Nitrogen Fixing Cover Crops ???

[ID jit]

Pulled this out of another thread:

... A cover plant is something quick growing that you plant seeds of at or near the end of the season. Let it grow for awhile and then in late winter/early spring turn it under, into the soil. Then the nutrients in the plant are released into the soil as the plant breaks down.

I over-learned a pattern when I was a kid getting to deal with large subsistence type gardening: Work organic matter into the soil; keep the plants watered and the weeds down and you get produce. This is simple and effective enough, and I learned to hate gardening form the repetitions of it when I was a kid. Now I am taking care of a couple flower gardens and a 20' x 40' veg garden for my 70 something year old mom, and I want her to have the best gardens possible.

I presume I should be planting a cover crop when I strip the garden in the fall and turning it in as soon as I can in the spring. I am in SE New England, zone 5B, I think.

What should I be planting? How do I plant it? What else should I know about it, and what is the quick and painless version of doing this?

Thanks much.

[applestar]

Part of the answer will depend on whether you are using a -heavy duty- tiller or will be digging and turning manually (and how strong you are). But I'm not the one to supply a thorough answer because I don't use power-tools and haven't been consistent and haven't thoroughly explored/experimented with this technique.

Tried growing oats a couple of times -- supposed to sow earlier in fall, grow to mat the area, they are supposed to get winter killed in this area through which you can plant in spring without turning over. First time I tried it, we had a mild winter and massive overwintered clumps in spring, 2nd time, we had early killing freeze in the fall .... I was going to try mustard one year -- needs to be sown earlier -- but discovered clubfoot in the intended bed and had to abandon the idea.

For digging manually, serious cereal grain cover crops are too hard. Clover, vetch, peas are more my level.

[ID jit]

Thanks,
Clover is out... neighbor would kill me because he manicures his lawn after a lifetime of living in concrete.
Vetch... will google it.
Peas? okay.... can handle planting a bunch of those, I guess.

What is "winter rye?" Some type of grass thing? Is it a nitrogen fixer or just root structure to keep the soil from blowing around?

They 20' x 40' sees a Troybilt as deep as it will go twice in the spring and once in the fall. First time in the spring is to turn in the fire place ashes and anything else which was added since fall. Do this as soon as it is not muddy. Second time in the spring is just before planting. Fall is after the garden is stripped, compost, leaves etc. are spread over it.

Vetch is out too.... weed from hell in both flower gardens... have been working for years to get that stuff out.... as bad as or worse than morning glories

[bri80]

Thanks,
Clover is out... neighbor would kill me because he manicures his lawn after a lifetime of living in concrete.

Vetch is out too.... weed from hell in both flower gardens... have been working for years to get that stuff out.... as bad as or worse than morning glories

The whole point of cover crops is that they're an annual, are dug in before they set seed (or usually even flower), and break down fast leaving a nice seed bed behind. The varieties of clover and vetch that meet this criteria are not the perennial weeds you are thinking of.

[imafan26]

Most cover crops are weedy and will reseed like crazy if allowed to mature. Cover crops like winter rye, buckwheat,oats, mustards and radish are not nitrogen fixers but add biomass . Cover crops are usually short season except for the winter rye and should be turned under just as they start to flower but before they go to seed. Some are more suitable for cold climates.

Legumes are nitrogen fixers. If you have natural colonies of nitrogen fixing miccorhyzzae then that is good. If not, it is best to inoculate the legume with an appropriate inoculant. Johnny's sell a combination inoculant that works on cowpeas and vetch. Pleasant Valley also sells specific inoculants. Inoculants should be kept in the refrigerator (especially in a warm climate) and dark until needed. It does expire so it needs to be used up within the year.

I grow cowpeas because it is the most common inoculant. I get mine from Burpee because there is the least problems with shipping. Cowpea seeds are also easy to get off the shelf. Seed suppliers sell bulk seed, but I don't need a lot in my small garden. Pink eye and black eye peas both work and I have used the inoculant on soybeans as well. The peas are edible, but if you are using it for a cover crop, it should be tilled in plants and all just as they start to bloom. That is the point of maximum nitrogen fixation. After the beans have started to produce pods, the energy transfers to the pods. If you eat the pods, then you take away part of the nitrogen benefit. The nitrogen is released as the bacteria and plants decompose and benefit the following crop. It takes a while for the pea pods to develop so you don't have too much trouble with them reseeding if they are tilled in on time.

https://hort.uwex.edu/articles/using-cov ... le-garden/

[applestar]

Cowpeas = southern peas and are good n-fixers for growing in the warmer months same as beans. I've tried calif. black eyed, purple hull, and I think zipper cream is one, too? Rampant and strong climbers, later to mature, and can handle hotter, dryer weather than regular pole beans, but stink bugs do like them and in hot dry summers with more pest pressure they can damage the pods and suck the beans inside dry in late July through August. I do tend to grow for harvest but at that point, I pull the plug and cut them at ground level for the roots to degrade and release the Nitrogen from the nodules.

Vetch is related to fava/broad beans (or do I mean fava beans are related to vetch?) and if you already have vetch growing, then there should be appropriate rhizobium for fava in the soil.

