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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] No till and market gardening (was tractors?)

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] No till and market gardening (was tractors?)
  • Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:15:09 -0400

At 12:25 AM 6/11/2008, you wrote:
Hi Liz,

I use a mixture of fava beans, winter rye, winter pea and crimson clover as
a cover crop. I haven't experimented much but I have heard that daikon is
great for breaking up and adding organic matter to the soil. Apparently,
Masanobu Fukuoka would plant daikon for this purpose and let them get huge.
The decomposing roots would then leave large pockets of organic matter deep
down in the soil.

Yes, that's what I found. I planted them originally just to eat, but late in the summer that year I was away from home for an extended period and some of them got really huge. When I pulled them up, I was amazed at how loose and humus-y the soil was.

Often when I plant my cover crops other weeds and self seeding starts from
my garden come up too. I just leave these and allow them to act as a cover
also. Cardoon has a deep tap root and borage produces a lot of green matter.
I treat them all the same and cut them down as they begin to flower in the
spring.

I planted cardoon one year too, but wasn't as happy with how well it did in the concrete soil here. The daikon seemed to handle it better. Maybe I could plant daikon first, and then cardoon the next year, and after that it would fit to plant the other vegetables :-)

Good to know about borage. Bees love it too. And it makes great tea.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com




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