Lupine. Using Lupine As A Green Manure

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Siderat, which is not worse than manure

Knowing the state of affairs in summer cottages and garden plots, it can be argued that in recent years, due to the shortage and high cost of manure, quite a few of their owners have begun to show interest in green manure plants.

Unfortunately, if you look through the agrotechnical literature, then the information in it about soil greening is extremely scarce. Moreover, for some reason it is believed that sideration is a matter of intuition and experience of summer residents and gardeners. Meanwhile, they quite often have to solve issues related to the use of green manure, for example, such as the choice of green manure plants, their optimal age, when and how they are best used and how much to use on their site. Without pretending to cover this topic completely, I want to share with the readers the knowledge that I received from the literature and in the process of practical development of sideration on my weave.

To answer the first of the questions, the author had, first of all, to thoroughly study the literature revealing the processes of biomass accumulation by the most famous green manure and the accumulation of nutrients in it. At the same time, scientists have found that the best from this point of view is the annual lupine.

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By itself, any lupine as a legume enriches the soil with nitrogen and improves its structure. But annual lupine, with timely mowing, gives on average about 6 kg per 1 m of greenery and root residues, which is 1.5-3 times more than can be obtained from such green manure as peas, vetch, sweet clover, seradella, radish, phacelia, beans and others.

Moreover, it is also important here that it accumulates about the same amount of basic nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and surpasses manure in terms of them. And it is probably no coincidence that in Europe lupine is called a "blessing" for heavy soils: sandy, clayey, etc.

Of the three types of lupine, preference was given to blue, since it has a higher growth rate compared to white and yellow, develops a more powerful root system, is more resistant to cold and is insensitive to soil acidity. It should also be noted that, unlike many other siderates, the roots of blue lupine take their main food not from the soil itself, depleting it, but from its depths, since they often go to a depth of 1.5-2 m.

As for the second question - age, here, too, blue lupine is superior to most siderates (sweet clover, peas, vetch, seradella, beans, etc.), only slightly inferior to radish and phacelia. I can already judge this from my personal experience: the period from sowing to a set of the highest and highest quality green mass does not exceed, as a rule, eight weeks. The reference point is the appearance of flower buds in a plant. At a more mature age, the stalks of lupine become woody and, after being embedded in the soil, decompose slowly. At the same time, microorganisms for their vital activity are forced to absorb nitrogen from the soil, taking it away from cultivated plants and slowing down their growth.

Younger lupine plants very little enrich the soil with humus before the formation of buds, since they mainly contain rapidly decomposing organic matter. In addition, the above age of blue lupine is optimal both from the point of view of the best time for sowing seeds (at the end of August, after harvesting the main crops), and from the point of view of the timing of embedding its mowed mass into the soil (at the end of October before frosts).

The most difficult is the question of the depth of incorporation of biomass and the thickness of its layer in the soil, since these indicators depend on many factors: the type of soil, its looseness and moisture, weather conditions, etc. If the biomass of blue lupine is embedded deeper than 12-15 cm, then I know from experience that it decomposes very badly there, forming a peat-like sour layer. When embedded to a depth of 5-6 cm, the loss of nutrients from the biomass is not excluded. Based on personal experience, I can say that the best results of using blue lupine biomass are achieved when it is embedded in cultivated soil to a depth of 8 plus minus 1 cm. At the same time, given the same reasons, the thickness of the biomass layer should not be more than 6 cm.

If your soil has not yet been sufficiently cultivated, but is only being developed, then these volumes of green mass should be embedded in roughly dug soil, then it must be loosened, since in this case its water-air regime becomes noticeably better and decomposition is more efficient biomass.

It should also be noted that sowing lupine should be done in an ordinary way, planting seeds to a depth of about 2-2.5 cm. The distance between the rows should be at least 15 cm, and between the plants - about 6-7 cm. In the case when the siderized the soil is overwhelmed by weeds, these indicators should be increased, respectively, up to 25 cm and up to 10-12 cm, in order to facilitate weeding. If early frosts set in and it was not possible to harvest and embed lupine in the soil at the time that I mentioned, then it should be mowed and the biomass should be left either in place until spring, or immediately put it in compost. In this case, the first solution is more profitable, since it has a very strong loosening effect on the soil, forms a protective mulch and inhibits the appearance of weeds in spring. Sowing or planting vegetables at this time is carried out after mulch and warming up the soil under the film.

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Many years of experience in using blue lupine on my hundred square meters fully confirmed the sufficient effectiveness of the above features of its cultivation and use. As it turned out, it is quite capable of replacing up to 4 kg of manure per 1 m or almost 40-45 g / m of urea on the site. The most significant results were obtained when growing strawberries and potatoes. At the same time, taking into account the release of organic acids from the underground and aboveground parts of lupine, interacting with soil minerals, these crops receive more accessible and enriched nutrition for them, and nitrogen and phosphorus in the first year are used almost twice as better than in the case of using manure. The yield of strawberries in such conditions increased by 1.3 times, and of potatoes by about 1.5 times, and the influence of lupine as a predecessor was clearly felt for at least 3-4 years.

Noticeable results were also obtained when using lupine in the aisles of a fruit and berry garden, and in addition to blue, white and yellow lupins were also sown, of which the second takes root in the garden even better than blue, requiring only weekly watering. At the same time, in the fall, we mowed both lupins and left them in place, well covering the soil with it, retaining heat in it and maintaining vitality in it for a longer period. It has even been noticed that at the roots and rhizomes extending into the aisles, due to such a shelter, the second tier of the root system often appears, which enhances the nutrition and growth of fruit and berry crops.

I also want to note that on my site, and on the sites of many other gardeners and summer residents, lupine plants are grown and are also valued as flower plants that give the site a more elegant look. If we add to the above-mentioned advantages of lupines and this is their quality, then the green manure, equal to them, is unlikely to be found on the plots.