Content
- 1 Which mustard is best to sow as green manure?
- 2 Advantages and disadvantages of mustard as green manure
- 3 On what soils is it used?
- 4 What can be planted after mustard green manure?
- 5 What not to plant after mustard green manure
- 6 When to plant mustard as green manure
- 7 How to sow mustard on green manure
- 8 Consumption of mustard per hundred square meters as green manure
- 9 How to care
- 10 When to mow mustard as green manure
- 11 How to properly use mustard as green manure
- 12 Conclusion
- 13 Reviews on the use of mustard as green manure
Mustard as a green manure allows you to quickly and without unnecessary difficulties improve the quality of the soil on the site. But before planting a plant, you need to study its characteristics.
Which mustard is best to sow as green manure?
Any mustard can be used as green manure, but most often gardeners prefer the white variety. The plant can rise up to 80 cm above the ground, blooms with pale yellow flowers at the end of June and continues to bear buds until autumn. The fruits of the crop are pods with 10-15 seeds.
White mustard is a honey plant, therefore it attracts beneficial insects and improves plant pollination
White mustard is planted as green manure, since the variety sprouts very quickly and can withstand temperatures down to -5 °C. This allows you to sow grass in early spring without waiting for stable heat to set in. The culture also has a very rich chemical composition. It contains a lot of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which pass into the soil during the decomposition of the grass.
Advantages and disadvantages of mustard as green manure
The benefits of mustard green manure are provided by several points. When planting a plant on a site:
- effectively loosens heavy soil and increases its air and moisture permeability;
- suppresses the growth of weeds because it releases glycosides sinalbin and sinigrin into the soil;
- reduces the likelihood of fungal development due to essential oils in the composition;
- repels pests - wireworm, mole cricket, May beetle;
- slightly acidifies the soil;
- allows you to shorten the crop rotation cycle and sow crops in the same area earlier than expected;
- prevents the leaching of nutrients from the soil;
- repels aphids and codling moths from the area.
From the green mass remaining after mowing the grass, you can make high-quality compost or mulch for insulating beds.
At the same time, the beneficial properties of green manure are combined with its disadvantages. In particular, the plant:
- has a good effect on fertile soil, and improves the composition of depleted soil very slowly;
- may suffer from rust, Alternaria and powdery rose;
- accumulates and releases only phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen into the soil;
- requires regular application of chalk or lime to control pH levels when grown in acidic soil.
The disadvantage of the crop is that immediately after flowering its shoots begin to become lignified, become tough and decompose very slowly when planted. To use it as green manure, the grass must be mowed at the budding stage. If you leave the plant in the ground and allow it to bloom, mustard will attract bees to the area. But it will be pointless to embed it in the soil after mowing.
On what soils is it used?
The beneficial properties of mustard green manure for the garden appear only if the grass is sown correctly. It must be planted on peat, sandy or chernozem soil with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction. In this case, the grass will bring a good harvest, and after embedding in the ground, it will be able to enrich it with essential microelements and will not deteriorate its composition.
It is not recommended to plant the crop on loams, saline soils and acidified soils. The grass will develop poorly and will not produce abundant green mass. In addition, the acidity of the soil will increase, and the area will become unsuitable for growing many vegetable crops.
What can be planted after mustard green manure?
It is recommended to sow mustard manually on green manure before several crops. In particular, the following grow well after grass:
- peppers and eggplants;
- legumes - lentils, beans, peas;
- tomatoes and cucumbers;
- watermelons, melons and pumpkins;
- squash and zucchini;
- grains - buckwheat, wheat, oats and barley;
- carrots and beets;
- garlic;
- strawberries and berry bushes.
The grass is not related to the listed crops and does not have common diseases with them.
What not to plant after mustard green manure
The culture does not belong to the category of universal green manure. After growing it on the site, you cannot plant the following for another 3-4 years:
- any type of cabbage;
- radishes and radishes;
- turnip;
- spinach and rutabaga;
- watercress;
- horseradish.
If these crops are sown after mustard, they may suffer from dangerous fungal diseases. In addition, the rate of development of vegetables and herbs will be quite slow.
When to plant mustard as green manure
It is allowed to plant mustard as green manure before winter, as well as sow it in spring and early autumn. In any case, the culture will be able to benefit the site.
When to plant mustard in the fall as green manure
You can sow mustard on green manure in the fall from late August to mid-November. The specific period is chosen in accordance with the climatic characteristics of the region. For example, in the middle zone sowing is carried out during September, and in Siberia and the Urals - in the last days of August. In the south, the crop can be planted until the third ten days of November.
