Vetch green manure: for what crops it is used, when to sow and how to grow

Sowing and growing green manure always justifies itself. They can be sown both in areas where crops will be grown in the future, and fallow. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of vetch green manure, after which crops it can be sown, the timing and rules of planting, how to care for plants, when and how to mow. In front of which crops vetch should not be planted.

Benefits and harms of green manure vika

The plant belongs to the legume family and has all the distinguishing features: a long flexible branching stem with paired leaves, red-violet inflorescences, from which brown beans are formed, each of which contains up to 10 graphite-colored seeds .Nitrogen-fixing bacteria live on the roots of the plant.

Vetch can be spring and winter. Both varieties are used as green manure. What benefits can a plant sown as green manure give:

• accumulates nitrogen in the soil, the element is in a form accessible to subsequent crops;
• roots strengthen and loosen the soil;
• Vetch is able to disinfect the soil, prevent the reproduction of fungi, the growth of weeds;
• green mass is buried in the soil, but some can be sent to livestock feed (it is an excellent nutritious feed containing vitamins and protein) or put in a compost heap;
• flowering plants attract bees and other pollinators;
• winter vetch protects the soil from freezing;
• increases crop yields by a third because it serves as an excellent green fertilizer.

The harm lies in the fact that the flexible stems lie down under their own weight and propped up on the ground. An overgrown vetch can produce seeds that fall to the ground and then germinate, this time becoming a weed.

Before which crops are used

You can not sow after the crops of the same family - beans, peas, beans. Bacteria and fungi that cause characteristic diseases can be found in the ground. It is recommended to sow vetch before all crops (vegetables, fruits, strawberries, root crops and herbs, cabbage, potatoes, onions), but especially before those that need a lot of nitrogen.

Spring vetch attracts bees to the site, so it can be planted in such a way that its blooming occurs at the time of flowering of shrubs and trees.

Green manure is best sown in a mixture with cereals: oats or rye. Tall, straight plants will support the soft vetch and keep it from falling to the ground. The mixture is prepared from seeds in a ratio of 50 to 50, mixed well and sown in rows.

Rules and boarding times

Vetch can be sown in the garden when the soil warms up to 4 °C. It is allowed to continue sowing until the end of summer, during the season it will be possible to sow green manure 3 times. It grows quickly, in about a month.

Before winter, the crop is sown from mid-October and in November, so that the seeds do not sprout, but remain in the soil. They will hatch in the spring as soon as the temperature rises to a level sufficient for the crop to grow.

How to sow:

• prepare the site, remove from it all the remnants of the previous culture;
• dig a shovel on a bayonet;
• fertilize with organic matter or minerals if the soil is poor in nutrients;
• draw grooves 7-8 cm deep at a distance of 10 cm from each other;
• manually sow the seeds at a distance of 3-5 cm (per hundred square meters - about 1.5 kg of seeds);
• cover the rows with earth.

If the soil is dry at the time of planting, water it until it is 10 cm wet.

It is not recommended to sow vetch on strongly acidic soils, sandy and arid or marshy, s alt marshes. Such growing conditions are poorly tolerated by the plant. The culture loves and grows better on neutral or slightly acidic soils, so acidic soils must be prepared before sowing: add lime and evenly distribute.

Care activities

Watering and fertilizing - all that is required for plants. If the cultivation takes place in the summer, then the green manure must be watered, especially in the heat. Vika grows quickly, but for this she will need top dressing. 2 weeks after germination, it needs to be fed with complex mineral fertilizers.

Mowing terms

Siderat is cut off a month and a half after germination.By this time, it will reach a height of 15-20 cm. If it is supposed to mow the mowed mass into the soil, then mow it 1.5-2 weeks before planting the next crop. During this time, the stems and leaves will have time to partially rot. Plants are cut and buried in the ground to a depth of 10 cm. Shallow embedding allows you to leave the roots partially intact to keep the nodules on them. In order for the green mass to rot faster and better, it is advisable to water the ground with an EM preparation that accelerates fermentation.

You can not linger with the cleaning of green manure. After flowering, its stems sharply coarsen, become rigid. Decay time increases.

Not suitable for crops

In the place where the vetch grew, you should not plant any kind of legumes, as well as beets and garlic. These crops have the same diseases and pests. There is a possibility that the crops will be infected, and diseases will have to be fought.Instead of increasing the yield, harm will result.

Vick as green manure is sown on agricultural fields and private plots. This is one of the best green manure plants, improving and nourishing the earth, saturating it with useful substances, especially readily available nitrogen, as a result, the yield of subsequent crops increases significantly. The roots strengthen the soil, disinfect, protect against diseases, fungi, pests, retain snow in winter and insulate the soil. On the site sown with green manure, weeds do not grow, it is not necessary to weed it. Vetch seeds retain their germination capacity well and germinate together. To consolidate the result, it is recommended to sow vetch as green manure every season.

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