Winter rye grows well on any type of soil: acidic or alkaline, light or heavy. In addition, its delicate shoots tolerate severe frosts well, as well as snowless winters with a prolonged drop in air temperature to -30˚C. In this regard, it is important to know some of the features of its planting.
Positive aspects of cereals as green manure
The price of cereal seeds is negligible. For pennies you can buy a bucket of grains, which is enough for 5 acres of land. And there will be enough green mass from five acres that you can fertilize a plot of half a hectare if you use the mowing method. Mowing is cutting off greenery and using it in other beds. The roots remain in the soil and serve as additional fertilizer.
Rye is a picky plant and can grow in any type of soil. Regular watering is required, since the root system of rye is fibrous. This is a bunch of thin roots that loosen the soil well, but penetrate into it shallowly and cannot get moisture from the depths.
Rye is one of the most frost-resistant green manures, which allows it to overwinter under the snow and in the spring continue to grow and gain green mass. The winter variety is planted at the end of September or even in October. Autumn plantings are not mowed, but the seedlings are allowed to go under the snow.
If you sow winter rye in the spring, it will grow longer. Planting vegetables will have to wait, which is not always profitable. Therefore, summer residents try to harvest the crop and immediately sow the bed with rye grains in order to get plants up to 30 cm high by spring.
The branched root system grows quickly, faster than the weeds from which it takes nutrients. If after cleaning the area you sprinkle it with mineral fertilizers, the effect will be even better.
Winter rye is mowed several times in spring and summer, leaving the roots in the ground. Thus providing plants with nutrition for the entire growing season. After all, rye can not only be embedded in the soil for rotting, but also made into green liquid fertilizer for watering seedlings.
Video: Rye as green manure - gardener reviews
All useful substances pass into the water and quickly reach the roots of vegetable crops. Raspberries, which have a shallow root system and are very dependent on the availability of nutrients in the upper fertile layer, will be especially grateful for such watering.
Another positive property is that it is suitable for all plants, based on the principles of crop rotation. Cereals are not grown in summer cottages, so they are quite suitable as an intercrop for legumes or cruciferous plants - cabbage, radishes, radishes.
The benefits of green organics
Sideration is the process of fertilizing the soil with plants. For more than 100 years, agronomists have been using green manure as a source of nutrition and soil restoration on large plots of land and small farms.
Historical fact . The method of enriching the earth with green fertilizers has been known since ancient times. In Central and Middle Asia it was used 3 thousand years ago. Since the 19th century, green manure has become popular in Europe.
Green manures are natural organic matter, green fertilizers that ensure the natural circulation and exchange of useful substances in the soil. The main advantage is environmental friendliness and safety for the environment.
World agronomic practice and science have proven that natural fertilizers increase soil fertility by 3-5 times. In addition, these are “long-range” fertilizers, a kind of advance payment for the future. They create favorable conditions for the growth and development of subsequent planting of plants (vegetables, root crops, berries).
Benefits of green organics:
- stimulates the development of soil organisms (worms, larvae, microorganisms);
- the roots of green manure plants optimize the mechanical structure of the soil, form a system of bark canals that accumulate nitrogen, starch, proteins, sugar and microelements;
- plant residues - natural mulch and compost, protecting the soil from weathering, blowing away and erosion;
- mulch from the mowed above-ground part prevents excessive growth of weeds (weed seeds remain without access to sunlight and do not germinate);
- green mulch protects the soil from drying out (gradually rotting fertilizer stems ensure uniform nutrition and hydration);
- a laying layer of winter green manure prevents soil damage by wind erosion; the fertile layer is protected from being washed away along the slope of the site.
Negative sides of rye
This plant also has disadvantages. Cereal crops attract wireworms to the area, which damages potato tubers or tomato roots. Rye is a favorite treat of click beetle larvae.
To solve the problem, rye crops are combined with mustard crops. Such a neighborhood is beneficial for the soil, the plants, and the green manures themselves. Mustard is slightly less frost-resistant than rye crops, so they will protect the mustard seedlings from freezing with their green mass.
