: Cowgirl Jules An alfalfa crop provides a combination of what all types of covers do. Alfalfa plants have long lateral roots that penetrate and loosen the soil.
Put alfalfa in garden soil where you want to fix nitrogen, and have some green manure to keep that cycle going.
Medicago sativa improves the soil structure, holds in water, and suppresses weeds. Beneficial predatory insects love alfalfa, and they’ll help take out any pests living nearby.
Pollinators also appreciate when gardeners grow alfalfa because as alfalfa flowers, leafcutter bees will head into the open-pollinated area for nectar. Other bees love alfalfa too, as do a variety of other pollinating insects.
The flowers are gorgeous, and if you cut alfalfa back in time you’ll have a great source of nutrition going forward. If you don’t till in alfalfa, no problem. It’s a great source of mulch too.
Cons Of An Alfalfa Cover Crop There are just a couple of things to consider with alfalfa. Let’s talk about two important points.
Timing: The first thing to consider with alfalfa is timing. In locations that get very cold in the winter, avoid planting in the late autumn months. You’ll need to start your seed earlier to ensure germination and enough development of established plants for the area to be covered.
Planting alfalfa seed early is best for those in colder regions. Planting in late fall is best for those in warmer regions, so seedlings can be established and survive (or at least cover) the soil through winter. While it’s fine if the plants die off over the winter months as that just hastens their decomposition, you still want enough cover present to prevent weed spread before they do.
Self-Seeding: The other issue that arises with crops like wheat, alfalfa, and other perennial crops used for soil building is if they aren’t harvested at the right time they’ll go to seed. If they aren’t cut at the right harvest time, the seeds then go through the process of spreading and germination and seedlings grow long lateral roots into the soil. This can exhaust the soil prematurely too.
To prevent that germination, make sure to cut alfalfa down and either harvest it or use it for mulch before it goes to seed. We’ll get into the particulars of harvesting in the next section.
How to Plant an Alfalfa Cover Crop
Vigorously growing alfalfa The rich, green leafy foliage of alfalfa is quite pretty. Source: Herbolario Allium Let’s discuss a few growing tips for planting alfalfa. Whether you’re trying to loosen soil, start growing for forage, or to feed livestock, this should contain the basics alfalfa growers need to know.
Growing Requirements Alfalfa likes full sun, and soil that doesn’t hold too much moisture. Since the roots are acclimated to drought-prone areas, you won’t need to provide organic matter like mulch to seeds to trap in moisture.
Planting alfalfa in an area that doesn’t drain well or gets waterlogged will produce rot. Choose neutral soil, too.
When to Plant Seed Plant alfalfa seed according to your region. Ensure there is enough cool weather to keep alfalfa happy, but warm enough to allow it to get established.
In zones where the winter is long and cold, begin planting alfalfa seed in spring. This allows seedlings to establish in the temperate spring and summer months. Harvest in fall.
If you’re in a mild region, plant seed in fall, and allow it to establish through the mild winter, then harvest in spring.
Ways to Orient Your Crop There are different ways to plant this perennial legume in your garden. You can simply broadcast seed in a large area in spring or fall.
This could be in a raised bed, a row, or a large area you’d like to prepare for gardening, forage, or agriculture.
You can also intercrop seed in spring or fall by casting rows of alfalfa between other crops. This is a great way to ensure you have forage and food, and may also be a good way to trap pests as a trap crop.
Doing intercropping in rows is a great way to improve alternate rows of soil for the next season. Remember to keep seed rows at least 18 to 24 inches apart.
How to Plant Seed If you’re doing large-scale farming or agriculture, you’ll need a lot of seed. The general rule for a perennial like alfalfa is about 12 to 15 pounds of seed per acre. This is the optimal yield.
Most home gardens sit on a plot of about one-quarter of an acre. So adjust your seed rate to the area where you’re growing. Sometimes home gardens are just a small portion of that quarter acre. So you may only need a couple of pounds of seed.
To plant seed, broadcast enough for the planting area. No need to tamp or cover with organic matter. The seeds will germinate on the ground within two weeks. If you have lots of birds or wildlife that will consume your broadcast seed before it sprouts, you can spread a thin layer of soil over the surface, or rake the seed in loosely, but it’s not essential.
Harvest Once the seed germinates, all you have to do is let it take off and wait for the right time.
If you’re feeding animals, allow the perennial to get right to the point where it is about to flower. This is when nutrition is highest. Then cut it down, and cure it. Once it’s cured, it’s suitable as feed.
