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Green Manure - Cover Crops
By Larry Gildea

Green manures are also known in organic gardening circles as 'cover crops', and are grown specifically to benefit soils and not for display or consumption purposes. Green manures can replace and replenish nutrients that have been leeched out of soils and can improve soil structure. Cover crops also help to stabilize nitrogen in the soil when animal manures are unavailable or impractical to use. While most small garden owners do not utilize green manure crops in between planting seasons, they are beneficial to all types of gardens.

Green manure can be used year round, but is generally used during the winter months, when the soil loses vast amounts of nutrients or lies bare and fallow. The use of green manure acts mainly to counteract these conditions by maintaining soil temperature and moisture.

There are several different types of green manure. While some green manures are created to "fix" the nitrogen content of soils by using bacteria to colonize nodules on roots, green manures are generally divided into two categories: legumes and non-legumes.

The legume type green manures consist mainly of peas, fava beans, alfalfa and clover. Non-legume type green manure can consist of winter rye, the most commonly grown, followed by oats and various types of wheat. These do not add nitrogen to soils, although they do help to maintain levels and grow rapidly in the fall, benefiting weed suppression. They add more organic matter to the soil than legume type green manures.

Deep Rooted Green Manures

Some green manure crops produce roots that work their way down and through the soil, holding it together in root webs as they grow. However, once they are dug into the soil, they help to create a crumbly, ideal texture as they rot. Some green manure roots can even reach subsoil levels, drawing up nutrients that others can not.

Green manures that are considered "nitrogen fixers" are designated with an asterisk. Some common types of green manures that can be grown over winter months are:

1) Alfalfa*
2) Asilke Clover
3) Red Clover*
4) Grazing Rye
5) Trefoil
6) Phacelia
7) Fava beans*

These species can withstand mild to moderate winter conditions and will be ready to cut down and turn into the soil by spring.

In warmer months, these green manures are fast growing and will provide essential benefits to your garden by spring or early summer:

1) Crimson Clover
2) Bitter Lupin*
3) Fenugreek
4) Buckwheat

One of the most common cover crops is mustard, a fast and low growing crop that serves as an ideal way to cover fallow or bare soil during the weeks preceding planting your organic garden.

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Dr. Larry Gildea has authored several articles on gardening. Dr. Gildea has created these gardening websites, http://www.gardeningbonanza.com and http://www.organicgardensystems.com Gardening Bonanza.com covers many types of gardening, including, bonsai design and cultivation, container gardening, flower gardening, rose gardening, hydroponics gardening and several others. Organic Garden Systems.com is dedicated exclusively to organic gardening.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry_Gildea

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