Gardening with Wally Richards: Green crops and seed storage

I am always pleased to have readers contact me and requesting an article on a topic that they would like to read about.

It gives me something to write about which is of general interest and after 50 odd years of writing columns on gardening sometimes one gets writers block about what to write about each week.

Green crop or often called cover crops are normally planted into vegetable gardens about now or earlier which are not in use growing winter vegetables and the summer vegetables and potatoes have been harvested.

Thus rather leaving the ground bare for weeds to grow (which actually are a free green crop.)

The reason to sow and grow a green crop is to take up the nutrients that was applied during the growing to your summer/autumn vegetables and not taken up by those plants.

If you leave the plot unplanted then a lot of the food values would be leached away in winter through rain and cold.

By planting a cover crop it will take up those dollars you spend feeding the previous crop and prevent most of that goodness to be taken up by the cover crop.

A densely sown cover crop will also reduce the ability for weed seeds to germinate and survive.

In days gone by about a month or so before one was going to plant their spring crops they would dig in the green crop.

But earlier if the crop started to flower as they did not want the crop to become a weed in the summer if it set seeds.

That was likely good exercise and saved on gym fees but it is not the best way to treat the crop.

The preferred way is when you want to replant the area or at the latest when the crop starts to show flower buds; is to cut the plants down at ground level using either hedge clippers or a weed eater.

That leaves the root system in the soil to rot down and does not disturb the soil life and upset the apple cart so to speak.

The plants being annuals means there will be no re-growth from the root system.

The cut foliage is left laying on the soil to be reabsorbed back into the earth preserved all the goodness of the previous season and added a lot more to it.

Then you sprinkle a good dose of Wallys Calcium & Health over the foliage which helps speed up the process or even better spread Wallys Calcium Hydroxide.

It can be left like that to weather or at anytime lay cardboard over the foliage. Wet down the cardboard and then on top of it spread Wallys Real Blood & Bone along with any animal manures you may have available.

The animal manure is an extra and if you don’t have then a good dosing of Real Blood & Bone will be ample.

For extra minerals you can use either or both Wallys Ocean Solids and Unlocking your soil.

Over all that put a layer of my favourite compost and you are ready to plants new seasons seeds or seedlings.

What cover crop plants to grow?

Lupin is excellent and it fixes nitrogen in to the soil.

If you dig up a lupin plant or a clover plant, you will see, scattered over the root system, little nodules about the size of pinheads.

Those nodules are filled with thousands of bacteria, which fix nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil.

Mustard is a very useful green-manure crop. It provides organic-matter content to improve soil structure, and it fixes the nitrogen that the lupins make in its leaves so it doesn’t wash away.

Do not plant mustard if you have the disease club root in the soil.

A mix of the two is good value and there are other ones such as oats that can be sown as well.

Now storing seeds….

Packets of seeds purchased, opened or unopened along with seeds collected from ones own gardens, named and dated, should ideally be kept in your fridge at normal fridge temperatures.

I use the likes of two litre cleaned plastic ice cream containers with lid on or purchased plastic storage containers with lids of suitable size for storing in a fridge. I also use glass jars with lids on.

I have a compartment drawer in one of our home fridges which is mainly used for our dogs food.

I have been storing all sorts of seeds this way for over 25 years and a couple of years ago I brought out a special tomato seed that had been in the fridge for about 25 years and obtained about a 50% strike rate.

One of the advantages of fridge seed storage besides retaining viability longer is that the seeds think they have come out of winter and as a result germinate quicker.

Also a tip on obtaining better germination is to either soak larger seeds in a 20% solution of Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) over night or with smaller seeds spray them with that strength of MBL before covering.

A Reminder also spray your frost tender plants with the new Wallys Spray on Frost Protection as soon as possible, also to prevent damage and remove any mulches from under garden plants and citrus trees to allow soil to dry after rains and prevent wet feet.

Plants you have that can’t handle wet root zones should be sprayed every month with Wallys Perkfection that helps prevent wet weather diseases and loss of plants.

Time to fumigate your glasshouse by burning Wallys Sulphur Powder and do so before you remove finished plants for the season so you kill pests on them instead of taking them outside to infest garden plants.

Plants that you want to keep (like capsicum and chili) move them out before treatment or lift them and put them into a container.

A good idea is once out of the glasshouse in in a protected area is to spray them all over with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil and Super Pyrethrum combined a couple of days apart.

Once the glasshouse has been fumigated and about 24 hours later they can go back in.

Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz

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Image credit: Sheikh Mohammad Fahim