Types Of Green Manure

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

Read the first part of the article: Why you need green fertilizers

The most common green manures are lupins, sweet clover, winter rye and rapeseed

Lupine

Currently, both annual and perennial lupins are grown with various alkaloid contents, narrow-leaved blue and yellow lupine. All types of lupins produce a lot of green mass and accumulate a significant amount of nitrogen even on the poorest sandy soils. The development of such soils is greatly facilitated by their preliminary cultivation with lupins.

The powerfully developed root system of lupins is able to dissolve well the hard-to-reach phosphates of soil and fertilizers, which makes it possible to add phosphorite flour, bone meal under the lupins, the phosphorus of which becomes available for all subsequent crops. As powerful nitrogen collectors, lupins are able to provide the soil with nitrogen well. Therefore, they do not need nitrogen fertilizers, but respond well to the introduction of phosphorus and potash fertilizers (20-30 g / m² of active ingredient). The introduction of phosphorus fertilizers for lupines is especially important at the beginning of their growth on limed soils, when the underdeveloped root system of lupines is not yet able to fully meet the need for phosphorus from soil phosphates. Phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are applied under lupine before sowing for digging.

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Unlike other leguminous plants, lupins grow well on acidic soils and do not tolerate liming well. Lime introduced into acidic soil prevents lupine from assimilating phosphorus of poorly soluble soil phosphates and fertilizers. To cultivate sod-podzolic soils, lime and phosphorite flour are applied under the lupins at the same time, but in different layers of the arable horizon: lime is deeper, for digging, and phosphorite flour - in a shallower layer, under pre-sowing cultivation. Such a layer-by-layer application of lime and phosphate rock under lupine, the use of potassium fertilizers, and the subsequent plowing of green manure contribute to the simultaneous enrichment of the soil with organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium and the elimination of excess soil acidity for subsequent crops.

For sowing perennial lupine, plots are allotted not only in the crop rotation, but also underfloor (hatching), aisles in young orchards and nurseries. In these areas, perennial lupine is sometimes left for 6-8 years or more, using the mowing mass to fertilize neighboring fields, tree trunks in fruit-bearing gardens.

Donnik

Melilot grows well on neutral, calcium-rich soils. On limed sod-podzolic soils, they give higher yields of green mass and seeds than annual and perennial lupins.

Melilot are annual and biennial, white and yellow. White sweet cloves are more productive, but yellow ones ripen earlier. The root system of sweet clover is more developed than that of all other legume green manures. Due to this, they are distinguished by high drought resistance and high fertilizing quality even with relatively underdeveloped green mass.

It is better to cultivate biennial melilot for green fertilization. They grow very slowly in the year of sowing and bloom only under particularly favorable conditions. In the early spring of next year, they grow very quickly and produce two crops during the summer. Unlike annual forage lupins, sweet clover blooms faster, this allows it to be mowed earlier and plowed earlier for fertilization. For the first time, the above-ground mass of melilot is mowed before flowering or, in extreme cases, at the beginning of it. With later mows, the stems coarsen very quickly, and their fertilizing quality decreases.

Winter rye is often used by vegetable growers as a green fertilizer, although the fertilizing qualities of this cereal are significantly lower than those of legumes. Winter rye works well. Its mowing ripeness begins approximately from May 20. Rye has the highest nutrient content before heading. The yield of green mass reaches 2.5 kg / m². The seeding rate of rye seeds is increased by 10-15%. The sowing period is the last five-day week of August - early September.

Sowing of winter rye in a mixture with winter vetch is very effective. It is more expedient to sow them in two steps: first vetch, and two weeks after vetch germination - winter rye. The sowing time of winter vetch, therefore, falls on mid-August, rye - at the end of August - early September. Later joint sowings of winter rye and winter vetch delay the regrowth of vetch in spring, its share in the herbage decreases, and the terms of use of green mass are postponed to a later period. This leads to the retention of sowing of second crops and a decrease in their yield. Seeding rate - 10-15 g of winter rye and 8-10 g of winter vetch. Winter crops are sown in an ordinary way. The most even distribution of seeds is ensured by narrow-row and cross-seeding methods.

Joint crops of green manure (vetch-oat mixture, barley, etc.) with carrots are interesting. The seeding rate of carrots is 0.5-0.7 g / m², the seeds are sown in a wide-row method with a row spacing of 60 cm, in which two rows of green manure are placed. The yield of root crops can be obtained up to 1.5 kg / m². Barley or vetch-oat mixture is harvested in July, early August, carrots - at the end of October, that is, carrots are uncovered for more than two months.

For green manure stubble crops, white mustard and phacelia are used. To obtain high yields of stubble crops with a short growing season, it is necessary to apply high doses of mineral fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers (20-40 g / m² of active ingredient NPK).

