Green manure and green manure

• Green manure  - one of the whales, on which stands organic farming;
• Green manure  - These are plants that are not grown for food, but exclusively to increase soil fertility. Their green mass is embedded in the soil to increase the content of organic matter, used for composting and for the preparation of liquid fertilizer;
• Green manure  It is especially valuable in cases where for some reason it is not possible to stockpile manure in sufficient quantities.

History of Green Fertilizer

In the practice of agriculture, green fertilizer has been used since time immemorial. In Europe, this technique, borrowed from China, began to spread in the Mediterranean countries during the time of Ancient Greece. Here, it will be appropriate to quote the words of the Roman writer and scientist Pliny the Elder, who lived in 23-79 years of our era.

Pliny the Elder is the author of the 37-volume "Natural History", which is a comprehensive encyclopedia of all kinds of knowledge of the ancient world about nature. The largest section of this work, Volume 21, is devoted to the description of the plant kingdom. Regarding green fertilizer, Pliny says the following:

“Everyone agrees that there is nothing more useful than lupine if it is embedded in the soil with a plow or two-toed hoe before the formation of beans, or bunches of lupine cut at the soil surface are buried near the roots of fruit trees and vine bushes ... This is also a good fertilizer , like manure. ”

In the era of fascination with mineral fertilizers, from the middle of the last century to the present, green fertilizer has faded into the background and has not been used almost anywhere. Now, with the revival of organic farming, it is again gaining importance.

What is green manure

As green fertilizer  use legumes and non-legumes, and most often mixtures thereof. The plants are allowed to grow and develop the root system and green mass, and then they are either mowed or completely embedded in the soil. The mowed mass is either used on compost, or it covers the surface of the soil as mulch, or is embedded in the soil.

In the soil, the root system and leaf mass decompose, enriching it with organic matter and nitrogen. The source of nitrogen is the bean component of the mixture, which is able to absorb and accumulate atmospheric nitrogen in root nodules. After the death of the root system, organic substances containing nitrogen pass into the soil.

In this way, main purpose of green fertilizer  - enrich the soil with organic matter and nitrogen. Under the influence of microorganisms, plant residues decompose and turn into humus.

Following important action of green fertilizer  - improving the water and air regime of the soil due to the loosening and structuring effect on the soil of the root system of plants. In this regard, the leading role belongs to the cereal component of the mixture. Cereal plants have a widely branched, fibrous root system, which breaks the soil into small lumps. This action of green fertilizer is especially useful on heavy compacted soils, into which water penetrates poorly. Therefore, in crop rotation or crop rotation, which must be observed on garden plots, it is very important to allocate space for green fertilizer, so that the land is exposed to the structuring and healing effect of green fertilizer (once in several years).

On light soils, the positive effect of green manure  consists in increasing the water holding capacity due to the enrichment of their organic matter.

On heavy soils, cereals and legumes  with a deep root system, such as lupine, alfalfa, rye, barley, loosen the deep layers of the subsoil, and this is very important to facilitate the penetration of water into the soil and improve its water and air conditions.

A crop that is grown on green manure does not produce any produce per year of cultivation, but heals the soil for five to six years.

One of the basic rules of organic farming is to never leave the soil without vegetation. Green fertilizers that grow before, after, or between main crops create a dense leaf cover. It protects the soil from weathering and mineralization of organic matter, reduces the leaching of nutrients into the deeper layers and holds them in the upper fertile horizon. Such leaf cover plays the role of live mulch, which is especially important for light sandy soils suffering from leaching of nutrients from the upper horizon. Therefore, it is recommended, when possible, to sow green fertilizer on light soils in the fall and leave it for the winter, and in the spring to plant live or dead plants in the soil. Winter crops of green fertilizer are also especially recommended on soils subject to erosion (washout of the upper layer by rain and melt water).

Green fertilizer also plays an important sanitary role.  Firstly, it inhibits the growth of weeds, and in order for it to not become a weed, it is necessary to mow or close it before the formation of seeds. This applies to rapidly growing and abundantly seeded: plants such as rapeseed or mustard. Secondly, some types of green fertilizer help cleanse the soil from pests and diseases. For example, tight mustard sowing significantly reduces the amount of wireworm. Green manure provides a green mass that can be used as mulch or as composting material.

Special   green fertilizer is of great importance for the cultivation of developed areas.It helps restore soil fertility, destroyed by construction or other works, where machines and people completely destroyed or compacted the upper cultural layer.

Table 1 shows the comparative characteristics of different types of organic fertilizers in terms of their impact on soil properties. The effect of fertilizer is evaluated by a point system.

Table 1

Type of fertilizer	Subsoil cultivation	Structuring	Enrichment
			humus	nitrogen	Ca, Mg, trace elements
Manure	—	++	++	(++)	(++)
Straw	—	+	++
Green manure:
bean	+	+	++	++	—
non-leguminous	—	++	++	—	—
Clover-cereal mixtures	++	+++	++++	+++	(—)
Type of fertilizer	Weeds		Diseases and Pests
	suppression	stimulation	suppression		stimulation
Manure	—	+	+		(+)
Straw	—	+			+
Green manure:
bean	+	+	+		+
non-leguminous	+	+	+		+
Clover-cereal mixtures	++	++	+		+

From this table it can be seen that green fertilizer, especially cereal-bean mixtures, is not inferior to manure in its ability to enrich the soil with humus and nitrogen, but inferior in enrichment with some nutrients.

This is easy to explain: how much green manure has taken mineral elements from the soil, the same amount it returns after dying. Nitrogen and humus are an exception, as their number increases due to the ability of plants to use nitrogen and carbon from the air. Therefore, green fertilizer does not completely exclude the introduction of manure or compost enriched with potassium, calcium, phosphorus, etc., but it allows to reduce their dose.

The table reflects the possible negative effect of green fertilizer, which may occur due to errors in its use or choice of crops. An increase in weediness may result from late mowing of seeded plants, and an increase in disease may result from non-observance of crop rotation rules.

Methods of growing and using green fertilizer

In order to benefit from green manure and avoid the mistakes associated with its use, you need to have a good idea of \u200b\u200bwhat green manure is and how it works.

When planning to use green fertilizer, the gardener must keep several thoughts in mind at once: what kind of action he wants to receive, what crop in his conditions can give such an action, when it is better to sow and plant it in the soil, etc. The material in this section should help you navigate these issues.