If you’re using the perennial to fertilize your soil, let it flower, and before it goes to seed, till it down and into the soil. Then let that goodness release into the soil for your next crop.
For people doing raised bed covers, it is often easiest to use a chop-and-drop methodology. Wait until the alfalfa begins to flower, then cut it back and leave the cut material right there in the bed. Tilling is not an absolute necessity in this process! By spring planting time, you’ll have nutrient-rich soil ready to go.
Frequently Asked Questions Alfalfa ready to reseed itself Cut back alfalfa before it sets seed to prevent natural resowing. Source: eggrole Q: Is alfalfa a nitrogen fixer?
A: Indeed! That’s one of the things it’s mostly used for.
Q: What is the fastest-growing cover crop?
A: Buckwheat grows fastest of all, at about 4 weeks from seed to flower.
Q: What is the best cover crop for nitrogen?
A: Any legume will feed nitrogen to soil and fix it very well. Alfalfa is certainly one of the most popular!
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Post by macmex on Feb 8, 2022 7:48:19 GMT -6
I know that blister beetles adore alfalfa but I don't know if that would be a good or a bad thing if it were planted in the garden. When we lived in Mexico we had a lot of alfalfa planted on the grounds. We could pretty much raise rabbits on straight, fresh cut alfalfa. They would grow and fatten great on it. We cut ours with a scythe.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 8, 2022 10:18:38 GMT -6
I've heard of people growing alfalfa as a decoy crop to lure stink bugs away from a pecan crop, but I never got back to them to find out if it really worked. Some of the testing plots at OSU have decoy crops of alfalfa planted nearby also, but there again, I didn't follow up on the study to see what the end results were.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 5, 2022 9:13:02 GMT -6
I don’t have an in-depth post about cover crops, but I just thought I’d show a fun picture. I have a bunch of tillage radish seed that I use here and there as a cover crop of sorts in my garden beds. I’ve read that it’s particularly good for breaking up compacted soil and harvesting minerals. With hardpan directly below my raised beds, I figured it wouldn’t hurt. The other week my husband and I had to cut down a dead Live Oak tree. The inside of both trunks was already rotten, and the center part of the stump at the bottom before the tree split had turned into lovely decayed soil. I put five tillage radish seeds in the middle and covered them with extra sawdust from the area to try to hold moisture. It took a while for them to germinate, but it looks like all five have come up (and perhaps some other plant is starting). I don’t know what the roots will be able to do, but I thought it was fun to try. These are located near our driveway, and my five year old loves to check on them when we go to check the mail or head out to play. He tiptoes up the driveway in order to sneak up on them. These are not fenced in any way. Are deer going to eat radishes, anybody know?
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Post by john on Mar 14, 2022 12:08:18 GMT -6
I started using Tillage radishes about ten-fifteen years ago when I saw some commercial about them online. I bought them from a company that sells bulk to farmers. www.bestforage.com/product/tillage-radish/Recently I have just been buying regular old daikon radish seed from Willhite and they are pretty much the same thing. I seed them around the first week of August onto a roughly prepared surface. I usually just run a disk harrow through a couple of times to prepare the soil. I then use a broadcast spreader and I mix the seed with something like pelletized lime or a granular fertilizer. I do this to thin the seed. if you can get the seed to to be a foot apart you will get some big ones. I mean like up to 2'! You can harrow or rake the seeds in to cover them, but they will also germinate pretty well on the surface if you have some wet weather. They make sweet delicious radishes. (if you like radishes) They will die back when you get temps down into the teens. The following year your tiller or harrow will sink in nice and deep even on the first pass. It is a fun crop to grow.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 15, 2022 8:00:40 GMT -6
I have two types of Culinary Daikons (Minowase and Miyoshige, if I remember correctly), and that’s what I first used as a combination cover crop and food source. We have a few radish lovers who will eat them plain, and all my kids like them fermented or as part of kimchi. I’m very deliberate with those seeds, though, as they come just thirty or so to a pack. I ordered a quarter pound of cover crop radishes from Southern Exposure last year, and that’s what I have planted in some rows in my new raised beds and in the stump pictured above. September is our best time for planting, but all my summer crops went until November and even late December last year, and so I didn’t get them in till very late. I don’t know how much good they’ll do, but they’ll have a few more weeks to grow before I need to pull a few to make room for spring crops.
