Green manure in autumn and winter: 13 ideal green manures

In the kitchen garden, vegetables, fruits and herbs remove nutrients from the soil over the course of the year. In order for the plants to thrive again in the following year, nutrients have to be fed back into the soil. This can be done with green manuring in autumn or winter. Plants such as clover, lupins, phacelia and yellow mustard are suitable as green manure.

Why fertilize?

Plants need nutrients to grow. Especially when they develop flowers and fruits, they have one high nutritional requirements. In nature, the soil always contains many nutrients due to rotting plant residues and dead small and microorganisms. This is not necessarily the case in a garden.

Mixtures or monocultures that do not occur in nature are usually planted. The same plants permanently deprive the soil of too many nutrients. Even the smallest organisms are not present in natural abundance in the front yard in front of the terraced house. The soil is often heavily compacted by the heavy construction equipment, so that the plants cannot take root as well, have no access to the deeper soil layers and therefore grow worse.

Green manure has several advantages. The plants add nutrients to the soil. In addition, their roots loosen the soil, which allows more microorganisms and small organisms to settle. These in turn ensure a permanently loose soil and also come to depths that the roots of typical green manure plants such as clover and lupins cannot reach. The floor will ventilated, Rainwater can penetrate and run off better, there is no waterlogging.

Suitable plants

Immediately after flowering and harvesting, the soil is depleted. For green manuring, it is therefore advisable to sow plants in autumn, which are mainly the soil nitrogen respectively. These should be fast-growing plants that can be cut and incorporated into the soil before winter. Are suitable:

• Chickweed
• Yellow mustard
• lupine
• Phacelia
• Vetch
• pea
• clover
• Beans

These plants form leaf mass very quickly, in which they accumulate nutrients. In addition, the plants can easily be sown on the harvested area. In the case of Phacelia, for example, 150 g of seeds are sufficient for 100 square meters of garden land. The plants form 300 to 500 kg of green matter over October and November. This contains about 1 kg of pure nitrogen.

Easy care for green manure

Plants for green manure are not demanding. The soil needs to be prepared a little: weeds should be removed, the soil needs to be loosened up on the surface. Then the seeds are planted. Spread evenly over the land and work in gently with the rake. Then watering is advisable. On extremely dry days it is necessary to water so that the green manure grows better. No more maintenance is necessary.

Cut and mix in

Green manure works because the leaf mass of the plants is not completely harvested and used as animal feed, but because it is at least partially incorporated into the soil. The roots must also remain in the ground. They form symbioses with microorganisms that accumulate nitrogen in the soil and thus ensure longer-lasting fertilization.

Are the plants only ten centimeters high or lower, they can simply be cut into the ground with the winter furrow incorporated will. Only larger plants need to be chopped up beforehand. Incidentally, there should be at least three weeks between incorporating the green manure and sowing the next crop.

So if you sow green manure in autumn after the harvest, you can cut and work under the plants in October or November at the earliest. Because the green matter needs some time to be decomposed in the soil. Only then is the soil ready for the subsequent crop. Spreading green manure in autumn and sowing in autumn for next spring does not work. The next crop is usually not to be settled in the garden before November or December.

Different plants serve different purposes

advantages and disadvantages

Green manure is complex and can make a big difference. The different plants in question all have different advantages and disadvantages:

• Improvement of the soil structure and build-up of humus: clover grass mixtures, grasses
• Erosion protection: clover grass mixtures, pasture grass, Chinese cabbage
• Supply subsequent crops with nitrogen: peas and field beans (both not hardy), clover-alfalfa mixtures, lupins
• Reserve nitrogen for the next crop: green oats and green rye (does not survive winter), mustard or turnip rape, oil radish
• Loosening deeply: lupins, oil radish, alfalfa (cultivate perennial), field beans (not winter hardy)
• Weed suppression: phacelia, rye grass or perennial grass clover

Examples

spinach

Spinach is a goosefoot plant. The sowing must be done by mid-September, October is too late. In addition, there is a cold frost Fleece cover sensible. Spinach traps nitrate and improves the water retention capacity of the humus. However, it should not be sown before or after Swiss chard, beetroot or melde.

alfalfa

Alfalfa are butterflies that collect nitrogen and loosen the soil. This means that compacted, diseased and very heavy soils are replanted. Alfalfa is well suited for compost. The plants are sown by August and grow in autumn.

Winter beets

Winter beets, also known as turnips, are just Conditionally suitable for frost. They are sown in August. Mostly they survive the winter because the seeds are continuously tested and increased.

Winter vetch

The winter vetch is a butterfly and is sown from the end of September until October at the latest. The plant collects nitrogen and forms a large mass of roots. However, it is unsuitable for heavy soils.

the Winter pea or field pea is sown in mid to late October. It accumulates nitrogen and is good against weeds. And it leaves a good bottom cooking.

Spelt is still suitable as late sowing even in November or early December. The grain primarily offers Soil protection in the winter.

Bitter lupine must be sown by the beginning of September. The nitrogen collector opens up the soil.

Winter rye can be sown as early as August / September, it is incorporated in November. On sandy or very humus rich soils, the winter rye even remains until spring. It leaves a fine crumbly soil and suppresses weeds, as a previous crop it is suitable for potatoes and beans, but also for cabbage. Whereas it doesn't get along with corn.

Even Lamb's lettuce is suitable for green manure. But the lettuce must be sown by the beginning of October at the latest. Then it roots well through the soil and leaves it with a fine crumbly consistency.

Healthy garden soil lives

Phacelia, Persian clover, yellow mustard and yellow lupins can be sown in autumn until late autumn. The seeds sprout quickly and the plants can be cut and worked into the ground before winter. Because the plants mentioned grow very quickly. They loosen the soil with their roots. Once the cut plants have been worked into the soil, they are broken down by microorganisms.

Up to 10 billion ray fungi and several million single-cell organisms live in the top 30 centimeters of one square meter of soil alone. The living things do a good part of the work. But they can only do that if one of the 100 to 200 earthworms that live in this upper 30 cm of the garden soil on one square meter brings the greenery under the ground. The earthworms do a good job, they pull green plants underground in their passages, eat them, excrete nutrient-containing residues and make the plant residues usable for some microorganisms.