Re: Brocolie as a green manure crop control soil diseases
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: Brocolie as a green manure crop control soil diseases
  • From: C* C* <i*@aim.com>
  • Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 09:38:42 -0400 (EDT)
I've just checked the research on broccoli. Very sound research on broccoli as a cover crop reducing incidence of wilt. Wilt damages germinating seeds in agricultural vegetable crops, and affects potato and strawberry production. I don't think it will have any benefit for iris. I haven't heard of any problem with wilt with iris.
I'm surprised that they focused on broccoli, as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, etc are all the same species as broccoli . They are different in appearance because of selective breeding.
As for green manure , consider rye. As it is rotting in soil after tilling in, it releases seed killing chemicals. Reducing weeding following year. You need to wait about 6 weeks after tilling in to plant seeds of anything. 

Chuck Chapman



-----Original Message-----
From: SDAyres2 <SDAyres2@aol.com>
To: iris <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Sat, Nov 3, 2012 7:15 am
Subject: [iris] Brocolie as a green manure crop control soil diseases

The extension agent  recommended to me to consider the use of broccoli
grown up to just before flowering and then incorporating them into the soil. Broccoli can help suppress disease in soils when you want to renew an iris bed. He said to do a Google search on Rotation with Broccoli for soil borne Disease. Has anyone experience with broccoli to eliminate soil diseases?
The broccoli discussion came about because I was discussing using sweet peas (dwarf) in between irises to fixate Nitrogen in to the soil. He said that planting Sweet Peas will not increase soil nitrogen if they do not have the right soil rhizobium inoculant, nor if the soil already has sufficient 
nitrogen.  Plus he  said you would have to work it in before flowering.
Has anyone  grown sweet peas  in between the irises in the spring and
winter? Do they crowd the irises? I am doing an article on green manure for the club newsletter and website. Can anyone send me pictures of sweet peas 
grown amongst the  irises?  I have known that the inoculant you can buy
varies with cover crop. I would like to buy some inoculant to help the sweet 
peas fix  nitrogen in to the soil but am not sure which one.  Any
recommendations?

Thanks
Scarlett

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