In table 2 you can find information about the effect of various crops used as green fertilizer. It was said above that green fertilizer has several goals and has several purposes. One culture cannot satisfy all the demands at once. Therefore, it is important to determine what action is necessary in the first place, and then choose the appropriate culture or make up a mixture of cultures.

table 2

Assigning different types of crops to green manure (Probst G., 1982)

Effect	The culture
Nitrogen fixation from the air	All bean
Binding of nitrogen in the soil, preventing mineralization and leaching	All cabbage (cruciferous) and cereal
Erosion protection, weed control:
a) early sowing before the beginning of August	Fodder beans, clover, lupine, oil radish, annual ryegrass, spring rape, sunflower
b) late sowing until early September	Mustard, Phacelia
The formation of a large amount of organic matter during autumn sowing	Winter rape, winter wheat
The release of sparingly soluble phosphorus	Legumes, mustard
Reduced leaching of mineral elements	All cabbage (cruciferous), especially rapeseed and oil radish
Loosening of the lower layers of the soil with roots	Lupine, Broad Beans, Oilseed Radish, Mustard
Nematode suppression	All legumes, annual ryegrass, phacelia, sunflower
For late bees collecting honey	Phacelia, mustard, clover, sunflower, fodder beans

It should be clarified what is meant by the release of sparingly soluble phosphorus, mentioned in the table. Phosphorus is a part of soil minerals, but in a form difficult to access for plant nutrition. Plant roots secrete organic acids, which, interacting with soil minerals, transfer phosphorus to a soluble state.

Beans and mustard are especially active in this regard, as indicated in Table 2. In addition, some legumes and mustard absorb phosphorus from the deep layers of the subsoil with their deeply penetrating roots. Phosphorus accumulates in the aerial parts of these plants and in their root system.

After incorporation into the soil and decomposition of plant residues, the topsoil is enriched with the organic phosphorus compounds contained in them, which under the influence of microorganisms are transformed into a form accessible to plants. The crop following this green fertilizer grows on soil enriched with available phosphorus.

It should be borne in mind that the effect of green fertilizer is pretty much dependent on the age of the plants. Young and fresh plants are rich in nitrogen, they quickly decompose in the soil and quickly release nitrogen. And therefore, after planting young green plants, you can sow or transplant the main culture to this place in 3-4 weeks.

But at the same time, you need to know that if you plant too much raw plant mass in the soil, it will not decompose, but sour. And besides, a very large amount of nitrogen can have a negative effect on the main culture.

Practice has shown that planting too much green mass in the soil immediately before sowing almost always reduces the yield of the subsequent crop. Therefore, an excess of fresh green mass is best used for composting and mulching, and the rest is embedded in the soil.

Fresh plant debris almost always contains growth and germination inhibitors, and therefore, after incorporating them into the soil, it is necessary to wait some time for them to be digested by microorganisms. Young green plants enrich the soil with nitrogen, but less enrich it with humus, since they contain mainly rapidly decomposing organic substances.

At a more mature age, when the plants formed a hard stem, they decompose more slowly, since they contain hardly decomposable organic substances that are used to build soil humus, in other words, they increase the supply of stable organic matter of the soil, which forms the basis of its fertility.

But it should be borne in mind that mature plant tissues are rich in carbon and poor in nitrogen. The microorganisms that decompose them lack nitrogen for their vital functions, and they compensate for this deficiency by absorbing nitrogen from the soil, taking it away from plants.

Therefore, when planting mature plant mass shortly before sowing the main crop, nitrogen deficiency may occur in the soil, which will negatively affect the growth of the main crop, if you do not make a certain dose of nitrogen fertilizer.

With all these considerations in mind, it is recommended that the green fertilizer be repaired during the budding period before flowering, when the plants are still not very coarse. The time and depth of embedment is chosen so that the green mass quickly and easily decomposes.

Experience has shown that it is better to close green fertilizers shallow, since with deep incorporation they do not decompose, but turn into a peat-like mass. The embedment depth on light soils is 12-15 cm, on heavy soils - 6-8 cm.

Green fertilizers will give a good effect only if they grow well and develop a sufficient amount of green mass. Therefore, they require good soil preparation. In no case should not be sown in uncropped or coarsely excavated soil.

The soil should be well loosened; seeds close shallow, especially small. It goes without saying that the richer the soil and its better water-air regime, the better the green manure grows and the higher its effect.

Different types of green fertilizers are not the same in their requirements for growing conditions. Some are resistant to waterlogging, others are resistant to drought. Some require high soil fertility, while others grow well on poor soils. According to the conditions, it is necessary to choose the culture that is suitable.

Table 3 summarizes the soil requirements of the main crops used for green manure. The column “Removal of nutrients from the soil” describes the requirement for fertility: the higher the removal, the more demanding the culture.

Table 3

Features of various crops on green fertilizer and their soil requirements (Kant G., 1982)

* Removal of nutrients from the soil: weak +; medium ++; high +++;

** Development: slow x; quick xx; very fast xxx;

Root system	Plant species	Removal of nutrients from the soil *	Development Speed \u200b\u200b**	Preferred soil type - to	Preferred reaction from - to
Nitrogen fixers
Deep, 150-200 cm	Lupine blue	+++	XX	lungs - medium	very sour - neutral
	Lupine yellow	+++	X	lungs	sour
	Lupine White	+++	XXX	medium - heavy	acidic - slightly alkaline
	Donnik	++	X	any	slightly acidic - alkaline
Medium, 80-150 cm	Fodder beans	+	X	medium - heavy	slightly acidic - alkaline
	Vika sowing	++	X	light - heavy	slightly acidic - alkaline
	Peas	+	X	light - heavy	slightly acidic - alkaline
	Seradella	+++	XX	lungs	very acidic - alkaline
Shallow, 0-80 cm	Vika Shaggy	++	wintering	any	very acidic - alkaline
	Pea field	++	X	any	very acidic - alkaline
	Clover incarnate	++	wintering	any	very acidic - alkaline
	Hybrid clover	+	XX	any	very acidic - alkaline
Non-legumes
Deep, 150-200 cm	Sunflower	+	XXX	any	very acidic - alkaline
	Mustard	+	XXX	any	very acidic - alkaline
Medium, 80-150 cm	Buckwheat	+++	XXX	poor	acidic - neutral
	Rape	+	wintering	light - heavy	acidic - alkaline
	Surepitsa	+	wintering	light - heavy	acidic - slightly alkaline
	Oil radish	+	XX	light - heavy	acidic - slightly alkaline
	Phacelia	?	XXX	light - heavy	acidic - alkaline

When choosing a crop for green manure, it is also important to know how fast it grows, what is its productivity in terms of the ability to accumulate organic matter through photosynthesis, what nutrients it will enrich the soil. These data obtained in the conditions of central Russia are shown in table 4.

Table 4

Characterization of crops on green fertilizer (Tuzhilin V.M. et al., 1990)

* In the numerator - development indicators for the first year, in the denominator - for the second year.

