I tend to thing organic when I defined high
calorie gardening. So cover crops play an important role in this concept. It is
also an area not very well understood by many people thinking about growing
their own food but with little experience. So here is some information to get
you stated. So be sure to check out the roller/crimper at the end of this blog.
Earth tools is the only one I know of who is making a garden sized unit. This
goes very well with the jab planters and manual transplanters I blogged about
before. I still have to work out collecting cover crop seeds. I am working on
that and hope to address it in another blog. So far it looks like the largest
seed crop you may be growing if you are not growing grains is your cover crop
seeds.
Enter the Northern Great Plains Research
Laboratory's Cover Crop Chart. This
publication replaces depth with breadth, presenting the highlights of 46 cover
crop species both pictorially and in the form of a bulleted list.
Johnny seeds Cover Crop Comparison Charts
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/assets/information/farm_seed_comparison_chart.pdf
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/assets/information/farm_seed_comparison_chart.pdf
Cover Crop Species and Descriptions
Cover Crop (340) in Organic Systems March 2014
National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)
California Implementation Guide
http://tilth.org/files/r-e/ocp/california-resources/cover-crop-in-organic-systems-california-implementation-guide
http://tilth.org/files/r-e/ocp/california-resources/cover-crop-in-organic-systems-california-implementation-guide
No-till Roller/Crimper Plans
One of the key elements of our organic no-till
research is a front-mounted cover-crop roller that knocks down a
weed-suppressing mat that can be planted through all in one quick pass.
ROLLER/CRIMPER DESIGNS FOR COVER CROPS MANAGEMENT
ON DIFFERENT FARM SCALES USING CONSERVATION PRACTICES
Introduction to cover crop rolling and the VAUSDA
crimper roller demonstration project
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_018551.pdf
Manual Crimper-Roller
“Crimp-Rolling a cover crop does NOT work for all
types of vegetable crops to be planted into (for example, Lettuces, Greens,
Carrots, Radishes, etc. cannot deal with the coarse “mulch” residue, and need a
“cleaner” seedbed...such as you would get by flail-mowing the cover crop and
working it into the soil), but for crops that it will work with, this tool
offers an extremely simple and totally reliable design, and the crimp-rolled
method offers the least possible soil disturbance (and therefore most intact
soil structure).
The Rodale Institute has been experimenting with
designs for transplanters (for vegetable starts) and seed drills to plant
through the cover crop mulch/residue. As
far as we can determine, these tools may be cost-effective for the scale of
agriculture done with full-size tractors (large acreage fields), but they are
NOT cost- or time-effective for the scale of agriculture performed by
walk-behind equipment. Therefore,
planting through the residue is best done manually. The weed suppression and moisture retention
the mulch provides (not to mention the addition of organic matter to the soil
as it decomposes) more than offset the labor of planting through the residue.”
However, I have already posted two blogs one on
Jab planters that should work and another on manual transplanters that should
work just fine with this system. With the exception of carrots which I will
later blog about because of their storage ability, most high calorie crops can
grow in crimped cover crops.
Some unusual plants for use as a cover crop
Burdock is a biannual plant meaning it will only
seed in the second year. It produces a deep taproot that can bring up nutrients
from deep down. This large taproot is needed so burdock can over winter. Late
emerging seedlings will not grow large enough to produce the root reserves
necessary for overwintering.
To kill second year burdock simply mow it down
after flower stalk forms or harvest the flower stalks for eating.
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