What can you plant after oats?
Oats are universal and work effectively in any conditions. It is most relevant on clayey, viscous soil, significantly increasing its potential.
There is a rule according to which you cannot alternate cereal crops with each other, i.e. if you decide to sow an area with some kind of cereal, planting oats as a fertilizer is not recommended.
Did you know? Scientists suggest that oats reached Russian lands from Ethiopia in Africa, clinging with fleecy spikelets to the fur of animals and the feet of pedestrians.
You can safely plant in enriched soil:
- raspberries and currants;
- strawberries and strawberries;
- pepper of different varieties;
- tomatoes;
- cabbage
For almost all garden plants, the “combination” with this cereal crop will only be beneficial.
Recommendations for sowing from experienced gardeners
According to reviews, rye as green manure should be sown in the fall for the following reasons:
- If you burn tops of vegetables and branches from trees, the ash will be an additional fertilizer containing potassium and phosphorus. This has a good effect on the development of the root system of green manure, and the stronger the root, the more stable the green manure is under the snow.
- Rye will prevent weeds from growing and the area will remain clean until spring, which cannot be said about manure. In animal organic matter there are many seeds of weeds, since they are in a dense shell that is not dissolved by the gastric juice of animals and enters the soil intact. The only way to destroy seeds is through composting, which takes almost a whole year.
- Winter rye needs a lot of moisture during seedling germination. In autumn, precipitation falls, which completely satisfies the water needs of cereals.
- Crops retain snow on the beds, which contributes to deeper moistening of the area.
- Green manure sown in the fall can be quickly incorporated into the ground in the spring and you will not be late in planting seedlings in open ground, because plant residues require 2 weeks to partially decompose in the ground.
- Nematodes and pathogenic microflora cannot live in places where rye grows. During the winter, the number of parasites decreases. If you combine rye seeds with mustard or legumes, you will get a complete fertilizer that has phytosanitary properties.
- The root system of winter rye is stronger. Rye as a green manure, according to reviews from summer residents, is able to recover after each mowing. During the growing season, up to 3–4 cuttings of green mass are obtained.
If rye is so difficult to breed, then what to do? Wait until the cereals once again grow and begin to spike. All the energy will go into the grain and the roots will weaken. At this point, it needs to be mowed again and left to rot. This, according to reviews from gardeners about winter rye as a green manure, is two more advantages:
- By mowing the eared shoots, it is possible to prepare hay for goats or cows in the winter. To do this, you need to have a large area, but anyone who harvests grass knows that in addition to green fertilizer, you can get nutritious food from rye crops.
- When burned, rye straw produces ash. The value of ash fertilizer does not need to be described - it has been used for centuries to feed plants in dry and liquid form. Potassium in rye ash is 14%, phosphorus is 6%, calcium is 10%. Ash deoxidizes the soil, does not contain chlorine, and is therefore useful for potatoes and tomatoes.
Rye ash promotes the proliferation of beneficial microflora and earthworms in the soil, which eat plant residues and enrich the soil with humus.
Landing technology
To grow green manure, use small seeds. The technology for sowing spring rye is as follows:
- The row spacing is 15 cm.
- 2 kg per 100 acres.
- Seeding depth - 3-5 cm.
After sowing, mix the seeds with the soil, loosening the beds. If sowing is done manually, the standard is 1 grain per 4 cm. Winter rye is sown less frequently than spring rye. For winter sowing, the standard is 750 g per 100 acres. For autumn sowing, seeds from last year's harvest are preferable, because this year they do not have time to ripen and may not germinate. After sowing, the grains are sprinkled with earth. Snow forms a protective warm layer through which the rye can “breathe” and does not die. In spring, the greens are chopped and buried 2 weeks before planting the main plants.
Which plants are suitable for rye as green manure?
Due to the large amount of nitrogen, rye is used as a precursor to potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons. These are the plants that need nitrogen supplements for full development. But potatoes are damaged by wireworms, which are undesirable to attract to the site, so rye is combined with mustard before potatoes.
