Living Mulch

[kygreg]

Just read something about using crimson clover as a living mulch; plant it under tomato plants when they are 2ft high; supposed to add nitrogen. Anyone ever tried this? Maybe I just had too much egg nog for Christmas. Would it not take nutrients that the tomato plants might need? And would the extra nitrogen have a negative affect on fruit production? Thanks

[mvan]

For crimson clover, I think you want to plant it in the late summer/fall for growth the following year (it is an annual). Although for what you want to use it for, it may work to plant it in the summer. It probably won't provide additional nitrogen right away though.

The seeds have to be inoculated, but I think they usually come coated with the appropriate rhizobia.

I bought some this fall at a local farm store for $1.25/lb, pre-coated. I think I was a little late in sowing it, though. We've had a few frosts, and it has survived, but most of it only has its first set of true leaves.

Here's a link with some more info...

http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cgi-bin...e/show_crop_16

"Inoculation Crimson clover requires rhizobial inoculant type "R" (Nitragin Co.) (Burton and Martinez, 1980; Duke, 1981)."
"Pest Effects, Diseases Crimson clover is more resistant to diseases than are most alternative clovers (Baltensperger et al., 1987), and it is said to tolerate viral diseases (Duke, 1981). However, July sowing of crimson clover can result in stand failure due to virus (Knight, 1985)."

[kygreg]

thanks for the info mvan; the first thing I checked on was to make sure it was not an invasive plant and it was not.

[dave]

kygreg, an interesting bulletin from the USDA, Agricultural Reasearch Service. "Sustainable Production of Fresh-market Tomatoes and other Vegetables with Cover Crop Mulches" bulletin #2280, available for free, e-mail at john.teasdale@ars.usda.gov. It says "while supplies last" got a copy last summer. It's worth a look. dave

[Tania]

I planted crimson clover in 2007 as a winter cover crop, and it did very well in our climate, producing nice plants in the early spring with very beautiful flowers that attracted lots of bees. It tolerates below freezing temperatures quite well and survives our PNW winter.

It is quite easy to turn it under and you can plant the beds almost right away (2 weeks), leaving the clover to decompose in the soil.

Having said that, I now switched to oats, winter rye and winter peas as 'cover crop' - as i find these less work in spring compared to crimson clover. I think winter peas is as good nitrogen builder as crimson clover, but I did not do extensive research to compare the two. Oats and rye give me lots of 'green manure' to compost.

Tania

[brog]

Tania Please give more info on living mulch,and/or a resource
Thanks Bill

[cottonpicker]

Take a look at this OVERVIEW of COVERCROPS-----

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/covercrop.html#nutrient

LarryD

[cdbva]

Originally Posted by dave

kygreg, an interesting bulletin from the USDA, Agricultural Reasearch Service. "Sustainable Production of Fresh-market Tomatoes and other Vegetables with Cover Crop Mulches" bulletin #2280, available for free, e-mail at john.teasdale@ars.usda.gov. It says "while supplies last" got a copy last summer. It's worth a look. dave

It's also available online in .pdf here:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/Sustai.../TomatoPub.pdf

Christine

[kygreg]

Thanks everyone for all the information; sorry I have been slow to respond, but went on a one day trip that ended up being 3 days because of weather and worst of all, it was to my mother-in-laws. lol

[dice]

[living mulch]

I usually find research results for "living mulches" for use
in orchards (year-around live ground crovers under trees),
but there has been some research with corn, soybeans, etc.

Here is a document from Iowa State discussing research
using Kura Clover for a year-around mulch:
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/s...uraclover.html

One garden blogger complained that all of the clovers that
he ever tried in his garden for year-around mulch were
extremely invasive (probably did not include Crimson Clover,
which is an annual), and that he ended up switching to alfalfa
in the paths between rows, mowing it before it could set seed.

Another suggestion was to plant a large garden in grass, then
turn under 4 foot wide strips in spring to plant in, leaving 4 foot
wide paths between rows that one can simply keep mowed in
summer. In late summer to early fall, reseed that year's
vegetable rows with grass seed, and the next spring turn under
last year's paths to make the next year's garden beds. So each
year's vegetable rows were essentially fallow the year before,
growing only grass that gets turned under the next spring.
The turning under of a grass crop in each year's vegetable rows
makes it convenient to incorporate manures, compost, mineral
soil amendments, etc in spring. One does need enough fresh
grass seed each year to reseed half the garden area.

Any living mulch growing year around in one's vegetable beds
or rows is going to compete with the vegetable crop for water
and perhaps nutrients as well. That may not be a big deal
where the underlying substrate is mostly clay (holds enormous
amounts of water) and the living mulch fixes nitrogen
in the soil, but that could become annoying in sandy soils
and drought-stricken areas. (White Clover was mentioned as
being especially competitive for water in one document that
I read somewhere a few years ago.)