[lincolnlad]

hi just want to know the best green manure to use on my allotment.Got to be a sort when its dug in that it wont come back the following year any advice is welcome thank you. cheers lincolnlad   

[Swing Swang]

When do you intend to sow, what sort of soil are you on, where does the green manure fit in on your crop rotation cycle?

I'll be planting field beans as a green manure late summer and digging them in over the winter.

[Zippy]

I have been sowing a bed of green manure in my 6 year cycle but a thought came to me this morning while watching my alfalfa growing - I usually grow a nitrogen fixing green manure to increase available nitrogen for the following crops, so why do I not just sow more peas and beans in this bed - I get to eat the harvest and if I hoe the plants off, leaving the roots in, I have my green manure also.

Any thoughts?

[Salmo]

If you want short term green manure that is well behaved try phacelia. It can be dug in at any stage. It grows up to 2 ft high. If left to produce its lovely blue flowers the bees and hover flies will enjoy it.

[peapod]

Zippy Ive done that too- used French beans and it worked well.

[Swing Swang]

Zippy - for best green manuring my feeling is that they should be dug in before the pods start to swell then all of the goodness gets dug back into the soil, whereas if mature beans are allowed to form/harvested then you are removing nutrients from the soil.

Having said that I'd certainly nip out the tips an use them as a vegetable, and probably harvest many of the immature pods too.

[GreenOwl]

Lincolnlad have a look at this.

http://www.greenmanure.co.uk/sow_help.htm

The crops we label as green manure are ones that are tried and tested so they won't come back the following year.  Some are harder to dig in than others, some stay in the ground longer than others.  I've never had much success with overwintering green manures but mustard as a catch crop works very well for me.

[peapod]

Just to add.....bear in mind that if there's any clubroot on your plot, then some green manures are part of the same family...so they wouldnt be advisable to sow.