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Green manure plants are a worthy alternative to mineral fertilizers: they simultaneously saturate the substrate with useful substances and improve its quality. However, they will “show” themselves as much as possible only if you study in advance the nuances of the disembarkation procedure (including the optimal timing) and mowing the greenery. You can sow green manure in summer, early spring or closer to autumn: for each time there are their own, the most suitable crops.
Benefits of summer planting
In addition to the “traditional” spring and autumn planting, green manure can be sown in the summer. Gardeners choose this period, taking into account the following advantages of the procedure:
- Siderata create a solid “green carpet” in the garden. If you sow them in the summer, protection is created from overdrying and weathering, which is especially necessary in the heat of the soil.
- The roots of plants actively loosen the soil in the garden. If you sow green manure in the summer, such a “favorable” state of the substrate for horticultural crops will definitely remain until next spring.
- The rapid growth of greenery prevents the appearance of weeds on the “ennobled” area. Accordingly, you can save time and effort on preparing this bed for other crops if you sow them in the summer.
- This is an effective “express tool” for restoring the soil after the main crop. If you harvest early enough, before mid-summer, there will be enough time to sow green manure and ensure soil fertility for the next season.
“Summer” green manure is chosen so that they are not next to “cultivated” plants from the same family
What green manure is better to sow in the summer
Based on belonging to a particular family, green manures are divided into several groups. In summer, most of them can be sown: rapid growth rates and the formation of a “volumetric” green mass are characteristic of almost all crops.
Rape
Rapeseed is a herbaceous annual plant of the Cabbage family. Plant of short daylight hours, very frost-resistant. In agriculture, rapeseed is in demand not only as green manure. It is a valuable honey plant and a “raw material” for the production of high protein feed for livestock.
Due to the presence of extremely long (up to 3 m) roots, rapeseed is indispensable for loosening and restoring the “airiness” of the soil, “pulling” useful substances from its deep layers. In addition, if sown in the summer, it effectively prevents weathering and overdrying of the substrate.
The essential oils emitted by rapeseed disinfect the soil, destroying pathogenic microflora, and drive away many pests from plantings. It is also recommended to sow in the summer to limit the growth of weeds. In particular, rapeseed successfully “displaces” wheatgrass from the beds.
Rapeseed as green manure is an obligatory stage of crop rotation when introducing energy-saving technologies in agriculture
Mustard
Mustard is a herbaceous annual plant of the Cabbage family. It looks very nice, if you sow it in the summer, it will not only be green manure, but also a “decoration” of the site. In principle, mustard is suitable for planting throughout most of the season.
In summer, it is recommended to sow mustard on beds with potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and other Solanaceae. It provides their roots with protection from overheating, effectively “suffocates” weeds, and most importantly, destroys pathogens of late blight and scab. It will also suit these cultures as a predecessor.
Mustard roots actively loosen the substrate. It is especially useful for areas prone to alkalization. If you sow it in the summer as green manure, it will protect the beds from slugs, wireworms, codling moths.
Mustard can be sown not only in summer, but also in early spring: this is proved by the high (up to -6 ° C) cold resistance of green manure
Lupine
Lupine is a herbaceous subshrub of the legume family. Like other “relatives”, it is distinguished by the presence on the roots, which go into the soil by about 2 m, of symbiont bacteria that live in special nodules. They “absorb” nitrogen in the deep layers of the soil and “raise” it closer to the surface. In addition, lupine, if planted as green manure in summer, “transfers” phosphorus from soil that is “indigestible” for plants to easily digestible.
Lupine effectively loosens the soil, normalizes its pH with increased acidity. It is also extremely useful for “light” soils. Its greens must be mowed and embedded in the ground until the stems have coarsened.
Lupine seeds do not have good germination; before sowing them as green manure, it is recommended to carry out scarification
Phacelia
Herbaceous annual plant of the Aquatic family. Almost universal green manure, a good honey plant. Phacelia can be sown in the summer on all beds, after it any vegetables, berries, greens will “feel good”. The plant is ornamental, cold and drought resistant. It successfully takes root both on “heavy” and on very “poor”, even on stony soils.
If you sow phacelia as green manure in the summer, it will quickly begin to release phytoncides into the soil, effectively destroying pathogens of various types of rot, scab, and late blight. In addition, its essential oils successfully drive away aphids, nematodes, wireworms, codling moths from plantings.
