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Green manure in crop rotation

• Message 1. 

  Posted by ginfiend (U2046007) on Monday, 8th August 2011

  This may seem like a silly question...
  
  I know a bit about green manures (eg. mustard is a brassica and clover is a legume) - but where I get confused is how to fit them into the rotation. eg. If I have a legume bed during the summer, then plant it with an over-wintering green manure (brassica), cut it down in spring and then plant up with roots the following season - is that right? It just means that the rotation is only 6-monthly (if that makes sense) and not the full year. Does this matter?
  
  Or - should I plant up a summer legume bed with an over-wintering legume green manure and then go to brassicas in the spring/summer?
  
  Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick altogether?
  
  I'm all confused!
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Kleftiwallah (U13700999) on Monday, 8th August 2011

  
  I think the initial idea is to cover any spare/open ground you have to stop the winter rains hammering down and leaching out the goodness. I would just bung it down and not worry too much about rotation. Cheers, Tony.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by ginfiend (U2046007) on Tuesday, 9th August 2011

  That would certainly make life a lot simpler!
  

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• Message 4

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  Posted by Swedboy (U14400604) on Tuesday, 9th August 2011

  Don't know that much about green manure but grew field beans for nitrogen and to improve soil structure. This year I'm trying buckweet as a mulch (the plan is to grow it in September and let the frost kill it) plus the field beans.
  
  The beans I dug in in the spring.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by CathB45 (U14851973) on Wednesday, 10th August 2011

  Don't plant mustard if you have any club root as this might well spread it around.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by hereisabee (U2342191) on Wednesday, 10th August 2011

  Everything matters, you should avoid growing a green manure of the same family before that familiy's crop, eg. mustard before cabbages. Best of all grow green manures that are out of the rotation cycle. At this time of year Phacelia is good to sow and will give a carpet of purple flowers to feed up overwintering insects. Grazing Rye is an option but requires stout limbs when digging-in in the spring, you must wait for the flowering shoots to show first or the the plant may regrow. Buckwheat is best spring sown as it enjoys the summer's heat to reach maturity. Come Oct/Nov I plant all my bare soil with Broad Bean Aquadulce the seed of which I saved myself. This keeps the soil together overwinter, some I dig-in in the spring, some I crop for beans and then some to complete the cycle, leave to produce seed.

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• Message 8

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  Posted by hereisabee (U2342191) on Thursday, 11th August 2011

  Just adding to the above, I grow a lot of Brussel Sprouts, so this gives me ground to grow legumes in the next season.

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