Culture	Biomass accumulation, kg / ha			The period from sowing to the highest productivity, days	Accumulated in total biomass of nutrients, kg / ha
	Green mass	Root residues	total		N	P 2 O 5	K 2 O	Total
Lupine annual	526	80	606	80	231	63	209	503
Yellow clover	189/334*	41/172	228/506	90	104/230	38/72	155/310	298/612
White clover	183/420	50/120	233/540	90	113/251	46/96	142/299	301/646
Peas	219	85	304	80	117	71	215	403
Vika	257	54	311	90	160	73	201	434
Seradella	402	38	440	90	116	53	222	390
Oil radish	462	23	485	50	86	66	248	399
Surepitsa	343	101	444	55	135	55	241	432
Phacelia	317	26	343	60	78	52	196	327
Fodder beans	157	20	177	80	58	24	59	141

When working with green fertilizers, you also need to know which botanical family each crop belongs to. This is necessary in order to establish the correct alternation of cultures. Plants belonging to the same family are affected by the same pests and diseases. Therefore, you cannot place green fertilizer and the main crop belonging to the same family in a row.

For example, you must not sow mustard, rapeseed, oil radish, belonging to the cabbage family, on green fertilizer before planting all types of cabbage belonging to the same family.

To avoid such errors, reference table 5 is provided.

Table 5

The belonging of vegetable crops and species used for green fertilizer to the botanical families

Botanical family	Vegetable	Plant Species Recommended for Green Fertilizer in Garden Plots
Legumes (nitrogen storage)	Beans, Beans, Peas, Soy	Clover, spring and winter vetch, sowing and field peas, yellow lupine, white, blue, fodder beans
Cabbage (cruciferous)	Types of cabbage, leaf mustard, radish, radish, turnip, watercress, rutabaga	Mustard, oilseed radish, spring and winter rape, rape
Celery (umbrella)	Carrots, parsnips, parsley, celery, caraway seeds, dill, fennel	—
Asters (Asteraceae)	All kinds of salad, chicory	Sunflower
Swan (haze)	Spinach, beets, chard	—
Onion (lily)	All types of onions, garlic	—
Pumpkin	Cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, zucchini, zucchini, melon	—
Valerian	Valerian vegetable	—
Nightshade	Tomato, Potato, Pepper, Eggplant	—
Hydrophiles	—	Phacelia
Bluegrass	Corn	Rye, oats, wheat
Buckwheat	Rhubarb, sorrel	Buckwheat

Characterization of crops used for green manure

Beans are a rich source of nitrogen. Better than other legumes grow on heavy soils; well tolerate negative temperatures and therefore in areas with mild winters are suitable for winter sowing. Some plants die in the winter. In the spring, the aboveground part is mowed and used for compost. The roots and remains of dead plants are embedded in the soil. Beans can be grown in a mixture with vetch and field peas. The seed placement depth is 4-6 cm. Sowing in rows or randomly. The seeding rate of 22-30 g / m 2.

Vika winter, or shaggy, like all legumes, enriches the soil with nitrogen, organic matter. It is sown in the fall after harvesting the main crop. They are sown in rows or scattered to a depth of 1 cm mixed with some cereal component, which serves as a support for weak stems of a wiki (winter rye or wheat). First, the vetch is sown, and after a few days - rye. Vika is undemanding to soil, tolerates low freezing temperatures, drought and shading. In the northern and middle regions it is sown on July 1-20, in the southern - in August. In areas with mild winters, vetch is planted in the soil in early spring, and in case of danger of freezing out in severe winters - in late autumn. With spread sowing, the seeding rate is 7–9 g / m2. Vika is a good precursor for nitrogen-demanding crops.

Spring vetch is grown on green manure in areas with harsh winters, where winter vetch freezes. Often used in a mixture with oats or fodder beans. It is sown in early spring as a precursor to later crops, for example, late cabbage, and planted in the soil before flowering.

Spring vetch can also be sown in the second half of summer after harvesting early vegetable crops and planted in the soil until frost. Vika is a good food for goats and rabbits.

Field pea, dumpling - grows rapidly and develops a large green mass. Cold-resistant plant, recommended for northern areas mixed with vetch and oats. Enriches the soil with nitrogen and organic matter. When scattered sowing, the seeding rate of 15 g / m 2.

Mustard is a very popular plant and the most widespread as green fertilizer in household plots, especially in Germany. It enriches the soil with organic matter, phosphorus and sulfur (due to the fact that mustard roots transfer these substances from soil minerals to a water-soluble state).

Mustard sprouts quickly and quickly accumulates green mass. It can be sown at any time when the soil is free: before, after sowing and between major crops. The optimal growing time is 8-10 weeks, when it develops a large green mass and only begins to bloom.

But if you have a shorter period of time at your disposal, it is still advisable to sow mustard, which will not only give organic matter, but also prevent the leaching of nutrients from the soil, linking them in their roots. Mustard must not be seeded, otherwise it can turn into an annoying weed. If you mustard the mustard in the fall, then next year its organic mass will gradually decompose, releasing the nitrogen associated with it. Sowing mustard is a good remedy for wireworm.

Mustard requires fertile soil, and especially nitrogen fertilizer, since nitrogen itself does not fix from the air, like legumes. It does not tolerate drought. It cannot serve as a precursor for cabbage, as it is affected by diseases and pests alone. In case of scattered sowing, the sowing rate is 4 g / m 2, for protection against wireworms - 5-6 g / m 2.

Buckwheat - characterized by rapid growth. Enriches the soil with organic matter, phosphorus and potassium. It is especially recommended on heavy soils, as its deep branched root system significantly improves the soil structure.

Buckwheat is sown in spring (7 g / m 2), planted in the soil in late autumn. The aboveground part can be mowed and used on compost. It is mainly used for sowing in rows between fruit crops.

Clover to obtain the desired effect requires at least two years of cultivation, therefore, its use for the garden is limited. It can be used in rows between fruit crops. For this purpose, white, red (meadow) and incarnate clover are suitable.

White clover enriches the soil with nitrogen and potassium. It grows very quickly, is resistant to cold, but does not tolerate the acid reaction of the soil and therefore needs liming. Sowing - in the spring or in the summer; close up in the soil before flowering. When sown in August, termination is carried out in the spring. The seeding rate of 2.8 g / m 2. Embedment to a depth of 1-2 cm.

Red clover is suitable for areas with good moisture. Sowing in early summer, spring planting.

Incarnate clover is not resistant to freezing and can only be used in southern areas.

Lupins. On garden plots annual species are used: blue (narrow-leaved), yellow and white. Lupins are most prevalent in Germany, where they are called the "blessing of sandy soils." But they give a good effect on loams.

Lupins enrich the soil with organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus. It is assumed that microorganisms live on their roots, which can convert insoluble phosphates into an accessible form. Green fertilizer from lupine in nutritional value is approaching manure.

Plants are sown in late summer or late spring. They are sown in soil about 8 weeks after sowing, when flower buds appear before they become colored. Later, the stems become woody and slowly decompose.

Lupine is sown in an ordinary way to a depth of 2.5 cm. The distance between rows is from 15 to 30 cm, between plants - from 5 to 15 cm. Weaving is facilitated at large distances. In planting a lupine, you can plant corn, which remains after harvesting the lupine and receives rich nitrogen and phosphorus nutrition.

