Sowing and growing green manure always pays off. They can be used to sow both areas where crops will be grown in the future, as well as fallow. Let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of vetch green manure, after which crops it can be sown, the timing and rules of planting, how to care for plants, when and how to mow. What crops should vetch not be planted in front of?
Benefits and harms of vetch green manure
The plant belongs to the legume family and has all the distinctive features: a long flexible branching stem with paired leaves, red-violet inflorescences from which brown beans are formed, each of which contains up to 10 graphite-colored seeds. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria live on the roots of the plant.
Vetch can be spring or winter. Both varieties are used as green manure. What benefits can a plant sown as green manure provide:
- accumulates nitrogen in the soil, the element is in a form accessible to subsequent crops;
- roots strengthen and loosen the soil;
- vetch can disinfect the soil, prevent the proliferation of fungi and the growth of weeds;
- the green mass is embedded in the soil, but some can be sent to feed livestock (this is an excellent nutritious feed containing vitamins and protein) or placed in a compost heap;
- flowering plants attract bees and other pollinators;
- winter vetch protects the soil from freezing;
- increases crop yields by a third because it serves as an excellent green fertilizer.
The harm lies in the fact that the flexible stems lie down under their own weight and rest on the ground. Overstayed vetch can form seeds, they fall to the ground and then germinate, this time becoming a weed.
What crops are they used for?
You cannot sow after crops of the same family - beans, peas, beans. The soil may contain bacteria and fungi that cause characteristic diseases. It is recommended to sow vetch before all crops (vegetables, fruits, strawberries, root vegetables and herbs, cabbage, potatoes, onions), but especially before those that require large amounts of nitrogen.
Spring vetch attracts bees to the site, so it can be planted so that its blossoming occurs during the flowering of bushes and trees.
It is better to sow green manure mixed with cereals: oats or rye. Tall, straight plants will support the soft vetch and keep it from falling to the ground. The mixture is prepared from seeds in a ratio of 50 to 50, mixed well and sown in rows.
Rules and terms of landing
You can sow vetch in the garden when the soil warms up to 4 °C. It is allowed to continue sowing until the end of summer; during the season it will be possible to sow green manure 3 times. It grows quickly, in about a month.
Before winter, the crop is sown from mid-October to November, so that the seeds do not germinate, but remain in the soil. They will hatch in the spring as soon as the temperature rises to a level sufficient for the crop to grow.
How to sow:
- prepare the site, remove all remnants of the previous crop from it;
- dig on the bayonet of a shovel;
- fertilize with organic matter or minerals if the soil is poor in nutrients;
- make grooves 7-8 cm deep at a distance of 10 cm from each other;
- manually sow seeds at a distance of 3-5 cm (per hundred square meters - approximately 1.5 kg of seeds);
- cover the rows with soil.
If the soil is dry at the time of planting, water it until 10 cm wet.
Care measures
Watering and fertilizing is all that plants need.If cultivation takes place in the summer, then the green manure needs to be watered, especially in the heat. Vika grows quickly, but for this she will need feeding. 2 weeks after germination it needs to be fed with complex mineral fertilizers.
Mowing time
Green manure is cut off a month and a half after germination. By this time it will reach a height of 15-20 cm. If you plan to embed the mowed mass into the soil, then mow it 1.5-2 weeks before planting the next crop. During this time, the stems and leaves will have time to partially rot. Plants are cut and embedded in the ground to a depth of 10 cm. Shallow embedding allows the roots to be left partially intact to preserve the nodules on them. In order for the green mass to rot faster and better, it is advisable to water the soil with an EM preparation that accelerates fermentation.
You can’t delay harvesting green manure. After flowering, its stems sharply coarse and become rigid. The decay time increases.
For which crops is it not suitable?
In the place where the vetch grew, you should not plant any type of legumes, as well as beets and garlic. These crops have the same diseases and pests. There is a possibility that crops will become infected and disease control will have to be done. Instead of increasing the yield, the result will be harm.
Vetch as green manure is sown in agricultural fields and private plots. This is one of the best green manure plants that improves and nourishes the soil, saturating it with useful substances, especially easily accessible nitrogen, as a result of which the yield of subsequent crops increases significantly. Roots strengthen the soil, disinfect, protect against diseases, fungi, pests, retain snow in winter and insulate the soil. Weeds do not grow in an area sown with green manure and there is no need to weed it. Vetch seeds retain their germination capacity well and germinate well.To consolidate the result, it is recommended to sow vetch as green manure every season.