Under fruit trees, rye must be watered frequently so that the fruit yield does not decrease due to lack of moisture. Joint planting of cereals and vegetables is not recommended, as the rye will take away water and nutrients.
Advantages and disadvantages
Rye differs from other green manures in its abundance of advantages and almost complete absence of weaknesses.
Advantages:
- Not picky about soil type. It can grow successfully even on highly acidified or alkaline soil.
- Affordable price.
- It can be an excellent autumn food for livestock.
- Strongly developed rhizomes, thanks to which rye obtains its nutrition from the deep layers of the soil.
- Nutritional value. Green manure rapidly rots in the soil, providing garden crops with all the main useful components.
- Aeration. The powerful rhizomes of rye naturally loosen the soil on the site.
- Retains snow, preventing soil freezing.
- Displaces weeds and prevents their spread.
- Fights pests and diseases.
- It is an excellent companion for potatoes, carrots, and beets.
Flaws
- Cereals consume a large amount of moisture, and therefore dry out the soil greatly. Requires regular, abundant watering.
- If the rye is not incorporated into the soil in a timely manner, the greens will become coarse and cause a lot of trouble.
Attention! Do not plant rye among fruit trees and berry fields, as well as between vegetable beds. This will lead to lower yields.
When to plant and dig up rye crops with soil
The winter variety is planted at the end of August, immediately after harvesting the vegetables. Until November, rye crops gain green mass. Then you can do as you wish:
- Trim the greens with a flat cutter and dig them to a depth of about 10 cm for rotting.
- Leave on the surface of the soil without digging. With the onset of spring, decomposed greenery will fall into the ground.
- Do not mow the green mass in the fall, but leave it to grow until spring. This is the most popular method - it is recommended by gardeners who actively use green manure to restore the soil.
The method without digging has another advantage: digging causes the death of soil microorganisms that live at different depths. If the upper and deeper layers are swapped, the beneficial microflora will not be able to survive. In addition, bacteria die from exposure to ultraviolet radiation - they prefer to live in the dark. It will take a long time to restore the population of beneficial bacteria – up to 3 years. Or buy special preparations containing microorganisms.
In developed countries, the use of mineral fertilizers and chemicals when growing vegetables and fruits is gradually prohibited. Farmers are switching to more natural methods of increasing fertility - green manure and bacteria.
Many summer residents continue to dig the ground, thinking that this is how they loosen it. But green manure does this more effectively. After all, roots that decompose in the soil leave behind channels into which water and air penetrate. This makes the soil softer and more moist. In addition, bacteria are preserved, for which plant components serve as food.
To incorporate green fertilizer into the soil in the spring, just grind it with a flat cutter directly into the soil, water it and wait one and a half to two weeks for the plant residues to decompose. After two weeks, you can plant vegetable seedlings. You can speed up the decomposition process with EO preparations diluted in water to the required concentration.
Important advice for autumn planting: empty fields and beds are inhabited by birds. If you leave the grain uncovered, the crows will eat it. Therefore, it is recommended to sow rye to a depth of about 3 cm. On sandy loam soils - up to 5 cm. On clay soils 1 - 2 cm, so that seedlings break through to the surface faster and easier.
Advantages of autumn sowings
I once looked at my neighbors as if they were crazy, digging up their garden twice a year. You can barely cope in the spring, why bother with additional work in the fall? It turned out that I was completely wrong.
In many beds, there is a very long gap from harvesting crops, such as onions, peas, early cabbage, to spring digging. During this time, the bed has time to become overgrown with weeds, including perennial ones, so that digging it up in the spring is hard work. If you dig up the bed immediately after harvesting, the soil is still loose and light. Such digging takes an order of magnitude less time and effort. Crops, called green manure, planted after autumn digging will prevent weeds from multiplying and loosen the soil. Therefore, spring digging is much easier. I can tell you from my own experience, using technology such as digging up the soil twice a year with autumn sowing of green manure, we have halved the labor costs for digging. At the same time, previously it was mainly my husband who dug up the beds in the spring; for me, this work was really physically too difficult. And now I can handle two-stage digging quite easily on my own.