After lupine is embedded in the soil, the next culture is sown immediately. If the lupine is left to grow for a longer time, its aerial part is mowed and used for compost. Lupine is considered the best predecessor for wild strawberries.

Lupine blue has a higher growth rate and develops a deeper root system than other lupins, and is also more resistant to cold. It is most suitable for the northern regions, grows well on sandy loamy soils, and is not sensitive to acidity.

Of all the lupins, yellow lupine is the least demanding on the soil and not very sensitive to acidity, but does not tolerate the alkaline reaction of the soil, requires good moisture.

White lupine is most demanding on soil fertility and not very sensitive to acidity. Of all species, lupine gives the largest green mass.

All lupins require well-loosened and weed-free soil. With late sowing in July or August, plants are closed in the fall, and in areas with mild winters - in the spring.

Alfalfa is a perennial bean plant with a deep root system. It enriches the soil with organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus. Spring sowing is planted in the soil or mowed before flowering, until the stems are lignified.

The beveled mass is used for compost, and the roots decompose in the soil. Alfalfa grows best in the southern regions, where it gives up to five cuts per year. To the soil is not very demanding. In case of spread sowing, the seeding rate is 2.5-3 g / m 2.

Oats enrich the soil with organic matter and potassium. Usually used in a mixture with vetch or pea. Sowing in the spring, planting before flowering. The aboveground mass is mowed and buried in the soil.

Rapeseed, like mustard, is from the cabbage family. It enriches the soil with organic matter, phosphorus and sulfur. It is quite picky about soil conditions, grows poorly on poorly cultivated, humus-poor soils with an acid reaction. He does not like sandy and heavy moist soils.

The continuous sowing of rapeseed on rich, high-nitrogen soils contributes to the binding of nitrates and the reduction of their leaching into groundwater. Rapeseed has a deep and branched root system, which has a structural and loosening effect on the soil and subsoil.

For sowing small seeds of rapeseed, a well-loosened and leveled soil is required, the seeding rate of 2.8 g / m 2.

Spring rape is sown in July or August (southern regions) and is planted in the soil before flowering or mowed on compost. Winter rape can be sown in autumn and left for the winter as a soil protective coating. In severe winters, he dies.

Oilseed radish easily adapts to various climatic conditions and to any soil, so its cultivation does not present big problems. Thanks to the deep root system that extracts water from the deeper layers, it tolerates drought well.

It is used as a baking powder on compacted soils. Sowing is possible from early June to early September, and in the southern regions - until mid-September. The later the sowing, the higher the seeding rate: the average rate of 2 - 3 g / m 2. Oil radish can be sown in a mixture with spring vetch as its support. For 1 g of radish seeds - 6 g of vetch seeds (per 1 m 2).

Oil radish is growing rapidly, developing a large amount of root and leaf mass, which makes it possible to reduce the dose of organic and nitrogen fertilizer. Green mass close up in late autumn, chopped previously with a shovel. If the plants have grown and formed woody stems, it is better to use them on compost. Oil radish actively suppresses nematodes.

Winter rye is best suited for winter sowing. Close it in the spring, with a stalk height of about 60 cm before the start of their lignification. Young and tender plants quickly decompose and enrich the soil with organic matter, nitrogen and potassium. Coarser plants decompose more slowly and release nitrogen more slowly. Seeding rate of 9 g / m 2.

Rye is a very good plant for improving the physical properties of the soil, but its disadvantage is a strong drying effect on the soil. Therefore, its sowing in the rows of fruit trees can only be used in conditions of sufficient moisture, otherwise the fruit yield will be greatly reduced. Rye is also used in a mixture with vetch.

Sorepitsa - a plant from the cabbage family, has the advantage over rapeseed that it makes less demands on the soil and is adapted for later sowing - until mid-September. Root-vine grows well on both light and heavy structureless soils, so it can be used to cultivate new areas.

Spring rape can be sown early in the spring to the main crop, winter - in the fall and left until spring. The seeding rate of 1-2 g / m 2.

A hybrid of rape and Chinese cabbage, bred in Germany, is called perko. It is suitable for late sowing, gives a large mass of leaves, is frost-resistant. In autumn, it forms only a rosette of leaves without a stem, so it is easy to plant it in the soil.

Phacelia grows very quickly, forming a large green mass. Unpretentious, grown in a wide variety of conditions, on poor sandy or rocky soils. Phacelia is a good honey plant. If you sow it from spring to early June, it will bloom all summer and autumn. Blooms 6 weeks after sowing. The seeding rate of 8-10 g / m 2.

Phacelia is considered in Germany an ideal plant for gardeners. It belongs to the hydrophilic family and, therefore, can be the precursor of any vegetable culture. Its delicate leaves and stem quickly decompose and serve as a good nitrogen fertilizer. Phacelia is sown in rows or scattered.

Green fertilizer in the alternation of crops in the garden

At first glance, it might seem that it is difficult to find a place for green fertilizer on an intensively used small area of \u200b\u200ba garden plot. However, upon closer inspection you will find a ton of possibilities for sowing them.

If you recall the important rule of organic farming - never to leave the land uncovered by plants, you will see how often your beds are empty after harvesting the crops that occupied them.

The simplest form of green manure is a fast-growing crop that is sown before, after or in between vegetable crops.

In early spring plantings before planting the main crop, for example seedlings of tomatoes or cabbage, fast-growing plants are used: mustard, rapeseed, oil radish. About two weeks before the seedlings are planted, the green fertilizer is covered with a rake in the soil or mowed and used as mulch.

German gardeners offer to use a rather unusual culture - watercress as a green fertilizer. Its seeds germinate very quickly - in two to three days. Watercress can be sown early in the spring under a film on those beds where late vegetable crops are supposed to be planted in May. Two weeks before planting, young cress plants are raked into the soil.

There is another way to use watercress and mustard: they are not planted in the soil, but left to grow between rows, and only in those places where seedlings should be planted, plants of the watercress are pulled out, make depressions, make appropriate fertilizers in them and seedlings or seeds are planted. Pulled out plants mulch the soil around seedlings.

Among the plants of cress or mustard, you can grow kohlrabi, broccoli, sweet corn, cauliflower, chard, celery, tomatoes. Young plants grow well under the cover of cress or mustard. When cress becomes too high and interferes with the main culture, it is pulled out and used as mulch.

In winter, watercress dies and forms a winter mulch, which protects and loosens the soil. Snails are very fond of watercress, so they will eat it in the first place and will not touch the seedlings of vegetables.

More opportunities are presented by autumn sowing of green fertilizer after early crops.

If the crop is harvested early and 70–80 days remain until the end of the growing season, lupine, pea-oat mix, vetch-oat mix, phacelia, spring and winter rape, spring and winter rape, white mustard, oil radish, and pepper are used for green manure.

At a later harvest, when 50-60 days are left until the end of the growing season, fast-growing crops can be sown: spring rape, spring rape, perka, mustard, oil radish.

