Green Manure

[Jl50rMember]

I planted caliente mustard as a green manure in both a bed at my allotment and a bed in my garden. My question is: do I have to chop it down and dig it in or could I simply cover it with cardboard and mulch over the top? The bed in the allotment (on which the mustard has only grown slightly) will have onions in it and the bed in the garden (where the mustard has grown luxuriantly) will be planted with herbaceous perennials.

[charlesModerator]

 I have not grown caliente, only white mustard (Sinapsis alba) which obligingly dies off in winter – although this year some has survived and I simply pulled it out. You certainly don’t need to dig it in, in this dry weather you could hoe and let it dry on top, without using cardboard, and plant through it, or remove to compost.

[devonstewParticipant]

Does the mustard fix nitrogen? Wasn’t sure as its a brassica?

Is simply a way of covering the soil for some of the winter?

Thanks

[charlesModerator]

Yes it brings no nitrogen via its roots but actually does add a little through the leaves it grows, which then rot in. I see its main benefit as cover, as roots keeping soil open (compost has similar effect by encouraging worms etc) and it adds some organic matter.

[devonstewParticipant]

Good, thanks for that, as I thought. 

Last year I used vetch where I was going to put in late crops like autumnal brassicas so that it had time in the spring to do its thing. It worked really well. There were very few weeds, easy enough to clear, the soil was loose and aerated, and once I had cut at the level of the soil none of it grew back. 

But where the soil had been left uncovered or mulched or mucked it did become quite compacted over winter and had to be worked harder with a hoe in the spring to take the new crops – so the mustard sounds like a good option for these areas of the beds.

Cheers

[charlesModerator]

This is so different to my experiences on many different soils, always easy to sow and plant into a compost mulch. I don’t work it with a hoe though, do strictly nothing in fact except a light raking of the compost only, to break lumps and kill any germinating weeds in March and April. The soil under my compost stays put and has never been compact, I wonder if you mean ‘firm’, as compaction is a result of heavy weight on wet soil.

[devonstewParticipant]

Yes better word, not compact, but I guess the other factor was not getting the manure mulch on top of the soil until late feb, and by then I think the really wet winter last year made the soil quite firm….compared to where it had plants growing in it, it was easy to plant into etc……perhaps I need to apply the manure earlier to reproduce your experience? 

[JayjayParticipant]

I bought a packet of a Caliente Mustard a couple of years ago but I have clubroot on most of my allotment and have held back from sowing it, at the time I bought it, I didn’t realise it was a brassica. Has anyone with clubroot tried growing it and did it make the clubroot worse? Or does the build up of compost through using the no-dig method lessen the clubroot problem?
Thanks, Jeanette

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