[diggerjoe]

I did think about a mustard green manure as the information I read said it did help get rid of a few pests in the soil. I didnt take it any further but seeing how much it may benefit I might give it a go this winter on part of the plot. I dont mind trying something different as you never know if you dont... sort of... if you see what I mean.

[thearaig]

Fallow land doesn't stay as bare soil. It grows wild stuff. weeds grass etc. These were then ploughed in at the start of the next season. The aim is to get the organic matter back into the soil, improving the structure. Most of the time, we take the organic matter away and eat it.
Green manures lock up the nutrients that might otherwise be leached away. Leguminous stuff like vetch (tares) and clover add nitrogen by fixing it from the air into nodules at their roots.

[boosh]

As i have said on other threads,
i used mustard at the end of last year, and i just chopped it in, the smell was amazing, and i have been told Eel worms hate it :)bonus

[BostonInbred]

All the crop rotation plans ive seen, only a few leave a fallow plot. Most farmers have fallow plots, letting the soil rest a year allows it to build up nutrients and give soil born diseases to die off a bit.

I have a 5 patch crop rotation system - pots, roots, legs, bras, fallow.

You also see it in whats called Set-Aside land, the idea was the Eu pays you about £300 an acre not to use a patch of land. However theres a big fiddle with set aside which makes it nonsense to operate. (ill explain if you want.......)

[Zippy]

Nature doesnt leave ground fallow.  As thearaig says, pioneer plants soon move in and yes, these were traditionally ploughed in to increase organic matter.

This is the same as sowing a green manure, but we the gardener are choosing which pioneer plants will take hold - nitrogen fixing legumes or mustard to harden off potato eel worm casts before planting potatoes the following season.

So - no need to let ground go fallow; Nature will not allow fallow ground anyway.

[peapod]

Nature does not allow fallow ground, but this is to prevent erosion and weathering, and not to benefit the soil with nutrients for food as its main reason for being there.

Fallow ground has a 'rest' in farming - from producing high yield nutrient requiring crops that can take as much goodness from the soil as is there.

So yes, put in as much goodness in the soil as you can through manure, compost etc etc.  But a fallow field isnt a wasted space, it is a rest from the hard work we expect from it to feed us. Much more than nature does.

[Zippy]

My observation is that so many allotment gardeners now think that it is essential to denude the soil and run a rotovator over the entire plot in preparation for the next year's sowing and planting. It looks great, all that empty canvas just waiting to be filled.

However, this treatment destroys the earthworm population and the soil structure and until the crops take root, it causes nutrients to leach out of the soil. So of course, if you are one of these gardeners then it would make sense to let a plot go fallow to allow pioneer plants to take hold, soil structure to recover and earthworms to repopulate. But this is not the best husbandry.

If you don't dig you leave the soil structure as it should be. Green manures and compost added to the potato bed a foot or more deep will be dragged down into the soil by earthworms which in turn will aeriate the soil without the need to fork. As the potatoe bed is rotated every four years, the whole plot gets well fed and structured in this way.

Any unused (fallow) ground is then sown with a green manure which does not take from the soil more than it gives back because it is not taken away and it increases nutrients by photosynthesis and rooting up nutrients from the sub soil layer. This is the same as letting ground "rest", except that I am choosing a nutrient rich green manure crop rather than allowing whatever weeds are present to grow. Much better for redressing the soil than a few dandelions and speedwell.

But enough of my waffle. All I can say it is working for me and its a great way to work.

[peapod]

I preferred the Hmphh 

We all agree to differ, and although I do agree with some aspects of the permaculture and no-dig  method, some green manures do require digging in/cutting down. It isn't a huge amount of research to look into these, and avoid them, but I really do think that every single organism needs a rest - meaning a time to refresh and renew without constant input, and that includes all soil organisms. What's good for one is not always good for the majority at times.

No matter what the benefits of green manure, and they are many I do agree, why is resting the soil and feeding it at appropriate times not an good option also?

Perhaps I see it, in simplest terms, that as gardeners we don't like to see a 'bare unused' expanse of soil, and feel the need to see green in there. But there are many things at work under the surface that are giving it new life and new nutrients, and who are we to mess with that? It is only unused by us as growers.

To add, I don't and never have rotavated because of my own feelings of soil structure and worms. I double dig once a year and feed my soil well.

[BostonInbred]

Nature doesnt leave ground fallow.  As thearaig says, pioneer plants soon move in and yes, these were traditionally ploughed in to increase organic matter.

So - no need to let ground go fallow; Nature will not allow fallow ground anyway.

'Fallow' means 'uncultivated'. Before mankind  started cultivating crops 30,000 years ago, ALL land was fallow.

Your making the mistake of equating  'fallow' with ' nothing growing on it', which is not what it means at all. The point is that cultivating land is unnatural, because it creates monocultures of plants that  wouldnt normally solely dominate a patch of land

So i repeat, it does land good to lay fallow for  a year every 4 years, and leave nature to its own devices to regenerate. It was and still is a common practice in farming.

[peapod]

I would also like to point out that ploughing, although traditional, is not a good advertisement for soil structure.  It degenerated tracts of land for many years

[Zippy]

Hmphh!


 

[peapod]

 

[Trikidiki]

I've not used green manures before but in order to get some water/nutrient holding capacity, I aim to use them along with manure, compost and leafmould (going out with my generator and leaf hoover this weekend to pick up the leaves off our local rec. now they've dried a bit)

My first green manure is trefoil, with which I have underplanted my spring cabbage. As well as a nitorgen-fixing green manure, it apparently helps to confuse the cabbage root fly.

I'll be trying more in the Autumn. A neighbouring plot holder has just double-dug in four beds full of ryegrass.