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| I used the search engine and came up with some 3 year old posts. Instead of rejuvenate, I will start anew.
I'm looking for information for small scale systems. *Your personal experience
Thank you
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| I will start with cover crops. I currently prefer mostly daikon "tillage" radishes. They winter kill here in December and leave a soft cover during the winter. They till deeply like earthworms and enrich the soil with organic matter and up loaded minerals from down deeper and carry some nitrogen to the next crop. These need to be planted by Sept. 10th and best if planted by mid August as they can attain a larger size before winter kill. It is best to not seed too thickly so the individual plants can be robust...5 inches apart each way is good. If these radishes are planted in spring, they just quickly go to seed and do not develop their vaunted root system. I have planted some white mustard in very early spring. It makes a huge growth quickly so be prepared to cut it down early. I left some to bloom...the bees love it. I would not let it finish seeding. I have tried rye and wheat. Rye is a real bear to kill in the spring. I read about the Rodale Institute's experiences in roller crimp and plant in one operation. They sure had their troubles with that. Usually they did not get a good kill on the rye and had to herbicide it. This usually meant that the crop was planted late when often the temperatures are soaring and the soil is drying...and a bad stand results. I would suggest sacrificing a bit of growth and get started sooner. |
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| The Rodale Institute along with researchers from the USDA sustainable agriculture study group have been woking on methods of using cover crops as mulches for a long time. While some people apparently believe crimping those grain crops should be an end to all problems it has not been so, although crimping has been a help in many ways. It may depend on which Rye one grows but I never had a problem with the Cereal Rye I grew stopping growing when I knocked it down in the spring. Annual Ryegrass can be. Keep in mind that it was the USDA research people, not the Rodale Institute people, that sprayed the herbicides to control "weeds" not controlled by the mulch generated. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Cover crops as mulch
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