Green Manure, cover crop, 2-22-2010
by Farmer Dave
(Northern California)
Homestead Farm
Green manure also known as cover crop is a great way to build your soil. Today we planted a green manure cover crop at the Bar 717 Ranch also known as Camp Trinity in Hyampom California. Camp Trinity is a summer camp for kids focused on Pioneer Living, horses and sustainability. I am helping them create a sustainable homestead farm.
Green manure cover crops will build the soil in two ways. Cover crops are usually a legume that fixes nitrogen in the soil and a grain that provides green matter (cellulose) for the soil. They build soil composition and increase fertility.
I usually plant my green manure crops in October or early November but I have learned that if I miss the early planting I can still plant in Mid February and the cover crops grow nearly as tall. By the time camp Trinity asked for my help it was already to late and too wet to disk and plant.
On February 22nd we disked up a 1/2 acre garden area and I used a small hand planter which Camp Trinity has for seeding. Usually I just put my seed in a bucket and hand broadcast the seed. It will be interesting to see how even this turns out, it sure was fast and easy to plant using the seeder.
I planted some annual rye, peas, vetch and bell beans as a cover crop to produce green manure. The next day it rained, perfect timing!
The cover crop will grow until mid April when we will till it in for summer crops.
Turning in green manure cover crops- If I roto-till my garden area I turn the cover crops in two to four weeks before planting. I generally roto-till the whole area, roughly turning in the cover crops and then watering to help the green manure break down. A week or two later I roto-till again to further break down the organic plant material.
If I have cover cropped and I am hand farming I turn the cover crops in with a garden fork at least four weeks before my final bed preparation to give time for the cover crops to break down.
If don?t get a chance to turn them in early enough. I can hand pull the cover crops right before final bed preparation, and then fertilize and plant the next day. The the hand pulled cover crops are great for my compost piles. Using cover crops also known as green manure is an effective way of improving your soil quality for this years planting as well as improving the soil for years to come.