You can plant them in the soil in the autumn after frosts, but you can leave them to grow in the winter, when they, having died naturally by frost, cover the soil with a protective blanket. In spring, dead plants are planted in the soil, and they quickly decompose.

For autumn sowing, winter rye can also be used. It overwinters and grows in the spring. Rye suppresses weeds well and develops a large green mass. In the spring it is mowed and planted in the soil. This is a rather time-consuming operation and requires a three-week interval before sowing the next crop, which is necessary for the decomposition of the planted mass.

If the vegetable crop remains in the ground until late autumn, then you can do the following. Shortly before harvesting, loosen and water the soil and sow a cover crop between vegetable plants. By the time of harvesting, young plants will well develop and take root and form a kind of living mulch.

With sufficient moisture, green fertilizer can be sown directly in the aisles. For example, in Bulgaria it is recommended to grow barley, vetch, peas, beans and their mixtures between tomato plants between green plants.

Tomatoes generally respond well to green manure. There is evidence that they grow well on their own leftovers. In autumn, the tops of tomatoes can be chopped and planted in the soil in those beds where it is planned to grow tomatoes next year, that is, tomatoes for themselves can serve as green fertilizer.

Experiments in the Yaroslavl region showed that mustard is a good green fertilizer for onions. If at the beginning of August sowing mustard on the plot intended for next year for onions, and at the end of October to plant it in the soil, this contributes to the enrichment of the soil and increase its biological activity, and as a result, onion yield and its quality are significantly improved.

With regard to green fertilizer for potatoes, there are quite certain recommendations that are well applicable in field cultivation and difficult to implement in a garden plot.

Here you can only say that if you manage to introduce a cereal-bean mixture into the crop rotation, which grows all summer or the second half of summer after harvesting the early crop and is planted in the soil in the fall, then it is a very good precursor for potatoes.

In Germany, to suppress the nematodes that transmit the potato viral disease - glandular spotting of tubers, oilseed radish is sown and planted in the soil before planting potatoes. Oil radish more actively than other types of green fertilizer inhibits the spread of nematodes.

The above methods help to keep the soil in good condition and make up for the annual natural loss of organic matter through mineralization. If the soil requires more serious measures for its improvement, then this takes more time.

One of the possible ways is to introduce one plot into the crop rotation of the garden, which will be occupied by the crop that restores soil fertility throughout the season. This crop, every year moving to a new site, at the end of the crop rotation cycle will cover the entire area of \u200b\u200byour garden.

This site is treated as follows: in autumn or early spring, dig it up and make compost, level the surface with a rake and sow the vetch to a depth of 3-5 cm. Seeding rate of 17 g / m 2. After the emergence of seedlings, the wikis are cut.

Wet mowed mass is sprinkled with a mixture of bone and horn meal in a dose of 51 g / m 2 and left for a week. Faded greens are planted in the soil, the surface is leveled with a rake and sown rye at the rate of 13 g / m 2.

In late autumn, the rye is mowed and the soil is dug up, mixing together with green mass and roots. For winter, the plot is left roughly digged, in the spring they dig and plant potatoes. And it pays off with the crops of subsequent crops.

Another method aims to increase the nitrogen reserves in the soil. In the early spring, alfalfa or clover is sown, in combination with oats. Oats are growing faster. It is mowed when legumes are well rooted and left in the form of mulch. In addition to the fact that clover and alfalfa enrich the soil with nitrogen, they loosen the subsoil with their powerful deep roots and help improve drainage.

Clover and alfalfa give the best effect after two years of cultivation, but since this is rarely possible in a garden plot, one has to be content with what they can do in one year. This is also a lot.

If there is no possibility or desire to allocate a separate site for soil improvement, you should use a site with any early culture. You can also use the plot of strawberries in the fourth year. Immediately after harvesting the last crop, the plot is freed and a mixture of winter vetch and rye is sown.

They are left for the winter, and in early spring the green mass is planted in the soil. In 4-6 weeks, the plant residues decompose, and you can occupy the site of the main crop, best of all cabbage. If the next crop is root crops, then the green mass is mowed and used for compost.

The roots of the wiki remaining in the ground quickly decompose and enrich the soil with nitrogen, and the rye roots restore the soil structure and improve the soil. Thus, at each site once every five years, lost fertility will be restored.

Instead of vetch and rye, you can use other components of the cereal-bean mixture: narrow-leaved lupine, peas, fodder beans, and cereals - barley, oats, wheat. Plant mass can be planted not in spring but in autumn.

The positive effect of green fertilizer lasts up to five years. The maximum of this action is manifested in the second or third year, when the plant residues with the help of microorganisms will be completely converted into the form of humus.

Stefan Ogden believes that winter rye, which survives winter and is spring embedded in the soil as a green mass, requires too much time for decomposition and, therefore, postpones the time of spring sowing by 3-4 weeks. Therefore, he prefers to plant an annual cereal crop, such as an annual ryegrass, after harvesting vegetables. This type of cereal grows rapidly and manages to develop a large green mass before frosts. In the winter it dies away and quickly decomposes when it is embedded in the soil in the autumn. We will give from Ogden's book two examples of the use of green fertilizer in the alternation of crops in a garden plot. Please note that for the farmer, the year begins in the fall.

Example 1:

• First year. Autumn - making manure or compost, liming, sowing annual ryegrass. Summer is cabbage.
• Second year. Autumn - sowing clover between cabbage plants. Summer - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.
• Third year. Autumn - sowing ryegrass after harvesting the main crop. Summer is root crops.
• Fourth year. Autumn is buckwheat or ryegrass. Summer - peas and beans.

Example 2:

• First year. Autumn - making manure or compost, liming, sowing annual ryegrass. Summer is a green crop.
• Second year. Autumn - sowing clover. Summer - pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers.
• Third year. Autumn - sowing ryegrass. Summer - onions, garlic.
• Fourth year. Autumn - sowing clover. Summer - corn, potatoes.

This is only one of the possibilities corresponding to certain climatic and soil conditions. When planning green fertilizers, every gardener should proceed from the crops available to him and the specific conditions of his garden.

You only need to remember that legumes do not form nodules before flowering, and if they do not have time to bloom during early spring or autumn sowing, they will not give the desired increase in the nitrogen content in the soil. Sowing seeds on green fertilizer is usually scattered, and quite densely. Under this condition, green fertilizer will be able to perform another function - weed control.

Green fertilizer reduces the use of other fertilizers. In the Ogden examples, the main fertilizer application is done in the fall of the first year: 16 buckets per 10 m 2.

When planting seedlings of tomatoes and pumpkin crops, a handful of compost and bone meal (or phosphate) is added to each well.

Before sowing root crops, potassium-rich wood ash is introduced, since these crops love potassium.

Compost is added under the onion and garlic, covering them with a layer of 2-3 cm. Compost is also added to the furrows or holes under the potato compost

Green fertilizer under fruit trees

There is quite a lot of literature on the use of green fertilizer in industrial gardens. Some of the techniques offered there are also suitable for the garden plot.