Rape

Rape is an excellent representative of green manure crops both in terms of nutritional value, agronomic properties, and low cost of production. Sowing it is a good solution to the aggravated problem of improving the phytosanitary state of old summer cottages; it is an excellent predecessor for all cultures. The earliest harvest in spring is provided by crops of winter rape, which can be sown in a mixture with winter rye.

Sown in spring or summer, it manages to accumulate a large green mass. Rapeseed plants are not afraid of frost, so they can grow until the very late frosts. Winter and spring rape, sown on 1 August, can provide an optimal yield of green mass up to 3-4 kg / m². Moreover, in terms of the content of nitrogen and ash compounds, it significantly surpasses other non-legume green manures. Its green mass is very juicy and decomposes well in the soil.

Winter rape is picky about growing conditions. Frequent changes of frost and thaw, excess heat in the winter months, when it starts to grow, has a detrimental effect on the overwintering of rapeseed. It does not tolerate rapeseed in a snowless and frosty winter, it is often damaged in the early spring period after snow melt from bulging and rupture of roots. Plants of late sowing and too thickened plants overwinter especially badly. Therefore, it is sown no later than August 20, so that a rosette of 6-8 leaves is formed before the start of wintering. Winter rape is very sensitive to unfavorable wintering, and at later sowing dates, the possibility of its loss is not excluded.

The winter rapeseed sown in spring does not bloom, forms a lot of green mass, grows well after mowing, and its aftermath can be used until late autumn. When sowing in summer, rape forms a rosette of 6-8 leaves before wintering. In the spring, the plants grow back quickly, and in 10-20 days after the beginning of the spring growing season, buds are formed, i.e. the plants are already ready to be plowed for fertilization. The flowering phase of rapeseed occurs in mid-May, the beginning of seed ripening - at the end of July.

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Rape grows well on cultivated podzolic soils with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction. Sandy soils are of little use due to a lack of moisture, since this plant is moisture-loving, however, very damp soils with close groundwater are completely unsuitable for rapeseed: the roots begin to rot and the plants die.

Rape is picky about soil fertility, therefore, it is recommended to place its crops according to fertilized predecessors. It cannot be placed after other cruciferous crops. He is one of the best predecessors. You can place rapeseed in its place in 3-4 years.

As a fast growing and high-yielding crop, winter rapeseed requires a lot of nutrients. Manure application is effective, it is responsive to mineral fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers (30 g / m² of ammonium nitrate in pre-sowing cultivation and 20 - after the first mowing). Phosphate and potash fertilizers are applied at the rate of: 30-40 g of superphosphate and 20 g of potash per m². To combat diseases, seeds are treated with a 50% solution of TMTD (6 g per 1 kg of seeds). Sowing with row or wide row spacing of 45-60 cm. Seeding rate 1-1.2 g / m². The seeding depth is 1.5-2 cm.

Winter rapeseed care consists in early spring harrowing, fertilizing plants with nitrogen and in the fight against pests and diseases. In the budding phase before the start of mass flowering, to combat the rape flower beetle, stem clandestine beetle, crops are sprayed with one of the following preparations: karate or fastak 0.15 l / ha, decis 0.3 l / ha, karbofos 0.8 l / ha, etc. Treatments are repeated when aphids or leaf-eating caterpillars appear.

The first mowing is done 50-60 days after germination (in the first half of July), the second - in August-September. The first mowing should be carried out at a height of 10-12 cm from the soil level. During spring sowing, winter rape forms a rosette of leaves with a shortened stem. In the axils of the leaves, buds are located, capable of sprouting. Therefore, a low cut of plants during the first cut destroys the buds, which negatively affects subsequent regrowth. In this case, the aftermath is very small-leaved. Late-ripening varieties are harvested in one period, that is, after 90 days from the time of germination.

Spring rapeseed. For green manure purposes, spring rape is cultivated in pure form and in a mixture with cereal grasses, while in terms of yield it is not inferior to traditional steaming crops - vico- or pea-oat mixtures.

Both in pure form and in a mixture with cereal components, rape is sown early, when the soil is physically ripe. This makes it possible to avoid damage to seedlings by cruciferous flea beetles and to get a larger yield compared to later dates, the best component in the mixture is oats. Spring rape is harvested in the budding phase - the beginning of flowering. After the first mowing in the phase of mass flowering, spring rape grows poorly. It gives good yields in stubble crops. The seeding rate of pure rapeseed is 1-1.2 g / m² at 100% germination. In mixed sowing - 0.5-0.6 g of rapeseed and 10-12 g of oats or barley.

Spring rape is responsive to fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers. With an average soil supply with mobile forms of phosphorus and potassium, 6 g of active phosphorus, 12 g of potassium and 12 g of nitrogen fertilizers should be added.