ID jit -- are you sure you mean vetch and not bindweed which IS related to morning glory? Vetch can grow rampant but I don't find them difficult to pull or control where I don't want them.

[ID jit]

Thanks for the link. Found this too: https://nevegetable.org/cultural-practi ... en-manures.

Do not know what the evil vine is other than evil. Looks like the pics of vetch I have seen. The stuff I can't get rid of is a climber but does not hold on too tightly. Roots are a different story - long and stringy and come out hard no matter how damp the soil is. Root is dark brown and thin though and more woody than the white crunchy, easy to break morning glory root.
_________
Should probably get a soil test done on the 20' x 40' before I worry about what cover crops (if any) I should be planting late mid October or so.

Soil won't allow water to puddle but can become squishy wet after a good watering but doesn't stay squishy long. Actually feels sort of spongy when you walk down the rows for most of the growing season. I don't think I have an N shortage. I get lots of foliage growth with good strong stocks. Had a Sweet 100 tomato plant measure over 18' this fall and that was hacked back twice. Pretty sure the P, K and trace stuff is in line well enough because everything flowers and fruits fairly well.

Do have less luck with radishes, beets and carrots. (Haven't planted potatoes). Generally these plants produce a lot of top foliage but not a whole lot of root / tuber. Don't know if it is me, the soil, the every other day 15 minute fake rain storm, or what the issue is. Do know the well water has a high manganese content.

Kind of clueless here. Not sure if I should be trying to mop up stray N and/ or use legumes to get more. I think I am good with the bio mass side of things though.

[applestar]

Still lingering/fussing about vetch ID --> should be easy to tell -- if you uproot older/mature vines -- vines with tendrils like peas not wrapping around and around like pole beans -- the roots will have little round bumps on them -- rhizobium nodules.

If have been trying to rid garden of vetch, try growing fava beans -- unless you are of Mediterranean descent, then check and verify possible genetic intolerance.

[ID jit]

Nothing pea-like about the evil weed... no tendrils, no pods, no root nodules. The stuff just wraps and climbs and seems to have 2 feet of long stringy root per foot above ground. Leaves and flowers look like what showed up in google for vetch.

[MidAtlanticVeggies]

You mentioned turning in the fire place ashes--you really should get a soil test done. Wood ash raises the pH, and if you've been putting ash into your garden every year, you may have alkaline soil. Your soil may be packed with nutrients, but if the pH is too high (or too low), the nutrients aren't available to the plant. I've read recommendations to only add wood ash every 3 to 5 years, but always, get a soil test done before adding materials that can affect the pH.

[imafan26]

I would get a soil test before adding even fertilizer even if it is only a baseline. Otherwise, you may be putting in more than you need and that can cause other problems and cost you money you don't need to spend.

I used to add dolomite lime every two years on a schedule because I was told I had to balance out the acidic fertilizer I was using. After about 5 years, I couldn't get the okra to grow. Turns out the PH was too high from all that dolomite and I was using chicken manure at the time. Since then, I used dolomite once after my soil tested pH of 6.0, a drop from 6.4. A pH 6.0 is actually good for my soil according to my most recent soil test, but I don't want it to drop much lower. On the other plots the pH is 7.8 ( a rise from 7.4) so I stopped adding compost and put in peat moss instead and added sulfur to lower the pH. The pH rose in the other plot because the Ca/Mg ratio changed and potassium dropped. All the elements were present in adequate amounts, the phosphorus dropped but it still high so it had to be the ratio of the cations and anions in the soil that changed.

Adding compost usually makes soil more alkaline but compost does act as a buffer and buffers changes in pH. However, if the the compost is strongly akaline, the soil pH will rise as well. Peat moss is created anaerobically so it is an acidic compost and lowers the pH. Pure peat moss has a pH of around 3.0, but most peat moss sold have had lime and wetting agents added. It would still only be limed to a pH of around 6.0. Pure peat moss would be organic the ones with the wetting agent is not. You have to read the bags carefully to know that. Peat moss will lower the pH longer than sulfur.

It is a good idea to get soil tests periodically. Usually it is a good idea to get a soil test on a new garden just to get a baseline and I found doing it every year does not change much unless you did a lot of adjusting. I do soil tests about every three years. It has saved me a lot of money because I actually don't need to add as much fertilizer as I was using before when I just fertilized without the soil testing. My first soil test was so high in everything that it has taken 6 years of only adding nitrogen and compost and very little else for the phosphorus levels to drop into the high instead of the extreme range. The soil test cost me $12 and saved me much more in the cost of fertilizer I did not need. I have been using the same bag of sulfate of ammonia for about 3 years. If you add too much fertilizer of any kind in the wrong amounts they can negatively affect the availability of other elements so it is a good idea not to add too much of anything at any one time. You can always add, but if you add too much you have to wait for it to leach out.

[Gary350]

In college I learned beans can be a cover crop for next years corn crop. Corn is a stripper crop it strips the soil of all the nitrogen. Beans add nitrogen to the soil. Harvest the beans return the bean plants to the soil. You get nitrogen and compose for next years corn crop. I have done this in my garden.