IIRC there are a few types of clover that replenish nitrogen.
You can also kill clover by fertilizing with nitrogen rich ferts.
You can also kill clover by fertilizing with nitrogen rich ferts.
Cover crops of alfalfa
- Thread starter bushwhackxj
- Start date
thanks for the advice on how to get rid of the clover. I have 2 varieties of clover seeds so far to spread, but was kinda worried that they would take over. Cheers
Watch: Pete's Patch 
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/video_index_May2008.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/video_index_May2008.htm
WOW, that guy has more anergy than the average soccer team but together. thanks for the vid. seems he just uses a mixture of everything to get as much oraganic matter as possible
Not sure about up in the Great White north where you are but here nitrogen deficiency is rare.
Here in Fl its not uncommon...
i dont think that a deficiency is too big of a problem for most here, but i'll be growing in some fairly sandy stuff here this year.... and the main objective for me is to add as much green waste into/on this soil in the next few years, and build good soil ontop. so its not necessarily to amend for a deficiency... im starting from scratch and basically want to build a massive layer of good nitrogen rich compost/mulch, and continue the process as a "no till" garden.
ive been doing a lot of reading about, green manure... no till gardening, and regular cover cropping. And im finding it quite interesting. Masanobu Fukouka, had some good ideas....although totally different climates as well. But theres lots of great info out there, and im liking the ideas as long as i can maintain the process.
i hope we can all learn a little here. Ill be keeping track of how this progresses this year
if you can understand her, this women seems to know her stuff... from a much more scientific view... heres some green mulch/no till/cover crop info from youtube... check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa9yMjsSQC0
For cover crops, aka Green Manures this is what I Would suggest:
Especially if you have a shorter growing season, buckwheat is the way to go. It also is not difficult to mow down/till (at least if you have power tools)
Clover is not bad, neither are any sort of bean crops.
If you want to get some use from your plot, go to beans, either dry or fresh beans/peas. They will do the same things, and give you something to eat, either fresh or dry.
Alfalfa ...
Well When I lived on the farm it as a perennial that gave 4 years or so of solid preformance, and even with farm implements was difficult to eradicate completely. Something you wanted for a forage production crop, not something that you wanted for a home garden. I would stay clear away from it. In addition it is a slower developing crop, where beans/buckwheat/clovers/peas can be expected to "harvest" the first year of planting, alfalfa was not expected to be fully ready till the following year.
What I have done and my father has done very successfully was tilling the soil, then planting buckwheat right away. Let the buckwheat get to the point of nearly dieing back, mow it down and till it all under. this was accomplished in august after a later spring sow.
The green material would then have some additional time to decompose that year and the next spring the soil was ready to go with the typical addition of some compost.
Especially if you have a shorter growing season, buckwheat is the way to go. It also is not difficult to mow down/till (at least if you have power tools)
Clover is not bad, neither are any sort of bean crops.
If you want to get some use from your plot, go to beans, either dry or fresh beans/peas. They will do the same things, and give you something to eat, either fresh or dry.
Alfalfa ...
Well When I lived on the farm it as a perennial that gave 4 years or so of solid preformance, and even with farm implements was difficult to eradicate completely. Something you wanted for a forage production crop, not something that you wanted for a home garden. I would stay clear away from it. In addition it is a slower developing crop, where beans/buckwheat/clovers/peas can be expected to "harvest" the first year of planting, alfalfa was not expected to be fully ready till the following year.
What I have done and my father has done very successfully was tilling the soil, then planting buckwheat right away. Let the buckwheat get to the point of nearly dieing back, mow it down and till it all under. this was accomplished in august after a later spring sow.
The green material would then have some additional time to decompose that year and the next spring the soil was ready to go with the typical addition of some compost.
Not quite true potawie lucerne also naturally contains Triacontanol Acid which is a natural plant growth promotant (which is now added to many fertilisers as a stand alone promotant )
thx obsidian. i have actually removed alfalfa from the list of cover crop seeds i have. You arent the first one to show some disadvantages... and i cant seem to find an available variety that would still be easily used. So ive crossed alfalfa off the list, and its nice to here i made an ok choice.
I planted out my cover crops in between all the rows yesterday as its supposed to be rainy for a while. The list included Hairy Vetch, White dutch Clover, Crimson Clover, pea/bean mixture, and some marigold.... we'll see how this mix does, and hopefully i can keep the weeds sort of under control until some of this gets establiched.