JodiInVA-USA
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Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:16 pm
Location: Northern Virginia - Zone 7a

Cover crops vs. multi-season veg planting

Newbie question here: I read about the value of cover crops and think, "I should do that!" And I read about gardeners who manage to plant some crops in the late summer or fall that actually produce late into the fall or even through the winter and think, "I should do that!" But I don't suppose it's possible to do both? Add to that the timing of pulling out regular summer things (like tomatoes) that I'm tempted to keep in until they stop producing, which probably overlaps one or both of the things above.

Suggestions from experienced gardeners, or is there something obvious I'm missing :?: The only thing I've come up with so far is to rotate what I do in my four different beds (2 existing and 2 to come soon), so maybe every year two or three get cover crops to enrich the soil and one or two are planted with brassicas, spinach, lettuces, or whatever might survive a northern Virginia winter.

CharlieBear
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Location: Pacific NW

Cover crops are just one of the ways to add organic materials to the soil. When using them you have to turn them under or disk them in. It is something that farmers often use to decrease erosion.

Planting those late crops, depends on your taste in food and what the weather actually does in any given winter. I have had years that were very successful, but other years it fails badly. Many people keep what they have that is producing as long as possible and often I do, for some crops but I have 13 3' wide rows that are about 40' long, rather than boxes.

Note, that the minimum rotation is generally every three years, I rotate the "carrot" boxes on that cycle, so I only have 3. Lettuce in unlikely to survive the first hard frost will take it out without row covers etc.

What you need is about 1" of compost placed on the top of the boxes every year for optimal growth without fertilizer. You can make you own if you have enough things to put in it or you can use a high quality compost like mushroom compost. (some people prefer to mix it into the top 3" of the soil. Don't use uncomposted manure as that is an invitation to disease. If the boxes you started had a lot of organic content in the soil the amount of "soil" in the box will lessen as the organic mater finishes rotting, making nutrients available to the plants.

Whatever you decide to do, it is generally better to have something covering the ground during the winter be it cover crops, late crops or leaves say so the soil doesn't get to compacted during the winter.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I actually attended a lecture about soil that covered that. Commercial growers have more land to rotate crops to and while leaving others in cover crops, but what is a homeowner to do to on a small piece of ground.

The answer was if you are planting rows anyway just plant cover crops in alternate rows.
The prime example given here was actually from a ginger grower. Ginger is very prone to nematode attacks which would ruin the crop. Farmers here do some serious field sanitation like actually disinfecting their boots before they even enter the field as well as wearing coveralls to prevent soil being tracked in from outside areas.
Ginger is planted in alternate rows. The cover crop between the rows are single gold marigolds or sun hemp, both of which deter and can kill harmful nematodes.

You can divide your plot into alternate sections and you can plant 3 sections and leave one sections in cover crop and then rotate them or intercrop. Most cover crops are tilled in at the early flowering stage, about 6 weeks, longer in winter.
2015 is the year of the soil so where I am there were a lot of activities related to improving the soil community

A lot of focus was on preserving soil from erosion
Building healthy soil by cultivation techniques that disturb the soil the least
Keeping soil in balance. Planting scavenger crops after a main crop to clean up fertilizer residues that might pollute water sources and to prevent excess build up in the soil. Inoculated legumes add biomass and nitrogen for the next crop, and cover crops hold soil down and prevent erosion and help keep weeds down.
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/uhmg/news/V ... enSoil.pdf
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/n ... rcrops.pdf

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I have run into the exact same conundrum.

Succession planting, Fall garden, Overwintered garden, Early spring garden... And somewhere, fit in cover crops..... :roll:

So CharlieBear's first point that you have to turn them under is very significant. One of the things I learned is that bulky and tough covercrops are NOT easy to turn over using hand tools. These I think are more intended for use in large scale fields that are worked with heavy tractors and machinery.

Most of the cereal crops are incredibly difficult to deal with as full grown and mature clumps. I also generally prefer annual crops that will lay down, freeze and die over the winter.

What have been working for me are summer buckwheat because they are very fragile and easy to knock down, common vetch because they reseed easily and pull out easily, most clovers except Crimson clover which I can't seem to grow. Sowing non-winter hardy cereal crop seeds to grow just enough in fall then winterkill.

Also in terms of simply keeping the beds covered in winter, many weeds of the usual suspects like hen bit and dead nettle, and chickweed actually work very well and are relatively easy to deal with. I have garlic mustard that keep coming back so I've actually decided to just let them grow in some places. They are also easy to pull out. Most of these, I just stop weeding at some point in early fall as the main crops in the garden start to wind down.

By the same token, I'm borrowing Masanobu Fukuoka's method to overseed while the last crop is still producing. This way the succession from one crop to the next takes place smoothly. I only cut off the previous crop at soil level, leaving the root system in the soil to break down and return nutrients. This includes corn, tomatoes, sunflowers. cabbage....

I plant peas and beans wherever and whenever I can. The foliage and vines are used as mulch and roots are left in the ground to die and release any nitrogen left in the rhizobium nodules.

I also leave behind some biennial crops to overwinter and if they survive, to bloom to attract/feed the beneficial insects. If they don't, their deep delving roots will still benefit the garden by breaking up the clay soil and adding organic matter.

Sweet potatoes are not exactly cover crops, but they produce incredible amount of biomass during the growing season, and I have found that leaving all the vines and leaves as well as immature not worth harvesting roots and tubers to freeze and decompose in the garden bed over the winter is a great way to enrich the soil.

You really need to plan your garden several seasons in advance to incorporate crop rotation. Fall planting garlic ties up the bed until next summer. Plan your early spring planting beds in advance and leave THOSE empty, prepped with amendments, then covered with mulch (deep fall leaves will work well. This way, as soon as ground has thawed and dried enough to work/plant, all you have to do is take aside the extra mulch and sow seeds and/or plant.

JodiInVA-USA
Full Member
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:16 pm
Location: Northern Virginia - Zone 7a

Wow, great responses - thank you so much! I haven't absorbed even half of the great information you all provided, but I will definitely keep coming back and re-reading until I can wrap my head around all the varieties, timing, techniques, etc.

One thing I take away is that I may have options other than cover crops that will serve me well (and possibly with less difficulty) - other approaches will enrich the soil sufficiently, and since I have wood-box raised beds I don't think I need to worry about erosion. And I have a very small amount of bed space, so I'm clearly not like the farmers protecting their acres of crops and tending them with tractors, etc! Thanks again.



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