Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

“A lot of these other cover crops, like rye grasses, when they decompose the nitrogen is used up by the microbes and they are only able to give it back incrementally. Not radishes. They give it all back,” Groff explained.

 

I wonder what this means.  Does this only happen when they are frost-killed?  After thawing, the N-rich radishes rot more rapidly than the C-rich grass residues?  Here they just keep on growing until seeding and then they dry out.  When cut, they will just grow again from the root.

 

Steve Groff doesn’t know “drylands”.  A few years ago I imported 80 kg of radish seeds from Germany where they are traditionally used as green manure for plowing under.  Without tilling my hard soil, they didn’t grow bigger than a match stick.  No problem though in the improved soil.  The ones shown in the picture are of the Minowase variety from Japan.  These are very good, also for eating.  Where they do grow they do a lot of good for the soil.  It is also easy to harvest seeds (at least here).  A good way to start seed saving.

 

Dieter