Amount of fertilizer

[Allen H]

Legumes and small grains and some root crops.

Legumes... I think @Heirloom farmer1969 from your area uses a lot of white clover. It is really good. Crimson is also good and adds some color. Vetch and Austrian peas are two of my favorites along with alfalfa for cool season/winter.

Small grains...winter rye, Elbon rye, oats, buckwheat, wheat etc. are all good soil builders for cool season/winter.

Root crops...daikon radish is amazing sending roots way down and pulling up nutrients. Turnips are also great.

Here's where my spring potato and tomato crop is going to grow in this space which has all of the above.


View attachment 101744

Thank you and I'll give it a try. It can only get better from what I've had in the past.

 

[redback]

Here's where my spring potato and tomato crop is going to grow in this space which has all of the above.

Brilliant - great photo - even better green manure crop.

 

[redback]

Two weeks after applying one layer of compost I have applied a second layer of compost building up the top dressing to 2-3" in depth. This forms an understory like the Fall leaf mulch of the northern hemisphere deciduous forests. It keeps the beans and corn vertical and provides a passageway for the compost creatures (slaters, earwigs, centipedes and various cockroaches and beetles). The ground is kept cool and damp. This corn is a very late planting and will only have March to mature and fruit - dicey.

 

[redback]

2 weeks after liquid fertilizing the corn crop is growing as fast as the sun can make it. Although it looks like a monoculture it is small and varied. That variety is its fertility according to the soil scientist Dr, Christine Jones. I'm beginning to believe her.

Growing with the corn are amaranth, sunflowers, marigold and beans. It's like a marketplace both above and below ground. The more stalls in the market the more people come. The more people come the more other stalls open and so on.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I thought sunflowers inhibited other plants/?

 

[redback]

I thought sunflowers inhibited other plants/?

I'm tempted to say nothing inhibits anything - the marketplace principal. Even if you don't like some people at the market, you come anyway because there are many there who you do like.

 

[Meadowlark]

I thought sunflowers inhibited other plants/?

I've read that...and like a lot of things I've read have not found the inhibition to be significant enough, if at all, to impact use.

A mixture of volunteer sun flowers with Sunn Hemp cover provides outstanding weed control and nitrogen building.

 

[redback]

Almost the end of March and the mornings are getting cold again. The tassels and silks have formed on the late corn, but they need one or two more weeks of sun to ripen.

 

[Steve @ Celtic Farm]

To boost nitrogen and phosphorus in your 1000 sq/ft garden:

• For Nitrogen - Apply blood meal at a rate of 10-20 lbs per 1,000 sq/ft.
• For Phosphorus - Use bone meal at about 10 lbs per 1,000 sq/ft.

To lower soil pH (which is above 7.5):

• Use sulfur; application rate depends on soil type. For sandy soil, use 1 lb per 100 sq/ft, for loamy soil, 1.5-2 lbs per 100 sq/ft, and for clay soil, 2-3 lbs per 100 sq/ft.
• These amendments should be worked into the top 6 inches of soil.
• Retest soil pH after a few months to adjust as necessary.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Wood ash from my stove supplies phosphorus and reduces acidity, and I cycle round my beans and leave the roots in the soil to help nitrogen. Not to say I don't use some fertiliser, but I couldn't afford those quantities.

 

[redback]

Wood ash from my stove supplies phosphorus and reduces acidity, and I cycle round my beans and leave the roots in the soil to help nitrogen. Not to say I don't use some fertiliser, but I couldn't afford those quantities.

What time of night did you write that. Quotes from old textbooks don't hack it anymore. I do think hoeing and free fertilizer are best. I'm tripling the size of my chook run (chicken free range pasture) to maximize their usage as weeders, fertilizers and composters.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Thank you and I'll give it a try. It can only get better from what I've had in the past.

I like to sow white clover and alafia in the area that I'm going to plant corn the following spring . It puts tons of nitrogen in the ground which corn loves . The rest of my ground ill sow a winter rye along with some turnips, kale , and rape.
I live in the eastern part of Kentucky and have no problem getting all the chicken manure I need. I'm sure you have neighbors that would be glad to give you all you need to get their stalls cleaned out . It can be a dirty job but to a gardener well worth the mess.
I learned the hard way that green chicken manure packs a punch so make sure it's aged good before using .

 

[redback]

Almost the end of March and the mornings are getting cold again. The tassels and silks have formed on the late corn, but they need one or two more weeks of sun to ripen.

The cobs are finally ripening. They have taken six weeks. I'll plant in Spring next year - not in late summer.