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: B* A* G* <b*@cybermesa.com>
  • Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:58:24 -0700
Very helpful information. I have always wondered how to tell if the nitrogen fixing bacteria were around. I knew about the nodules but wasn't sure that you could detect them just by looking at them. It would be lovely to have lupines and sweet peas blooming among the iris and feeding the soil as they do so. Your info about chemicals that help in rye grass is also helpful. I bought seeds for lupines and sweet peas this year but they never made it into the ground. Maybe I can use them this spring.
By the way, I, too, am a veteran leaf snatcher. But others have caught on in my town and you have to be quick to get the leaves. The pine needles are not commonly used in Los Alamos but we have lots of them. They take a long time to decay but make a good mulch for those of us with alkaline soil. In the south gathering and baling pine needles for sale is a business, but local folklore in Los Alamos is that pine needles contain too much acid. Well, I think that is what we need! So I use them. They decay more quickly than in my compost pile. 

Betty Gunther
Los Alamos, NM

On 11/3/2012 7:10 AM, Chuck Chapman wrote:
Sweet pea falls into "Vetch group" containing field pea, garden pea, broad-been and various vetches. Without testing you can't tell if the right bacteria is there or not. chances are high that it is, but perhaps not in high enough concentration. Concentration increase with succeeding years of growing one of that group.
You can test yourself. Plant some sweet pea. Did up a plant after it has grown for awhile. The presence or absence of nodules will be obvious, as well as number of nodules. See following article for more information. 

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3406/m1/9/

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index