In large gardens, green fertilizer is usually sown between rows. The usefulness of this technique seems to be no longer in doubt. It is proved that green fertilizer in the aisles significantly increases the yield of fruits. In garden plots, you can also occupy the area around fruit trees with green manure.

The question is whether truncal circles should be kept clean from plants and, if necessary, at what distance from the trunks.

So, the apple trees have a shallow root system, and when the barrels are closed, competition between the roots occurs, which especially negatively affects the yield with insufficient moisture. If the trunks are left clean from plants, sodding of the surrounding area favorably affects the crop.

Mulching

It’s often taken by our gardeners after harvesting to dig beds, remove all weeds, smooth the surface with a rake and leave everything in this form until the next spring. “Let the earth rest,” they say. Organic gardeners look at this matter differently.

Magda-Helena Schroeder, a German gardener from Germany, very well expressed their point of view: “When I go by train or in a car and see the sides of the road, carefully cleaned and dug up gardens where the bare surface of the earth is open to all the vicissitudes of the weather: frost, winds, rains, strong solar radiation - an ancient instinct awakens in me. I feel like a mother who sees how a sleeping child is all revealed in a dream, throwing off a blanket. I want to stop, go out and lovingly cover this land. "I want to spread my duvet on this earth - mulch!"

For those who do not know this word, we explain: mulch is any degradable organic material covering the surface of the soil.

When the soil surface is open, the topmost, most important for plant nutrition and the most fertile layer is in very adverse conditions. Rains wash away nutrients from it, it either dries up or freezes, living organisms go deep into it, intensive humus mineralization takes place in it. In general, uncovered soil is gradually losing its fertility.

What happens when mulching? Under a thick layer of mulch in a humid warm atmosphere, various soil organisms are teeming, for which mulch also serves as nutrition. Under their action, it gradually decomposes, enriching the soil with humus. So compare: bare soil - mineralization and loss of humus and nutrients; mulch soil - enrichment with humus.

Plants also benefit from mulch, as it retains moisture in the soil and inhibits weed growth. In order for the mulch to fulfill its purpose, its layer must have a thickness of at least 5-8 cm. A layer of mulch with a thickness of 15 cm almost completely suppresses the growth of weeds and eliminates the need for weeding.

Under a layer of mulch, excellent conditions are created for feeding and breeding earthworms. It prevents the formation of soil crust after rain and, therefore, reduces the need for frequent loosening.

Magda-Helena Schroeder advises keeping the whole garden under mulch all year round. She calls it "total mulching." But to this we must make a reservation that warns against hobby for mulching in some conditions.

On heavy, clay and moist soils, a thick layer of mulch can have a negative effect on plant growth. In the spring, beds covered with thick mulch warm up slowly. This is especially bad with a long cold spring. Therefore, in early spring it is better to remove the mulch from the beds so that they are well warmed up in the sun before sowing.

In hot, dry weather, you can cover the aisles with mowed grass mulch to preserve moisture. Aisles can also be mulched with compost, foliage. In humid, cold weather, it is not worth mulching the aisles, as slugs accumulate under the mulch and the danger of fungal diseases increases.

In all cases, the mulch should be located at some distance from the stem or trunk of the plant, leaving a free and well-ventilated space around them.

Materials for mulching are divided into two categories: more coarse and less coarse.The rough mulch is straw, hay, shavings, ferns, fallen leaves, peat. Straw is very good for mulching strawberries, it suppresses weeds and serves as a good bedding for berries. Strawberry's addiction to straw mulch was expressed in its English name, which in exact translation means “straw berry”. Strawberries are also recommended to mulch with needles of pine or spruce, which well affect its taste.

The beds are covered with a thick layer of rough mulch to protect against freezing of bulbous plants planted in the winter. For mulching under winter, rhubarb is recommended to use fallen tree foliage.

The rhubarb bed is fenced with a wire mesh about 30 cm high and in the autumn is filled with densely packed foliage. When young shoots appear on the surface in spring, leaves are removed and delicate light stems are collected, which have a pleasant aroma and tastier than those grown under cover from a bucket or box.

Tree leaves mulch for the winter the earth around berry bushes and raspberries, as well as near-stem circles of fruit trees. To do this, enclose an area of \u200b\u200bup to 4 m 2 near the tree with a net and fill it with fallen leaves, but not close to the trunk, but at a distance of about 50 cm, so that a ring with an empty center forms around the tree. The outer border of the ring coincides with the border of the crown.

Leaves can be left for three years, they represent a good surface top dressing. Since pathogens of diseases of these crops can remain on the leaves of fruit and berry crops, it is recommended to use foliage of other crops under trees or shrubs of some crops.

Shavings and sawdust contain a lot of tannins, so they are first composted and used only in a well-rotated condition.

It may seem rather unusual to use cardboard for mulching. Often used cardboard boxes are thrown away from us, not knowing that they can be used in the garden. It is good to line the tracks with cardboard. Covered with a layer of straw or sand, it inhibits weed growth very well.

Mulch from fresh plants, such as mowed grass, can simultaneously serve as a good top dressing. Fine material for mulching gives alfalfa. Experiments have shown that the application of relatively small amounts of freshly cut alfalfa mass to the soil increases the yield of many crops. If it is evenly scattered and lightly embedded in the soil, it will improve the soil structure and increase the nitrogen content.

Alfalfa mulch is especially effective at low nitrogen levels in the soil. A layer of alfalfa mulch with a thickness of 7-8 cm delays rainwater, inhibits weed growth, keeps the soil moist, loose and cool and enriches with nitrogen.
  Alfalfa can be grown on the lawn or in a well-drained, well-drained sunny area with a neutral soil reaction. The soil must be fertilized with phosphorus and potassium. Alfalfa is a perennial plant and can grow in one place from three to five years. When it begins to degenerate, sowing alfalfa is transferred to another place.

English gardeners prefer to use comfrey for mulching, which is their favorite green fertilizer. The green mass of comfrey is very rich in nitrogen and potassium.

Nutrient concentrates in the leaves of comfrey, but they are poor in those biodegradable organic substances (hemicellulose and lignin) that serve as a source of soil humus. Therefore, it is not suitable for enriching the soil with organic matter, but is used mainly as potash fertilizer. The balance of minerals in comfrey is ideal for fertilizing potatoes.

Comfrey, like alfalfa, is grown on a separate bed. When the plants reach a height of 45 cm, they are mowed and this first mowing is used to fertilize early potatoes. To do this, comfrey plants are lined with trenches intended for planting potatoes, whose depth is 30 cm, width 20 cm, tubers are laid out on top and covered with soil.
  Comfrey gives 4-5 slopes over the summer. The following cuttings are used as potassium-rich mulch for vegetable crops and for preparing liquid fertilizer.

To mulch the surface of the soil, you can use the mowed mass of any green fertilizer, which for any reason cannot be embedded in the soil.

