Going organic-ish without large expense

[Steve Magruder]

Originally Posted by dice

If you read the entire Plant-tone label, it says to amend
the soil initially with X amount per so many square feet,
then add more monthly per plant, per foot of row, or
per square feet of growing area. As your soil becomes
more fertile over the years from amending it with
organic matter, you can back off how much bagged
fertilizer (if any) that you use, because your plants will
still be getting nutrients from fertilizer that you used
last year (minus what your garden loses in tropical
downpours, floods, etc, which wash nitrogen in particular
down below the root zone).

As for buying stuff like composts and manures, in these
days of aminopyralid and clopyralid broad leaf herbicides
used on hay fields, one needs to be cautious:
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/aminopyralid/
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/aminopyralid/bioassay.html
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...vis#post342794
(Alfalfa will not be contaminated, because the herbicides
damage or kill alfalfa plants.)

Thanks for the info about the Plant-tone. The instructions for adding more for vegetables during the growing season seemed buried a wee bit.

As for composts/manures, I already bought the Lowes branded compost/manure, and it's already applied. I'll hope for the best. Thanks for alerting me to the herbicide issue.

[Steve Magruder]

Also, big thanks to everyone for all the ideas/advice. I'll keep it all under consideration as the growing season progresses.

[Tracydr]

Don't forget to grow cover crops and till them in if you aren't using those gardens for something else over the winter. Cover crops can add lots of nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil!

[Steve Magruder]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Don't forget to grow cover crops and till them in if you aren't using those gardens for something else over the winter. Cover crops can add lots of nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil!

What's best/cheap to plant as a cover crop?

[Steve Magruder]

I've started using grass clippings as mulch, but a couple weeks after planting. It seems to be going well so far. I've been following the guidelines from this page: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07007.html

I'll add a layer after each mowing until I have several inches. That should be a good nitrogen feeder and keep some weeds out. I probably won't need the newspaper or cardboard (crossing my fingers).

[Tracydr]

Cover crops really depend on where you live and if you need organic matter or nitrogen. Most places, fava beans, clover and rye grass are good. Vetch is good for some parts of the country.
Even unusual stuff like quinoa, amaranth and fenugreek can work.

[dice]

While this is slanted toward cover crops for use in no-till
farming, it does provide a good general guide to different
kinds of cover crops:
http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/f...ll/chart.shtml

This document from UCDavis provides an index to good descriptions
of individual cover crops:
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/database/covercrops

Down south, lots of farmers like crimson clover (kind of expensive
seed, perhaps because of demand, and often out of stock in spring)
and cowpeas or Austrian winter peas. A mix of winter rye and hairy
vetch is popular with no-till tomato farmers, but it matures in late
April and can be inconvenient where you want to plant crops earlier
in spring. Bell beans (fava bean relative) may be a better choice where
you need to cut it down earlier and either amend the soil with the top
growth or leave it on top for mulch if using no-till methods.

Here is a document on cover crops from U of Kentucky:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id113/id113.htm

[bughunter99]

Don't plant ANY cover crop until you have decided that you are up for dealing with it in the spring. Cover crops are great for those that are OK with tilling and have the mechanical means to deal with them, however they are a lot of work.

[Steve Magruder]

Yes, I don't think I want to re-till my garden.

However, if a crop can be broken back down into the soil by mowing with a mulch mower, would that be an option with any particular cover crop?

[COMPOSTER]

I agree with Bughunter 99. I am into cover crops and plant winter rye every Fall and turn/chop into the soil every spring. I do not use (by choice) a tiller and do it by hand. Although I think it is very important, It is absolutely one of the hardest most labor intensive things I do gardening.

[dice]

I think a mulch mower would be good, if you do not have to do
too large an area. When I planted winter rye, I decided it was too
much of a pain to turn the top growth all in. So I mowed it with a
hedge trimmer (weedeater would work, too), raked the top growth
off to the side, spread some compost over the stubble, and turned
that over with a shovel. Then I raked the top growth back over
the bed for summer mulch.

(By the time it flowers in late April, winter rye is typically chest-high,
so it needs to be cut down before trying to mulch it up finer. I tried
putting it through a shredder green one time, it bound up the shredder
like rope, and I had to disassemble it to get it all out of there. That
might work if you let it dry out first. No-till farmers knock it down with
a flail mower and just leave the top growth on top of the soil.)

Not all cover crops have top growth that challenging to amend into
the soil. Vetches and clovers are fairly easy to amend the soil with,
and I expect that a mulching mower would have no problems with
them.

[bughunter99]

You'll want to make sure that you get it before it goes to seed.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Steve Magruder

Yes, I don't think I want to re-till my garden.

However, if a crop can be broken back down into the soil by mowing with a mulch mower, would that be an option with any particular cover crop?

I use my mower a lot. Depending on the situation I use mulch, blown and bagged. Luckily my new mower converts very easily to all 3.

Bag it when clearing crop residue so pathogens can be composted and killed or bag the grass clippings from the lawn for mulch and compost material. Mulch it when you want nutrients right where it sits. I also occasionally use the side blower to either let it dry a day and rake like hay, (if I DON'T want it to compost right away) or when I mow my paths between rows I blow the clippings into the beds.

Here is a great clip on cover crops and how to know what to use and when. It is commercial scale, but the principles can be adapted.

Innovative No-Till: Using Multi-Species Cover Crops to Improve Soil Health