Phacelia has a very fast growth rate. Budding occurs within 4-6 weeks after germination.
The versatility of phacelia as a green manure is due to the fact that it is not a “relative” for horticultural crops, it can be sown on any bed
Oil radish
Forage vegetable crop of the Cruciferous family, which forms root crops. Differs in cold resistance, shoots appear in just 5-8 days after sowing.
The main advantages of oilseed radish as green manure are the ability to take root in almost any soil and a rapidly growing root system that effectively displaces any weeds from the garden. In addition, its aerial part, if sown in summer, actively releases essential oils into the air, which successfully “inhibit” pathogenic microflora and repel pests (wireworm, nematode).
The culture is practically “indestructible”: oilseed radish in summer successfully adapts to droughts, cold weather, and high humidity. It is strongly recommended to sow to protect the soil from wind and water erosion.
The green mass of oilseed radish, if sown in summer, forms more slowly than other green manure – in 10-12 weeks
Clover
Herbaceous plant of the legume family, a good honey plant. As a green manure in the summer, you can sow both white (creeping) and red (meadow) clover. Like its “relatives”, it actively saturates the soil with nitrogen. The roots are fibrous, developed, successfully loosen the substrate and “force out” weeds.
Compared to other siderates, clover is more demanding on the quality of the soil – it prefers a moderately moist substrate with a neutral or close to this pH. In summer, this is not the best green manure for sandy soils.
The formation of green mass in clover takes 8-10 weeks. Unlike most siderates, it is mowed during the flowering period. However, the only procedure will not give a pronounced effect: clover must be grown on the site for at least two years, periodically mowing.
If you sow clover as green manure in the summer, you need to ensure regular watering, the soil should not dry out
How to plant green manure in the summer
There are several places where you can sow green manure in the summer:
- Free lots. Green manure will quickly prepare the soil for “cultivated” plants, increasing its fertility and enriching the composition.
- Liberated beds. Many early-ripening and ultra-early varieties and hybrids are harvested already in the middle of summer. If you immediately sow green manure, they will have enough time before germination and the formation of green mass.
- Aisle. A method that allows not only to improve the quality of the soil. Green manure, if sown in the summer, release essential oils and other substances into the soil and into the air, which drive pests away from the beds and destroy pathogens.
- In near-stem circles of trees. In this case, green manure is both an element of decor and mulch. When the gardener does not have the opportunity to permanently live on the site, green manure can be sown to increase the intervals between watering.
Accordingly, green manure can be sown throughout the summer – both simultaneously with the “main” crops, and after them. Planting is also acceptable for several times per season.
Seed consumption is always quite large: otherwise it is impossible to provide the required density of the “green carpet”
The procedure is standard in all cases. The plot, before sowing green manure, is dug up in the summer, if possible, or at least loosened. In the process, complex fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (5-7 g / m²) are applied. The only exception is beans.
Seeds are sown “scattered”, just from a handful. The absence of grooves provides the necessary tightness. After the green manure is sown, the bed is harrowed or simply covered with earth. In some crops, seeds germinate slowly in the light, germination decreases.
Beveling and termination
Green manure, if sown in the summer, is mowed at the same stage of development as when planting at other times – in the phase of “mass” budding. “Ripe” greens are cut as close to the soil as possible, immediately buried in the ground to a depth of 10-15 cm. On “light” sandy soils, it is more convenient to operate with a chopper or flat cutter, on “heavy” clay soils – with a shovel or cultivator.
During budding, green manures gain maximum green mass.
Some gardeners prefer to sow siderats in the summer and simply mow them without embedding them in the ground. They motivate this by the fact that useful microflora and fauna die in the process, the natural structure of the soil is disturbed. Greens are simply laid out on the surface of the beds and sprinkled with a thin layer of humus or other mulch. It quickly begins to decompose, saturating the soil with nitrogen, and eventually turns into humus with the “help” of earthworms and microorganisms.
It is not necessary to close up the greenery too deeply, it should be in the layer of the most fertile topsoil
Conclusion
If green manure is sown in the summer, it is possible to provide horticultural crops that will grow on this site next season with one of the “basic” conditions for development – soil fertility, its “saturation” with macro- and microelements. Therefore, they can be considered as a supplement or even a replacement for “traditional” fertilizers. There are a lot of green manure suitable for sowing them in the summer, they require minimal care: mowing the greenery will take the most time and effort from the gardener.