English gardeners use nettles to mulch. Young nettle plants are laid out along rows of vegetables to scare away slugs and snails. In addition, they believe that nettle has a beneficial effect on the growth of vegetable plants.
  Remember what organic gardeners say: he who does not respect mulch does not know the price of humus.

Liquid green fertilizer

In organic farming, liquid fertilizers are made mainly from plants, manure and compost. They contain nutrients in the form of soluble organic compounds.

If you see that your plants are developing poorly and they are obviously missing something, and especially if there are characteristic signs of a nutrient deficiency - pale color, yellowing or reddening of the leaves - you need to urgently correct the situation and this is easiest done with liquid fertilizers .

Liquid fertilizers are also used in the period most responsible for the future crop, when it is necessary to obtain fast and abundant growth, or when the fruits are ripening and filling.

Some gardeners believe that watering the most demanding crops, such as cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, should never be done with clean water, but only with a weak solution of liquid fertilizer. It is enough to do such feeding every 10-14 days.

Liquid fertilizers can be used for irrigation under the root, and for spraying leaves as foliar top dressing. Foliar top dressing quickly eliminates the lack of nitrogen or potassium. It works faster than fertilizer applied to the soil.

With intensive cultivation and very dense plantings, spraying leaves is often the only way to fertilize plants. Spraying the leaves is carried out every 2-3 weeks, using a 2 times weaker solution than when processing the soil.

German gardeners have a favorite liquid fertilizer - a fermented infusion of nettles. For its preparation, fresh nettle is used, which is collected in spring and summer until seed formation. Dry nettle can also be used. Fertilizer is made in a wooden, plastic or clay container. Metal dishes are not recommended, as nettle infusion can react with metal. The vessel is filled with finely chopped nettles and poured with water, preferably rain or well-settled, warmed up in the sun.

It is not filled to the very top, since during fermentation the volume of liquid will increase, and then cover with a net so that small animals do not get into it. At least once a day, the mass must be vigorously mixed. When decomposed, it acquires a strong unpleasant odor, the intensity of which can be reduced by throwing a handful of crushed rock from above (a handful of dust can be added) or by adding a little extra extract of valerian leaves.

When the infusion becomes dark in color and stops foaming, this means that the fermentation is over. Usually, one and a half to two weeks is enough for this. In the sun, the fermentation process is accelerated. After that, the vessel can be closed with a lid with openings for air access.

For irrigation under the root, use an un-filtered infusion diluted 10 times (9 parts water to 1 part infusion); to spray the leaves, the infusion is filtered and diluted 20 times (19 parts of water per 1 part of the infusion). Bred immediately before use.

Nettle infusion is an excellent liquid fertilizer for garden crops. It has a healing effect on plants, stimulates the growth and formation of chlorophyll. Earth watered with nettle infusion is loved by earthworms. Most vegetable crops, flowers, and fruit crops respond well to this fertilizer; the exception is peas, beans, onions, garlic.

In England, they prefer to use liquid fertilizer from comfrey, which is especially recommended for crops that require a lot of potassium and a little nitrogen (tomatoes, cucumbers, beans). Comfrey surpasses manure in potassium content and slightly lags behind in phosphorus content.

To prepare comfrey infusion, 800 g of freshly chopped plants are poured into 10 liters of water and left for 4 weeks. Use the same way as nettle infusion. Comfrey fertilizer is suitable for all crops and is especially useful when there are signs of potassium deficiency.

Spraying leaves with comfrey infusion quickly removes signs of potassium deficiency: yellowing of leaves along the edges and the appearance of brown spots. In comfrey infusion, the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is 3: 1: 7.

To feed tomatoes, you can make infusions from shoots of tomatoes. The same infusions are made from a mixture of different plants. Nettle is mixed with comfrey and various weeds: tansy, shepherd’s bag, chamomile, snapdragons, horsetail. The shepherd’s bag is especially rich in trace elements. To enrich liquid fertilizers, aromatic herbs, onions, garlic, bird droppings, bone meal, wood ash are added to the mixture in small quantities.

A fine, well-balanced nutrient content can be prepared as follows: several scoops of manure or compost are placed in a hemp bag. There also add a few tablespoons of phosphorite, wood ash, chopped alfalfa, blood and bone meal and other materials that you consider necessary to add. The bag is tightly tied and immersed in a bucket of water, the bucket is covered with a lid. The liquid is stirred every two days so that the water penetrates into the bag and removes nutrients from it.

After one to two weeks, the extract is a dark brown liquid suitable for watering adults and young plants. It does not burn leaves, so it can be used without dilution or to any desired degree of dilution.
  All diseased and lignified parts of plants should be burned and ash should be used as a source of potassium.

As a liquid fertilizer, you can use infusion of compost, manure or bird droppings. To do this, fill the tank 1/8 - 1/4 of the volume with compost or manure and fill it with water. Different authors call a different ratio of the starting material and water; some people think this is not a big deal.

The infusion is kept for 1-2 days, periodically mixing, and as a result, a dark-colored liquid is obtained. For watering, it is bred to a light brown color (weak tea). The diluted infusion from compost is very useful for watering seedlings, which take root more quickly, receiving readily available nutrition for their still weak roots.

Soaking the seeds in the compost infusion improves their germination and accelerates the initial growth.

Another fairly clever way was invented for plant nutrition. They take an old bucket, iron or plastic, punch a lot of holes in the side walls with a nail and dig the bucket into the ground so that the top edge is at the level of the soil surface.

A bucket is filled with compost and around this or that vegetable is planted, for example, tomatoes or cucumbers. At the next watering, all the water is poured into a compost bucket, and it, seeping through a layer of compost and holes in the side walls, enters the plants enriched with nutrients that it removed from the compost.

Organic fertilizer  production

In order to improve the chemical and physical properties of the soil, increase its fertility, resort to the help of phytomelioration.

Thanks to the use of phytomeliorant plants, the soil can be cleaned of diseases and pests, reduce the number of weeds, reduce pollution, etc.

Phytomeliorants include plants - siderates and concentrator plants.

Siderata is grown as a green fertilizer. This is one of the most effective ways to restore soil fertility.

As green fertilizer, legumes and other plants or mixtures thereof are used. Legumes enrich the soil with nitrogen. The most commonly used green fertilizers are fodder peas, fodder beans, narrow-leaved lupins, beans, fatselia, seradella, vetch, clover, yellow and white melilot.

Green fertilizer can heal the soil. In this regard, plants of the Cruciferous family are most suitable - radish, canola, mustard, rape. They inhibit the growth of weeds due to their rapid development. In addition, pests such as wireworms do not like mustard, and marigolds and spring rape can destroy several types of nematodes.

The planting of cruciferous plants also prevents the mineral elements from being washed out of the soil, and mustard helps plants to obtain sparingly soluble phosphates.

If the soil is light, then phytomeliorants will increase its moisture capacity, and on heavy soil they will improve the water regime.

