Good cover crop?

Hey folks all doing well this year, very happy. wondering about gearing up for next year, want to make sure I do it right. Im looking at no-till situation after laying down a good super soil mix this year.

When ripping out girls at the end of the season, what next?

Why can I use for a cover crop as winter can be cold(ish) here.Id like to use comfrey if that would be a good idea, as it is a clay buster and our natural soil is slightly clay heavy.

what could I mulch with and when?

Hey Rocket,

Congrats on the natural progression and hike in quality!

Myself, I dont actually rip them out when no tilling, unless you're after the CBD in the roots.. which is something I just learned about.

But I do chop em, and leave about 4" of stem usually.. then 10 days later or so, after worms and bacteria and fungi do their thing for a bit, among other creatures, the stems you left will rip out with ease, without disturbing the surrounding structure and micro environments. This is much better if you want to establish a no till ..

Cover crops.. how cold do you get? If you can't grow greens there may be a couple other options..
I usually use comfrey, heirloom peas (to fix N), and or borage. They make great mulch at first then melt into the soil, keeping the organic content and nutrients up there. With Comfrey, which can have a 14 ft taproot if its the Russian hybrid variety, is what you may want to get if you are doing outdoors and wanting to break up your clay.

As for mulch, you can just use aeration(s) if you have nothing established yet, which would be a good idea whether growing in your soil or not, to prevent air microbe and wind erosion. Then I would upgrade to stems, leaves, and other bio-debris, which is free, natural, and full of nutrition, but it can attract pests if you don't have chitinase-inducing ingredients in your regime.

Hay, meanwhile, is messy, I don't use it anymore.
Wood chips, hate em, they attract fungus gnats.. and dont interrupt any life / pupae cycles of pests.

Now I rock the DE Rocks (NOT powder, which clogs), topped with our glacial blend I call "CBD Sand", which is a major pest barrier that still breathes, supports air roots, and is fungal, great for flowering and packing on size without the worry of bugs. There are other options too, but this is a glimpse into our gardening life, in case it helps the cause!

Best,
Don

DonTesla said:

chitinase-inducing ingredients

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That's a fungus product, isn't it?
One of their digestive enzymes?

Good question.

Chitin is a large, structural polysaccharide made from chains of modified glucose. Chitin is found in the exoskeletons of insects, the cell walls of fungi, (like you say) and certain hard structures in invertebrates and fish. In terms of abundance, chitin is second to only cellulose.

From my understanding, what chitin can do is initiate an auto immune response in plants. They probably recognize via the innate immune system a danger signal and then it responds.

(See pic)

..as well as an increase in vitamin as well as terpene production, according to some farmers I talk to. Don't quote me on this last sentence though. Sort of like when a human woman is pregnant, how they get the most amazing skin and hair and nails like never before.. (from what I hear)



Bit more reading here for those interested in some scholarly articles on the subject..

Plant Chitinases & Their Roles in Resistance to Fungal Diseases

LINKS:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2619419/

https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ajb.2011.29.37

Note: this plant is sleeping at night, and its still THAT perky.. no SST's or teas needed for this.
I think I just watered in a bit of dry BSF Frass, maybe a TBSP or so. Then with each watering of plain water, we got a reaction like this..

DonTesla said:

If you can't grow greens there may be a couple other options..
I usually use comfrey, heirloom peas (to fix N), and or borage.

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I can grow winter greens its not so cold that we get snowed in or anything, about the most it will get down to is about 10 of 12 Fahrenheit. will comfrey grow over winter or peas grow over winter? or would I be better off with some kind of winter brassicas?

DonTesla said:

you can just use aeration(s) if you have nothing established yet, which would be a good idea whether growing in your soil or not, to prevent air microbe and wind erosion.

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what do you mean by aerations? like aerated teas? or something else?

rockethoe said:

I can grow winter greens its not so cold that we get snowed in or anything, about the most it will get down to is about 10 of 12 Fahrenheit. will comfrey grow over winter or peas grow over winter? or would I be better off with some kind of winter brassicas?


what do you mean by aerations? like aerated teas? or something else?

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By aerations I mean, like literally aeration materials.. pumice.. biochar.. sand.. rice hulls or even perlite if need be. etc etc.

Never grew comfrey outdoors or in winter, but as for your covers, depends on how often it freezes really, but there are a tonnes of options there, depending on your tastes..

Call me strange but I take the fresh leaves of stinging nettle, borage, wild coastal yarrow and dandelion and fill up 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket. Then using a pair of sheers I cut up and bruise the leaves and then add pure water(ie: No chemicals, chlorine; chloramine; fluoride etc. Just natural river or pond water), until the bucket's half full. Loosely cover and set in a cool dark place and rot for two weeks(un-aerated), stirring every few days. Once all of the vegetable matter has decomposed I strain out the vegetable matter and bottle it.

