We did a winter cover crop mix of mustard, tillage radish, and austrian winter peas a few years ago. It did really good for decompacting soil in new planting areas. By spring the soil was just as good as the soil in our established beds. 👍
That's awesome!! Thank you for sharing! It's also really good that you brought up brassica cover crops like the tillage radish and mustard. These types of plants often form large taproots that can help to physically break up soil compaction, and additionally, many of them may have nematocidal qualities!
I've heard about studies that show improved results with increased variety in cover crops up to 32 different seed types in one cover mix. And they don't seem to think that's the upper limit, it's just as far as they had gone ;)
Very nice! I have heard over the years that the more diversity we have above ground, the more diversity we have below ground. More diversity equals a more resilient system. We should definitely continue to further explore these areas of study so that more people can understand and appreciate the validity.
The animals grazing are cycling the nitrogen into your soil for you, so unless you're facing pressure that will wipe out the crop, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Where I am in SW MI, it's an issue ;) My approach is to overseed excessively and with a variety.
Thank you for the comment! Yes, we should strive to be able to support the surrounding wildlife and grazers/herbivores as they play their parts in the natural ecosystem as well. Unfortunately I only had 20 or so of these pea seeds, right now I'm trying to protect them as best I can. As I hopefully continue to grow my seed stock, expectantly future crop losses will shrink in significance.
We did a winter cover crop mix of mustard, tillage radish, and austrian winter peas a few years ago. It did really good for decompacting soil in new planting areas. By spring the soil was just as good as the soil in our established beds. 👍
That's awesome!! Thank you for sharing! It's also really good that you brought up brassica cover crops like the tillage radish and mustard. These types of plants often form large taproots that can help to physically break up soil compaction, and additionally, many of them may have nematocidal qualities!
@@terra-blegardeningvideos mustards are also used to address fusarium in the soil.
I've heard about studies that show improved results with increased variety in cover crops up to 32 different seed types in one cover mix. And they don't seem to think that's the upper limit, it's just as far as they had gone ;)
Very nice! I have heard over the years that the more diversity we have above ground, the more diversity we have below ground. More diversity equals a more resilient system. We should definitely continue to further explore these areas of study so that more people can understand and appreciate the validity.
The animals grazing are cycling the nitrogen into your soil for you, so unless you're facing pressure that will wipe out the crop, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Where I am in SW MI, it's an issue ;) My approach is to overseed excessively and with a variety.
Thank you for the comment! Yes, we should strive to be able to support the surrounding wildlife and grazers/herbivores as they play their parts in the natural ecosystem as well. Unfortunately I only had 20 or so of these pea seeds, right now I'm trying to protect them as best I can. As I hopefully continue to grow my seed stock, expectantly future crop losses will shrink in significance.