Summer Cover Cropping Guide
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- Опубліковано 26 лис 2024
- In today's video we are talking all about summer cover crops from buckwheat to sesbania to sweet potatoes? Yeah.
What the video generally covers: how to cover crop in the summer, what are some good summer cover crops, what types of summer cover crops are there, is summer cover cropping a good idea, what's a good cover crop mix for summer, sesbania, sunn hemp, sorghum sudangrass, red sorghum, cover crop termination, etc..
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Hey all! Sorry about the music volume - something either happened when I was rendering the video or I’m just still bad at editing. 🤷
Either or both are entirely possible
I didn’t think it was too bad and I am so glad I found this channel in the act of looking for land have the capital already
Dude I was like WT ..hey that sounds like Khruangbin oh its another band that is the closest to a Khruangbin style Ive ever heard... and than some how, now it's on 'my' gardening show. Wait coincedences do happen? Love it. 'Team' Jesse doing the hard work and than sharing it. Your gift is greatly received. Thank you!
put a compressor and/or loudness maximizer over the whole mix to keep things even
3:15 ive thought 💭 about how well it can go with the help of God to have some pre chilled garlic 🧄 for 8 weeks then plant in this window for another harvest of garlic and then go to fall/ winter planting of garlic as normal
@@clairespencer4218 I thought it was Khruangbin too! It’s not? Who is it, now I need to know! Thanks!
Clearly, one of the brighter presenters in this realm. Nice to see and hear. Thanks for your extra efforts to bring the material to us. Cheers.
That clickbait commentary was hilarious. Thanks for all your videos and efforts! Certainly appreciated
Each summer I use sorghum Sudan and iron clay pea mix. Does great together with positive nematode control. I’m in NW Florida so it comes up fast. I do. 3 lb per 1000 sq ft for a weed suppression thickness. I’ll push it over with my Z turn deck set high then go back with my mulching cover on and mow twice. Then I immediately till it all in at 6 inch depth, water it in then tarp for 4-6 weeks. Works perfect for my needs. I repeat that process with Kodiak Mustard in September and till it in a month later. This process controls nematodes well and adds some good biomass for my soils needs.
I like the idea of wildflowers for a cover crop!
I love to use lemongrass because I also sell it as tea when I cut it back but it keeps the soil shaded and stops soil erosion.
Very helpful tips! One good thing about sunn hemp and Sesbania is that they grow fast and can produce a lot of seeds so if you can get them, you should be set for seeds moving forward 🤙
Super hot here. Cowpeas are the way to go. There are MANY varieties of cowpeas. I like to use the ones that are sorta runners. Shades the soil beddah.
Headed to early dinner. Hour drive. We are listening to thisbon the way. Always good actionable info. 100 plus here today in middle tn.
I grow on a smaller scale than what I typically see in these videos but enjoy seeding tall, quick, stalky plants early in my summer rotation and follow with vining or trailing species - crop or cover like tomatoes, tomatillos, cowpeas, etc. I cut the stalks to the maximum height I want to viners/trailers - usually chest or waist height. They then work as poles and cages for the secondary cover and provide lots of beneficial perching structure. Great info and video! Will follow up with the other cover crop vids in the playlist!
I checked out your channel after reading your comment(and scrren name) but the link in there is forbidden.
Take good care
@@SpiritusBythos Thanks much! It is a thought dump I have not fully developed. Am working on getting things underway here...
We get dragon and damsel flies but also various small insectivor and seed eating birds.
So many great nuggets of info here! I kept hitting the rewind button to re-listen to segments. So good!
This year was the first time we attempted a summer crop. We're in southern Oklahoma, where it has been hot and dry as hell! We went 47 days without rain. Argh! We went with buckwheat, and had mixed results. It grew fast and strong, but went to seed much quicker than we had anticipated. No worries, though. At least we saved $$ on the second round of the summer buckwheat. Now we are stressing on the timing of the termination (mowing) of the second round along with the planting of our fall/winter crop.
LETS GOOOO I just did this last week and to see you speaking about it boosts my gardening confidence! 💪🏼 🌱
Lemongrass won't die off in Central FL, it thrives. I've been using black eyed peas from the grocery store as my cover crop this summer. Working out amazing & the pollinators love it.
Thanks! Good to know. Important context 👆 for tropical and subtropical growers
THE PEAS GROW RIGHT OUT THE BAG?
