Nutrient density

[Meadowlark]

You don't have to have 16 different grasses to gain self-fertility. I have hay fields that have not been fertilized for over three decades. They have native plants and seeded Bahia and Bermuda grasses. I cut them once each year and the remainder of the time the fields are "idle" and never grazed. My cows stay fat all winter on these hay crops.

The sun and rains combine to provide all the nutrients these grasses need each year to produce bountiful hay crops. There's probably a new scientific name for this practice also, LOL.

p.s. my fields average about 8,000 pounds of organic matter per acre (otherwise known as hay) with absolutely nothing added but rain and sunshine.

 

[redback]

You don't have to have 16 different grasses to gain self-fertility. I have hay fields that have not been fertilized for over three decades. They have native plants and seeded Bahia and Bermuda grasses. I cut them once each year and the remainder of the time the fields are "idle" and never grazed. My cows stay fat all winter on these hay crops.

The sun and rains combine to provide all the nutrients these grasses need each year to produce bountiful hay crops. There's probably a new scientific name for this practice also, LOL.

p.s. my fields average about 8,000 pounds of organic matter per acre (otherwise known as hay) with absolutely nothing added but rain and sunshine.

Let's call this new practice 'Wow" LOL. Possibly the 16 different grasses principle applies to stopping desertification.

 

[redback]

I have attached a photo for the first time. Broccoli untouched by pests and the yellow looking plants are blanched celery. All the weeds are stinging nettle because the hens have been grazing this pen before I planted.

 

[redback]

Those who say weeds rob the plants of water and nutrient - please close your eyes. This pea is very fragile on its own but positively thrives when its weak stem is supported by weeds.

 

[Lamia]

I like the sound of your garden meadowlark. Mine is similar with a new emphasis on allowing weeds to flourish as 'companions'. This should allow the soil life to flourish. I haven't done any soil testing apart from the taste test you mention. I was interested in the Brix testing meter than Dr. Christine Jones uses. I am hopinfgto get one somehow.

There's nothing that gives me more joy than to prove traditional wisdom lacking. I also love finding the positives in leaving (weeds) in garden. I was just thinking about how weeds treated as vegetables in garden where they are not stressed, adequate moisture, nutrients, soil that's not compacted actually taste just as good if not better than commercially grown vegetables, with the added benefit of have much higher nutrient density.

 

[Meadowlark]

There's nothing that gives me more joy than to prove traditional wisdom lacking.

The only trouble with that is that traditional methods of crop rotation, cover crop, soil amendments with composted manures, green manures turned into the soil, legumes which fix nitrogen and builds soil, all work stupendously. Proving them wrong is an exercise in futility, indeed. "No N-P-K required" is the retort which scientifically proves these methods work!

 

[Lamia]

My bad, when I say (traditional) I'm referring to tilling, chemical fertilizer, and the alike. I love no till, all I use is cover crops, chop and drop weeds, compost, and the occasional shot of fresh filleted urine.

 

[Meadowlark]

My bad, when I say (traditional) I'm referring to tilling, chemical fertilizer, and the alike. I love no till, all I use is cover crops, chop and drop weeds, compost, and the occasional shot of fresh filleted urine.

So how do you get green manures into your soil?

Chop and drop does not do that. Tilling (discing in my case) does. I find green manure is quite likely the most underestimated method in gardening. There is something absolutely magic in incorporating green cover crops into the soil...while it is green. Powerful method.

 

[Lamia]

I have a fall and spring cover crop this year it was a variety of mustards. When it gets to be planting time for my summer crop and cut it down with weed Wacker and it slowly breaks down in to soil also acting as mulch. In the fall I do the same and its pretty well broken down by spring. I also add the compost which is comprised of vegetation, sticks, and kitchen scraps in the fall just before winter and even if it's not completely matured it will finish off through winter. If you live in Texas I imagine your garden doesn't get the 6 months of rest that mine gets living in the snow belt Pennsylvania.

 

[Meadowlark]

... If you live in Texas I imagine your garden doesn't get the 6 months of rest that mine gets living in the snow belt Pennsylvania.

Yes, my garden grows something 365 days a year...sometimes it's just cover crops and/or crops that double as cover and producers but always growing something. Never let it go bare...Nature abhors a vacuum.

Not to belabor my point but incorporating green manures (while GREEN) into the soil is a magic elixir for my soil. Sometime, try it with just a spade and a very small space and see if it doesn't far exceed chop and drop for soil replenishment.

 

[YumYum]

Not to belabor my point but incorporating green manures (while GREEN) into the soil is a magic elixir for my soil.

The green is nitrogen. No green, no nitrogen. Very important point. If nitrogen is left on top of the soil, it can evaporate.

 

[Meadowlark]

... No green, no nitrogen. Very important point.

I'm not so sure. The plants I use for cover are nitrogen fixing, meaning they add nitrogen to the soil as they grow. I agree some of the green manure phenom is due to nitrogen in the plant leaves being incorporated but something else is at work here that we don't totally understand. There really is a magic to Green Manure at work that is appreciated by those who use it.

 

[redback]

You are all good gardeners so let's not forget that there's more than one way to do a thing. I agree with lop and drop because it is so speedy and sensible. I am going to cover the dropped stinging nettle with humus from the chook run and this will definitely trap the nettle nutrients in the soil. (PS chickens are things you eat but chooks are the same things that you love).

 

[YumYum]

I'm not so sure. The plants I use for cover are nitrogen fixing, meaning they add nitrogen to the soil as they grow. I agree some of the green manure phenom is due to nitrogen in the plant leaves being incorporated but something else is at work here that we don't totally understand. There really is a magic to Green Manure at work that is appreciated by those who use it.

Yea I forgot about legumes but I dont see them really adding N until they are tilled under or killed, and then bacteria converts the nodules to nitrates or ammonia.

 

[Meadowlark]

I wish there were scientific data on this. A time lapse detailing of the process of nitrogen fixation. That would really be interesting to me...but maybe not to most folks. That process with Green matter is absolutely powerful, powerful.