Week 2
This Wednesday we met out on the farm for the second farm ops 2 class. Things are really starting to go nicely as far as making progress on the upgrades and renovations. We have almost finished pumping the water out of the old barrels to move and repaint them. Some of the other kids in the class game with it being partly finished and don’t really know exactly how much work we’ve put into that place. I’m pretty proud of our progress and it seems every class we make a noticeable difference. For our assignment this week we looked into cover crops, more specifically Atras information on them.
Why do we grow them?
Feed beneficial insects, retain moisture in the soil, help prevent soil erosion and suppresses weeds.
Why do we use Green manure?
Provides organic matter back to the soil that's vital for growing the fruits and vegetables produced for sale. It is also a “semi” free way of providing soil amendments compared to buying bags of organic matter or other fertilizers and compost. This can help to maximize the quality of our soils and also the yields and quality of our produce.
The best ones for fall is johnny's fall green manure mix. It can be sown 11/2 lb./1,000 sq.ft. This miix contains winter rye, field peas, ryegrass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch. It costs $7.20 per pound if ordered from the website.
Grasses can produce better effects because it tends to keep more nutrients in the ground versus others that produce more above ground nutrients. Some Winter cover crops I found that were grown for winter-killed mulch include field pea, oilseed radish, and rapeseed. These can be sown in late summer and grown through fall and eventually get killed by frosts but have enough mass to hold and protect the soil until spring. Another type is a winter hardy cover crop, these survive until spring and resume growth. Most growers seem to use a mix of two. I am wondering if cover cropping is a widely accepted practice? If not, why? I can’t see any flaws to this other than tieing up land that could be used for growing fall crops.
Is there anyway to intercrop with fall crops until you harvest them and then let the cover crops take over until spring?
Apart from cover crops we were supposed to look into the fall crops and other brassicas that we are going to plant next week along with the garlic or “allium sativum”. We will be planting traditional cole crops for fall season like brussel sprouts and cabbage. It seems that fall is better for growing the cole crops compared to spring.
Jordan Palmer
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