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Post by stratcat on Dec 10, 2014 12:07:36 GMT -5
I have always wanted to try planting a cover crop. This year my cottage garden finished producing early due to the cool weather. I rototilled bags of year-old oak leaves in and raked the soil. Cousin Dennis had been suggesting for me to plant a cover crop. On October 27, I was at the local mill picking up supplies. I ran into a kid from school days and he was getting some winter wheat to plant as a cover crop. He said the farmers were still out planting wheat, so I picked some up, too. Gave some to my next door neighbors for their garden. As rain was coming, I got right out and started roughing up the soil with my rake. I broadcast the wheat seeds heavily and then I spread a light mulch of wet straw. I walked on my garden so the wheat had good contact with the soil. My garden's not that big, heheh. It rained the next day and I kept the soil moist for days. We had a really cold November, and I didn't see any life from the wheat until December 9. I was out in the garden and saw some green. There were even some 2" shoots!!! My neighbor's garden looked like it was growing some hair, too. Spring will be interesting.
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Post by spacecase0 on Dec 10, 2014 22:55:52 GMT -5
I planted a grain cover crop last fall, it was pretty fun
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Post by stratcat on Dec 12, 2014 1:30:55 GMT -5
I got out there today and raked off excess straw. It was really neat to see all that green wheat! I'm already having fun!
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Post by coppice on Dec 12, 2014 4:32:01 GMT -5
As soon as you can turn it under in the spring its probably best to do dat.
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Post by redneckplanter on Feb 23, 2015 21:27:46 GMT -5
what is best cover crop?
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billh
Pro Member
Posts: 231
Zone:: 6a
Joined: December 2011
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Post by billh on Feb 24, 2015 6:51:26 GMT -5
redneckplanter, I think most people use wheat. I used rye one year because I couldn't find wheat.
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Post by brownrexx on Feb 24, 2015 19:02:11 GMT -5
I did a cover crop of radishes this year. I covered the unused parts of the garden with daikon radish seeds in August. They are a special radish called a tillage radish and the roots penetrate really deeply, like 36 inches, into the soil and they bring up nutrients from deep in the soil.
They grew bright green and covered the soil which also smothered out any weeds. One or two nights in the teens will kill the radishes and then the holes that are left allow water to penetrate deep into the soil and freeze and thaw which can break up clay soil.
It is my first time doing this so I am anxious to see the results in the spring.
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Post by spacecase0 on Feb 24, 2015 19:58:18 GMT -5
best cover crop does what you need done to your land, you might need more nitrogen, or clay soil broke up, or might want to stop some pest cycle, or might just need the lowest price seed you can find...
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Post by meandtk on Feb 25, 2015 14:25:26 GMT -5
I had a portion of my garden planted in red clover. It didn't do too well, but there are clumps of it here and there. We'll see how it helps and decide from there what happens this coming fall.
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Post by coppice on Feb 25, 2015 16:10:22 GMT -5
Some folks grow a legume for cover crop. I used annual rye in NH in hopes it would not overwinter and I could shovel it under easier dead than alive.
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Post by stratcat on Mar 2, 2015 1:09:10 GMT -5
After the fact, I've been reading up on cover crops in a few of my Rodale Press books and online. In the spring, I expect to be cutting my wheat down before I till it under. It'd be great fun to get my grandfather's old scythe out for the occasion! I imagine I'll push the mower in my garden and my lovely neighbors will think I'm growing lawn again. The plan is to have the wheat turned under for three or four weeks before planting. That will give it time to decompose and feed the soil. HGTV also mentions that the decomposition will overcome the seed germination inhibitor that wheat possesses. www.hgtvgardens.com/winter-gardening/winter-wheat-planting
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Post by redneckplanter on Mar 3, 2015 18:04:04 GMT -5
thanks fer the input youse guys. would alfalfa be worth a throw?
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Post by coppice on Mar 3, 2015 23:23:18 GMT -5
thanks fer the input youse guys. would alfalfa be worth a throw? *If* you have a seasonal crop what needs cool weather to grow, oh, like potato and you fill up that season with a cover crop, you can't be growing something to poke in your pie-hole. Nitrogen fixing legumes almost give a double serving when used as cover crop. A tiller, or a strategic planing of your cover, pays the best dividend. Like getting Connecticutt Feild punkin growing and then sowing your legume in the exposed but soon to be shaded by punkin' leaves, pays off good the following year.
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Post by redneckplanter on Mar 4, 2015 20:59:28 GMT -5
ahhhhhhhhhhh so it seems beans are the way to go? piehole happy....dirt happy? grins
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Post by meandtk on Mar 9, 2015 10:36:01 GMT -5
After the fact, I've been reading up on cover crops in a few of my Rodale Press books and online. In the spring, I expect to be cutting my wheat down before I till it under. It'd be great fun to get my grandfather's old scythe out for the occasion! I imagine I'll push the mower in my garden and my lovely neighbors will think I'm growing lawn again. The plan is to have the wheat turned under for three or four weeks before planting. That will give it time to decompose and feed the soil. HGTV also mentions that the decomposition will overcome the seed germination inhibitor that wheat possesses. www.hgtvgardens.com/winter-gardening/winter-wheat-plantingWould you mind starting a thread with those Rodale titles, or adding them if there's already a book thread? thx
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Post by stratcat on Mar 10, 2015 1:28:00 GMT -5
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