I use Wally World peas! They are cheap and sprout quickly
@@t-a9402 DO YOU PUT THEM IN WATER..OR DAMP PAPER TOWEL IN THE FRIDGE?
@@MD-cd7em i soak them for an hour, pour the water off, then sprinkle with pea innoculent (too make sure they have the stuff to fix nitrogen). I toss them into beds, cover gently using a rake, walk away. Easy peasy.
This is most excellent! One comment I would make about CO2: You seem to imply that the CO2 a plant uses comes from the soil. I say, partially true. I think of soil organic matter as a teeter-totter. Microbial activity is breaking down (oxidizing) soil organic matter and releasing CO2. Cover cropping is ultimately adding organic matter from the sugars produced by photosynthesis. In a well performing and well managed system, the teeter-totter is tipped towards the addition side, even though oxidation is happening at the same time. If you really want to oxidize fast, just add fertilizer and till it in. That tips the teeter-totter strongly to the oxidation side. A plant doesn't particularly care where CO2 comes from, whether it comes from soil oxidation or from the atmosphere. In a well performing soil system, much more should be coming from the atmosphere than from the soil.
We mowed our pastures this year without grazing. We were waiting for our cattle from Greg Judy so we decided to try and feed the soil as much carbon as we could without ruminants on the land.
We've used Mustard a lot when starting on new ground. In the Uk we have a lot of wireworm in pasture land and these can cause a lot of problems when converting to horticulture. Hot types of mustards such as Caliente apparently biofumigate the soil and can make the ww leave after a few sowings. We also try to avoid using grasses and grains for a few years after conversion as this can encourage ww that are still present.
Amazing idea! This was actually a problem that i needed to solve theoretically. Because wireworms thrive in soil that is not tilled, there had to be some solution, and you found it :D thanks!
That's the common use for mustard type of plants for cover crops.
@@Nightowl5454 yeah, i learned that some time back, but i didn't connect those dots there :D
@@markus_selloi You just need to make sure its a hot type rather than the salad brassica types. Ideally cultivated in but you could flail it and tarp if your no till. It needs to be dealt with quickly after its mowed so the gases penetrate the soil and not gas off into the air. It might also work with other soil pests in your region like leather jackets, root aphids etc.
Do you have to incorporate the mustard plant into the soil by mechanical tilling for effective control of ww?
Can't miss this any Sunday. Great job Jesse
Still winter here in NZ, but we are upgrading our 10 acres for 43 bare acres. I want to covercrop a huge area while we get our gradens and food forest spaces organised to stop any gorse resprouting (recently cleared ex commercial pine forest so not in great shape but SO much potential, however it has a lot of gorse seeds in the ground and already sprouting). I am thinking because it is a legume, then taking a lead from nature probably a legume heavy mix would be helpful. Here it is cool in summer so we use peas and tic beans with oats usually, sometimes vetch and buckwheat too.
Hi there, I also in NZ where do you source your seed?
@@themooseman8410 Peas and whole barley/wheat or oats I get from a local guy that does chicken feed (he is based in Balclutha and delivers weekly to Dunedin). Most others I just get from Kings seeds or Egmonts. Hope that helps!
Seed to soil contact. Here's a tip for your viewers "blessed" with a tractor tiller: After broadcasting cover seed simply roll over the bed with the tiller "down" but not p.t.o. engaged. The tiller leaves small "dimples" and minimally disturb the soil. Works fine on c.c. seed that doesn't require (actual) burial. If your beds are surrounded by grass, you can "blow" some grass clippings onto the bed with your z-turn mower. Needless to say, our strategies for "dealing with" our Fl. sun may not work everywhere, but seem to help here (in the blasting-hot summer, especially...) in the "Sunshine State."
Yeah! You are just what is needed. Direct and to the point. Great info. And easy on the eye.
DOCTORS HATE HIM FOR THIS 1 SECRET SUMMER COVER CROP! =) Love and respect farm nerd.
We have a 50 x 100 foot garden and we have the worse time getting things to grow besides weeds! We purchased "certified" compost last spring, put it into the new garden and LOTS and LOTS of weeds. Fighting them every since. So, I bought your book today and HOPEFULLY we'll figure out how to get a better garden next year. :-)
Can’t skip ahead....might miss a Dad joke or an entertaining tangent! Stay hydrated Jesse!!
Jesse, really enjoy your videos. You have great energy and it's makes the viewer think of ways to use the content in their context. As a Gardener I'm using inoculant with Clover, Beans, Hairy Vetch separately in different rotations. Buckwheat is next!!