I water my plants with a dilution at a ratio of 1 or 2 parts "green gack" to 10 parts pure water. They really like it!

SageFromZen said:

Call me strange but I take the fresh leaves of stinging nettle, borage, wild coastal yarrow and dandelion and fill up 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket. Then using a pair of sheers I cut up and bruise the leaves and then add pure water(ie: No chemicals, chlorine; chloramine; fluoride etc. Just natural river or pond water), until the bucket's half full. Loosely cover and set in a cool dark place for two weeks(un-aerated), stirring every few days. Once all of the vegetable matter has decomposed I strain out the vegetable matter and bottle it.

I water my plants with a dilution at a ratio of 1 or 2 parts "green gack" to 10 parts pure water. They really like it!

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Not so strange, you're smart..

Those items will also act as mulches and melt in, yes, but as a steep, you can amplify / leverage them!

I just so happen to use insect frass within my own living soil recipe as well as an occasional root drench.

SageFromZen said:

I just so happen to use insect frass within my own living soil recipe as well as an occasional root drench.

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Very nice, dude.

Have you compared to when you don't use it by chance, any differences to note, like less terps or resistance etc?

My lawnmower clippings are full of seeds for weeds.
It Is an awesome green mulch (cannabis loves green mulch) and It grows its own cover crop with multiple species.

DonTesla said:

Very nice, dude.

Have you compared to when you don't use it by chance, any differences to note, like less terps or resistance etc?

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Regretfully, I haven't done a side by side so I'm ill equipped to comment. Might be a nice case study for next year though.

SageFromZen said:

Regretfully, I haven't done a side by side so I'm ill equipped to comment. Might be a nice case study for next year though.

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Agreed, agreed... I was just curious is all.

I'd say the oddest ingredient within my living soil is sparrow guano.

Here's how this works: We have 8 large bird feeders scattered throughout the backyard. Closest the patio we have this huge butterfly bush which is where the sparrows frolic all day long. Well over the course of days and weeks leaves fall and of course sparrow poop accumulates on the concrete beneath the butterfly bush. All these birds eat is our wild bird seed and the dry organic cat food that we leave out back for the ferals.

Using a plastic lawn rake I gently pull away the leaves, sticks and twigs revealing the sparrow guano below. So I do this sifting process a few times with the rake and before long I've got a good pile of bird poop! Wearing a pair of smooth bottomed shoes I do the "twist" and shooby-do-wah across the guano grinding it to a fine powder on the concrete below. Then using a dust pan and a brush I sweep up my new batch of guano powder(with respiratory protective mask intact), I put the contents in a large grocery store paper bag, then double bag it, then I have a spot on a shelf in the shed where I let it set for nine months to a year for fossilization to occur.

I just collected another sparrow guano batch last week when trimming back the butterfly bush! I have a fully sustainable sparrow and wild bird guano farm at my fingertips and I use it.

rockethoe said:

Hey folks all doing well this year, very happy. wondering about gearing up for next year, want to make sure I do it right. Im looking at no-till situation after laying down a good super soil mix this year.

When ripping out girls at the end of the season, what next?

Why can I use for a cover crop as winter can be cold(ish) here.Id like to use comfrey if that would be a good idea, as it is a clay buster and our natural soil is slightly clay heavy.

what could I mulch with and when?

Click to expand...

There are a lot of potential cover crops to consider that do different things and of course, as you mentioned, you'll be restricted by your climate. All I can say us you need a copy of this book.

ANC said:

My lawnmower clippings are full of seeds for weeds.
It Is an awesome green mulch (cannabis loves green mulch) and It grows its own cover crop with multiple species.

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Lawn clippings all the way. They really do make for a versatile green mulch and I really like how they melt down over time. Here in the SF east bay my back lawn is at it's thickest and freshest right about the time that I need it for transplants in the spring. So that's the first wave which breaks down relatively quickly after it's been mowed and literally "melts" minerals and such into the top layer below. Come early summer my lawn is tan and dry and acts as a more aerated mulch which again is quite appropriate for the time of year that it's needed. Totally versatile.

SageFromZen said:

SF east bay

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Que barrio, homie

Orale' The Haystack

SageFromZen said:

Orale' The Haystack

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I lived in Oakland for the longest

Oakland has a keen sense of culture. That's what I like about it. Of course there are parts of Oakland that I won't even visit because of certain culture so it's all relevant.