farmimg question

mikeintn · Feb 12, 2012

For you farmers, I have just a small hobby garden that I have used for a few years and was not going to plant it this year but plan on next year, is there something that would be good to sow on it this spring that would be good for the soil? Mike

GaryinKs · Feb 12, 2012

Plant Buckwheat and plow it under.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 12, 2012

We use buckwheat, good green manure and cover and smoothers lots of weeds.

wijim · Feb 12, 2012

Soybeans are another good soil builder, or tilage radishes.

ejr-IA. · Feb 12, 2012

Sweat clover,soybeans,alfalfa,rye any legume.Years ago we would plant soybeans and let them grow until they started to pod then plow them under for green manure.Good soil builder and added nitrogen.

sflem849 · Feb 12, 2012

I like beans or tillage radishes, too. I was going to suggest rye because of it's allelopathy characteristics. That means it trys to kill other plants in the neighborhood. But then I got to thinking RR beans would be even better. Hit it with a shot of Round-Up once a month and you will kill the weeds and have a nice nitrogen credit when you are done.

The bad thing about buckwheat is if you let it go to seed it will self seed easily. It is a great thing when planting a food plot, but not as a cover crop in a garden.

riverbend · Feb 12, 2012

I like a mix of a grass and a legume, oats and field peas, rye and hairy vetch, sorghum sudan grass and soybeans, etc.

The oats and peas can be planted early, left to mature and then disked down in mid to late August to grow a winter cover that winter kills.

It is too late for winter rye and vetch, but an Italian or annual rye would work. The vetch contains and pruduces some hard seed so it can show up as a weed, but usually it is not much of a problem. The vetch might over winter.

The sudax and soybeans are warm weather crops. They produce a lot of N and organic matter and winter kill.

Greg

El Toro · Feb 12, 2012

I've used barley and rye for a cover crop. I've planted buckwheat when the weather warms and tilled it under. It's hard to find around here. Hal

El Toro · Feb 12, 2012

I've used barley and rye for a cover crop. I've planted buckwheat when the weather warms and tilled it under. It's hard to find around here. Hal

sflem849 · Feb 12, 2012

(quoted from post at 17:52:34 02/12/12) I've used barley and rye for a cover crop. I've planted buckwheat when the weather warms and tilled it under. It's hard to find around here. Hal

Buckwheat is also super expensive. I forgot to add that one. We paid just short of $60/bag for ours. It is good to seed 1-2 acres though.

rustcollector · Feb 12, 2012

Mike,

It is best to get a local recommendation from your county extension agent or state forage specialist. You may be able to grow Sorghum-Sudan grass that will produce much greater growth if properly fertilized; or soybeans or several other summer crops as a cover crop, then follow up with wheat or rye grass with a clover mix for winter. Just depends on your soil type and location in TN.

DoubleR · Feb 12, 2012

I plant rye. The seed is cheaper and easy to get where I live. It also grows fast. I plow it under when its still green before it starts to turn. I liked buckwheat but the seed is hard to get and expensive when you do find it. Plow it under too like the rye. I have also used wheat and oats if the seed is easy to get and the price is right. But it does grow slower than the rye. Just my opinion.

mikeintn · Feb 12, 2012

I didnt know that I did know so little lol, thats a lot of options, thanks for all the respones, I'm in far E.Tn. I will check local, thats a good ideal also, the oats and peas, is that just any kind of peas, I know they die early, do you just let them lay until August, then disc or plow, does it make a different, sorry for all the questions, and proberly some silly ones, just find it interesting, never did do much farming, my little garden didnt seem to do to good last year.

David G · Feb 12, 2012

My dad always sowed soy beans on his, then plowed it under while green and planted another crop to plow in the fall. The green material and the extra nitrogen worked well for him.

GordoSD · Feb 12, 2012

I'd do some spring soybeans and disc it in in late summer, Then plant turnips radishes and rape and harvest a bunch of venison from the "garden"

old · Feb 12, 2012

White dutch clover and then mow it off and on all summer. It will both add to the soil and also make a nice cover crop that is cheap and takes almost no work for up keep and also brings in the bee which we all need

mikeintn · Feb 12, 2012

Sounds like soybeans will be ok and then something latter in the year, GordoSD I already got to many deer running around had to put up an electric fence around the garden to keep them and the coons out, seen 7 or 8 of them just yesterday. Do I need to wait until after the frost to plant soybeans?

soybeanjoe · Feb 12, 2012

I agree with plowing under green soybeans as they make an excellent green manure crop. I'd recommend buying seed from a dealer as Mother M can get rather snippity if she thinks you're planting saved gmo seed and cutting her out of her tech fees.

El Toro · Feb 13, 2012

My late dad was a big believer in planting soy beans. We cut it for hay and the cows like it.
It was bad for making you itch. Here's a pic of his college graduation class taken in 1912. He's in the bottom row and if you count from the left to your right he's in the fourth picture. Things have really changed in the last 100 years. Hal

riverbend · Feb 13, 2012

They are field or forage peas. 4010 is one well know variety around here. Disk. You want them close to the surface.

i don't think anyone's garden did much last year. All the vegetable growers around here got about 3/4 of a crop.

Greg

GordoSD · Feb 13, 2012

How big an area we talking here. Over an acre?

BigMarv1085 · Feb 13, 2012

Buck wheat, plant soy beans and the deer will enjoy and will remember where to come next year.

Bspauld · Feb 13, 2012

My Dad was born in 1890. Must be yours was born close to that. He was 51 when I was born but he didnt get higher education, unless you call 8th grade higher

mikeintn · Feb 14, 2012

No its just a small place, no more then half acre.

El Toro · Feb 14, 2012

My dad born the same year as your's. He was 43 when I was born my mother was his second wife and she was 15 years younger than my dad. I never knew what happened to his first wife whether she died or they were divorced. He had a daughter by his first wife that was born in 1918 and she was killed along with three other teens in 1934 at a railroad crossing. I've been trying to find where she was buried never knew which state was killed in. My grandparents put 3 sons through college. One became a teacher and later became a dentist. Hal

The monk · Feb 20, 2012

Crimson clover makes a good cover and can be plowed under as "green manure"

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