Hub plants absorb large amounts of certain elements, i.e. are phytoremedians. They are planted in order to clear the soil of heavy metals. If you use these plants every year, the level of heavy elements in the soil will decrease significantly.

➣ Legumes are able to accumulate 6 times more radioactive elements than cereals.

To cleanse the soil of radioactive elements, it is necessary to plant barley, alfalfa, mustard, sunflower, dwarf or fluffy birch.

Plants that go to green manure are ground and then planted in the soil. They add it during budding and at the beginning of flowering, because it is at this time that a large number of biologically active substances are present in them. On light soils, plants are planted to a depth of 12-15 cm, on heavy soils - by 6-8 cm.

“Green manure” refers to siderata plants that are temporarily grown in open, unoccupied areas of soil or as an adjacent crop. The functions of green manure are improving the soil structure, preventing leaching and weathering of useful substances from it, suppressing weed growth, and enriching the soil with nitrogen. The process of sowing, growing and preserving "green fertilizer" in the soil is called green manure.

One important rule organic farming  - must not remain unused and open. Long-term (for weeks or longer) exposed areas of the soil are subject to significant structural deterioration and depletion. The aimlessly left open ground in the garden hardens over time, sticks together and becomes covered with a dense crust, through which moisture hardly penetrates deep. Organic composition is deteriorating, nutrients are washed out and weathered. With a complete lack of control and competition, a massive dominance of weeds begins, which also use nutrients from the soil, without giving it anything in return. Subsequently, work is being added to the gardener, since now it will take several weeds, digging and fertilizing to make the site again suitable for use. Obviously, it was better to initially take care that the soil did not remain open.

Here sideration comes to the aid of a gardener - a technology known to farmers from ancient times. By the results of their impact on the soil, green manure crops can compete with manure, which is why they are simply irreplaceable for those farmers who basically do not want to use livestock waste to fertilize vegetables and fruits.

How siderates work

Sideral crops develop dense, rapidly closing leaves that inhibit weed growth. Some of them (for example, rye) have an interesting feature of delaying the germination of other seeds and, thus, suspend the process of emergence of new weeds for several weeks. Siderats have a well-developed and highly branched root system, which helps to improve the structure and water permeability of the soil: penetrating deep inside, it loosens and enriches heavy clay soils with air and maintains light, sandy soil from decay. Developed roots also help deliver nutrients from the deeper layers of the soil up, closer to the roots of edible or ornamental crops, between which "green manure" is grown. Siderates have the peculiarity of enhancing the action of other fertilizers and accelerating microbiological processes in the soil.

Siderata, planted among vegetable crops, partly take the blow of garden pests, and partly discourages them from planting, simply confusing. At the same time, bright and full of nectar flowers of most sideral crops - magnificent melliferous plants - are able to attract bees and bumblebees to the plantings, which simultaneously pollinate fruits and vegetables growing in the neighborhood. The most effective "green fertilizer" are considered to be plants from the legume family. Special bacteria that live in their root growths have the ability to accumulate nitrogen, which they receive directly from the air and lay in the soil.

Where and when is green fertilizer applied:

• Between other edible or ornamental plants, in voids
• As an adjacent precocious crop among long-ripening ones (for example, parsnip, root celery, leek, etc.).
• Between Harvesting and New Planting
• In the off-season, in late summer or autumn before winter
• For resting the soil from intensive use for the whole year

Sidereal crop selection

The choice of a particular crop for sowing as a "green fertilizer" depends on factors such as the composition and structure of the soil in your garden, for how long do you plan to use green manure, etc. If you use rotation (alternation) of vegetable crops, then each season is nearby sow siderates from the same family with vegetables. Thus, the "green fertilizer" will partially take on the possible attacks of harmful microorganisms and insects that infect this family, and rid them of your vegetables. The selection of suitable green manure crops also depends on whether there is currently a need to enrich the soil with nitrogen. The table below gives more detailed information about the various siderates and their features.

Sidereal culture	Preferred soil type	Nitrogen Conservation	Vegetation cycle / sowing time
Alfalfa blue (Medicago sativa)	In addition to acidic and wet	Yes	From year
Hop-alfalfa (Medicago lupilina)	In addition to sour	Yes	From 3 months
Horse beans (Vicia faba)	Heavy	Yes	Under the winter
Vika, peas (Vicia sativa)	In addition to acidic and dry	Yes	2-3 months
Meat red clover (Trifolium incarnatum)	Lungs	Yes	2-3 months., under the winter
Meadow clover (Trifolium pratense)	Rich loam	Yes	3-18 months
Hay Fenugreek, Greek Hay (Trigonella foenum-graecum)	Waterproof	Yes	2-3 months
Lupine narrow-leaved and other species (Lupinus angustifolius)	Light sour wet	Yes	2-4 months
White clover (Melilotus albus)	Any, including poor	Not	Under the winter
Sainfoin sand (Onobrychis arenaria)	Any, including poor	Yes	From year
China sowing (Lathyrus sativus)		Yes	2-4 months
Horned lamb * (Lotus corniculatus)	Any	Yes	From year
Seradella sowing (Ornythopus sativus)	Any wet	Yes	2-4 months
Edible buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)	Any, including poor	Not	1-3 months
Phacelia tansy (Phacelia tanacetifolia)	Any	Not	1-3 months
Sowing rye ** (Secale cereale)	Any	Not	Under the winter
White mustard (Sinapis alba)	Any, including poor	Not	1-2 months
Comfrey (Symphytum)	Any	Not	From year
Oil radish (Raphanus sativus)	Heavy clay	Not	2-3 months
Rape (Brassica napus)	Heavy clay	Not	Under the winter

* Only n and empty land

** Only after germination of the main culture

Recently, very decorative cultivars of clover meadow and meat red have appeared, which, in addition to being useful as siderat, will serve as an excellent decoration of the garden. With a modern garden fashion for modest meadow, field and forest plants, decorative clovers fit perfectly into the natural design.

Using Green Fertilizer

When you are ready to use an empty piece of land again, slightly dig or till the soil together with green manure to a depth of 15 cm. The "green manure" is crushed a little and will remain in the soil or on its surface. Decomposing faster than conventional crops, green manure serves as an additional source of humus, fertilizer, moisture and a baking powder for the soil.

If you grow vegetables on elevated ridges without digging, just cut or tear the siderats and leave them here, covering with another layer of mulch.

The efficiency of using sideral crops can be further increased. In areas where “green manure” has to spend several months or even a year, do a few haircuts. Siderata will quickly grow back, and you will have in your hands an excellent natural fertilizer that can be buried in the soil or spread on the surface elsewhere, or added to garden compost. The role of green manure crops in compost cannot be overestimated: because of the high nitrogen content they are accelerators of the composting process, increase the content of nutrients and improve the structure of the finished compost.

The use of "green fertilizer" is an excellent natural, ecological method for improving soil quality and increasing the yield of any crops at a low cost and relatively low labor costs. A valuable tool in the arsenal of an organic gardener!

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