Before the first frost, the grass is mowed and spread on the ground, without being buried to depth. In any case, the mustard will rot well over the winter and fertilize the soil. You can also leave the grass untouched. In this case, it will protect the soil from freezing and retain moisture in it, preventing erosion due to exposure to wind and precipitation.
Mustard can be sown directly before winter to obtain seedlings in early spring.
When to plant mustard in spring as green manure
You can sow mustard on green manure in the spring in the south of Russia at the end of February, and in the middle zone and Siberia - after the soil thaws at the end of March or April. The warmer the soil and air, the faster the grass will grow; at a temperature of about 10 degrees, seedlings will appear in three days.
When sowing, it is necessary to take into account that for a full set of green mass the plant will need at least one and a half months. You need to plant green manure in such a way that you do not have to shift the dates for vegetable crops in the garden.
When to sow mustard on green manure in summer
In summer, mustard is planted as green manure, usually after harvesting a crop. In this case, grass helps to quickly restore soil fertility. Mowing is carried out from late July to mid-September.
How to sow mustard on green manure
The technology for planting grass in open ground is very simple. The diagram looks like this:
- The selected area is dug up and cleared of the remains of any vegetation.
- If necessary, humus is added to the soil, and if the soil is too acidic, dolomite flour is added to it.
- They dig up the area again and level it with a rake.
- Abundantly moisten the soil and scatter the seeds over the surface.
- Sprinkle with a layer of soil, deepening it no more than 1 cm.
When planting a crop in the spring, it is recommended to cover the bed with film for 2-3 days to provide the seeds with greenhouse conditions.
When planting mustard as a green manure before winter, do not water the soil, otherwise the seeds will begin to grow prematurely.
Consumption of mustard per hundred square meters as green manure
The consumption of seeds when sowing depends on the purpose for which the plant is planted. If it is necessary to improve the structure and composition of the soil with the help of a crop, you should spend about 100 g of material per 100 m2.
If you need to get rid of weeds with the help of mustard, as well as clean the soil from fungi and pests, the consumption rate is increased to 300-500 g. Sowing is carried out as densely as possible, the plants should be located close to each other.
How to care
When grown as green manure, mustard does not require complex care. There are several things you need to pay attention to:
- Watering.The crop does not tolerate drought well because its roots are superficial and cannot extract moisture from the deep layers of the soil. In hot weather without precipitation, it is necessary to water the plant at least once a week. At 1 m2 this consumes about 10 liters of water.
- Feeding. The culture develops well without applying fertilizers. But if desired, in the first stages of growth it can be fed with complex minerals or mullein infusion. The fertilizer must contain nitrogen, which promotes the development of green mass.
- Loosening. In order for the crop to grow as quickly as possible, it is recommended to stir up the soil at its roots from time to time to improve oxygen access. It is usually not necessary to pull out weeds, but if self-seeding grasses do germinate, they are promptly removed from the soil.
Mustard develops best at temperatures above 10 °C. Moreover, the seeds also germinate in cold weather at only 2-3 °C. But the growth rate of green manure in this case slows down.
When to mow mustard as green manure
Green manure mustard must be removed before flowering begins when buds appear. If you postpone the procedure, the stems of the crop will become woody, and subsequently the grass will rot in the soil for a very long time. Young shoots and leaves are very tender, quickly disintegrate in the soil and saturate it with useful substances. Experienced gardeners advise removing green manure about 40 days after germination.
In any case, mustard must be mowed before the seeds ripen, otherwise the green manure will turn into a weed
How to properly use mustard as green manure
After mowing the mustard, it is necessary to properly embed it in the ground.On light and loose soil, the grass is mixed with the soil when weeding so that it remains in the surface layers.
If the soil is heavy and clayey, it must be dug up along with mustard tops using a shovel. It should be borne in mind that green manure will take quite a long time to decompose even after timely mowing. The process can be accelerated slightly if you add Baikal EM-1 to the soil.
If the mustard sprouted in the fall and did not have time to form seeds before the cold weather, you don’t have to mow the plant at all, but simply leave it on the site for the winter. In the spring, the area with rotten green manure will need to be dug up using a hoe or flat cutter.
Conclusion
Mustard as a green manure has numerous advantages. Most often, the plant is used to improve the composition of the soil and to protect crops from fungi and pests.
Reviews on the use of mustard as green manure