Last year before I had any inkling of what kind of freeze was headed our way in February, I was worried that my fall-planted daikons wouldn’t winterkill. I have an old blender canister that’s cracked and held together with tape, so I don’t use it for food anymore. I do use it, though, on occasional to puree food scraps for compost. I would pull my daikons, puree them with some rain water and then pour the mixture back down the hole. I don’t know if that was the best thing to do or not in my situation, but I did note many more earthworms in the particular bed where I did that. I think they were drawn to the moist daikon puree.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 10, 2022 15:33:11 GMT -6
The deer did eat the Daikon that was in my stump, but there’s still one that might stand a chance, unless they come back for it. The radish that is in my (protected) garden area is bolting quickly, but I have to say I love having the blooms in the garden. They are so cheerful, and the colors range from white, to pink, to lavender. I didn’t expect that, and I’m enjoying them.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 10, 2022 21:09:07 GMT -6
That's really cool! Our Daikon radishes never survive winter here, so I've never seen them in bloom. Thanks, for posting those photos.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 15, 2022 16:59:15 GMT -6
My daikons didn’t actually overwinter here as I planted them so late. Winter didn’t actually set in till January here, and I didn’t manage to get my seeds in the ground till February. That’s why they have such nice foliage and flowers without a lot of roots. Not the best for breaking up the soil beneath my garden beds, but it has been attracting honeybees, and I’m glad for that. I had an exciting discovery this morning in the garden. The daikon radishes had set seed pods, apparently overnight. They weren’t large, but they were so tasty! I had been planning to cut a chunk of the foliage tomorrow to use for greens when I refill a large pot hugelkultur-style, and perhaps the radishes heard my plans and made this last ditch effort to save themselves. How can I cut something that is producing such tasty food? I can see them doing really well fresh in salad or stir fried or even fermented. I took a couple of pictures (not easy to get them in focus).
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 26, 2022 19:21:59 GMT -6
I just thought I’d make a note here that I seeded some Sunn Hemp in part of one of my larger raised beds yesterday. I had planned to grow corn there, but I had germination problems. There’s a little corn on one side, but I thought I’d see if I could cover the bare section with a quick cover crop.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 27, 2022 13:16:35 GMT -6
And two days after sowing, sprouts of Sunn Hemp are coming up. I saw yesterday that some of the dark seeds on the surface were looking green instead of black, and I watered the bed really well. I guess this means that Sunn Hemp likes to germinate in 100 degree heat if there’s moisture in the soil. I’m hoping for some good greenery later in the season to chop onto the beds or to put into my compost.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 2, 2022 13:41:57 GMT -6
And here’s a picture of the Sunn Hemp as of yesterday morning. I think that’s about seven days after sowing.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 2, 2022 15:07:52 GMT -6
That's impressive---Nice!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 6, 2022 9:07:32 GMT -6
The people at the Farmers Co-op called today and said they have fresh wheat seed in stock now. It's going for $15.50 per 50-pound bag. It was $7.00 per bag last time I bought it. Still, for what you get, $15.50 per bag is not too bad.
I bought 50 pounds of wheat seed and broadcast it over some of the most burned-out parts of the 10 acres that recently caught fire West of our house. All that land back there is abandoned, so it had really grown up with excessively heavy underbrush over several years of unusually wet weather. (Remember the 100-year flood)? We had the 100-year flood here about three years in a row around the year 2015. We got 82.5" inches of rain in 2015. Over 12" inches of it came in one day, in late December of that year. I remember seeing water running out the second-story balcony doors of a house on the Illinois River, with a fully decorated Christmas tree still hung up on the railing.
Anyhow, I got some seed broadcast over parts of the burn to help prevent erosion and to give the deer and rabbits something to munch on this coming Winter.
I also bought 5 pounds of Red Clover seeds and a quarter pound of turnip seeds. We have a good chance of rain again next week. I'll see if the garden is dry enough this evening to skim the top of the mud with the tiller and try my best to plant ahead of this next rainstorm. Hopefully, I'll have a good cover crop established well before freezing weather. Last year, we never got our August or September rains and by the time my seeds got wet in October a hard freeze killed every last seedling. This year, I'm planning on getting the jump on the deep-freeze and get a good cover crop in.
I know that's going to be a pain to wade through a cover crop during my October Okra seed harvest, but it's better to be inconvenienced than to not get one in for the second year in a row. This is where I sowed the 50 pounds of wheat.
Hopefully, the wheat will help prevent erosion on this now bare soil.
The fire burned right up to my garden fence and covered about 10 acres. A little bit of green this winter will be a welcome sight.
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