Thank you - cool to hear!
Living in Florida Growing Food is different. In July - September its to hot to grow most crops, I only have luck with Sweet Potatoes. So I normally Cover Crop during the Summer ☀️ then the Rest of the year I can Grow anything
I've had luck with pink-eye, purple hull peas and okra in N/E FL in the summer.
❤ the cat jessy! Charles Dowding has his executive producing cat in some of his videos too. My cat Mikey does the same. Cats should be compulsory in ALL videos 😅
Absolutely add annual flowers what a beautiful way to cover crop
Valuable info. Great video. Even better timing. Just this week, my oats went to milk stage 2 or 3 weeks earlier than I expected. Like an idiot I have nothing ready to transplant into the bed. You provided a great solution. Buckwheat! Also, you mentioned the pinpoint seeder. No videos on it anywhere on the interwebs. I've been curious if it's a good seeder option for an occasional direct seeding of carrots, radishes etc on a small scale.
Yeah, I've gone back and forth about that tool. Can do an update on it at some point. It's not my favorite seeder but it seems to have some niche potential.
As a homesteader I’m using fava from fall to spring. Easy to harvest at soil level and haul to another bed. I am interested in summer options.
I had a few holes where I broadcasted buckwheat and decided to mix turnip and radish in to fill the gaps. We will see how that turns out. 👀 🕳 🌿
diversity is key in cover cropping.
Great info, as usual. I love the tip about the soil to seed contact. The icing on the cake is that you use the word "Rad". That's awesome! LOL 🌿
2 buckwheat plantings trough summer "crimp before it goes to seed". August 1st broadcast radish mix "brassica" then crimp the buckwheat on top. On the other half broadcast winter rye and winter wheat mostly winter rye. Always rotate the brassica and winter rye. We do it all the time in our deer food plots. I have better soil than the fields right next to them that the farmer that waists his $ on all the fertilizer and diesel to till. I only use jlf fertilizer I make for free. Fish, urine, nettles. It's crazy how good it works
The cat get you an automatic thumbs up!!
Suggestion: I just bought a precision depth roller for my BCS tiller this year. I broadcasted my winter rye cover seeds and tilled them in at a shallow depth (aprox 1/4 to 1/2 "). This method saved me many hours. IMO, the PDR is the best attachment I have because it has many uses.
Tell me more. I'm in the market for a two or 4 wheel tractor. The BCS is high on the list. The new Summit tractor is high on the list because of forks and a grapple.
Not only can Jesse crack lame jokes with the best of em, but his book is also phenomenal and I think he undersells it a bit!
Lemon grass is going to be my saviour as a windbreak
Ive been experimenting with the chickens scratch grain for a cover crop
Or even wild bird seeds since i don't mind the weeds
I do this in the rest time in that certain bed
Then feeding the greens/seeds to the animals
Then i put the animals bedding on the garden
Or lawn...lol scratch grains work to fill in areas and the native area grass will grow in as the other dies
Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge and quirkiness
When you realise you are not mowing correctly with the scythe, you are in a good position to improve by emulating those that can. Many good videos on it.
If you set it handle down on the ground, the tip edge should be 0 to 1/2 inch higher than the handle side of the edge. *Not higher perpendicular to the ground when static, but when the tool is tilted across a point in the air or on a wall with the ground touching point as a fulcrum* Tip too low and it won't cut, tip too high and it wil bite over more than it can chew.
Like in this video, at 24minutes 20seconds in: ua-cam.com/video/c1vLqSc38Z8/v-deo.html
I like to think of the blade edge sliding across each stalk in a gentle arching movement. Its not a chop, it's a sweep.
Great video, great info. I think electric hedge trimmers would work great for high grain/grass mowing.
We plant green into sorghum and trim it off with electric hedge trimmer after germination. Turning west Australian Bassendean sand into soil through cover cropping and Korean Natural Farming.
Love from India 🇮🇳
Thumbs up from Australia 🇦🇺 👍
I'm excited to start reading the book!
Hope all is well! I heard about the flooding in Kentucky. There is support for you out there is you all need it. 💜
Hi, I have a jang seeder and would love to know more about your experience using it for cover cropping. Especially, about seeding mixes. Like which roller size to use for which mix, etc.
Love the kitty!
Salamander Springs?? I love that farm. Happy to hear them mentioned!
good stuff , just found you a few days ago, i am in southern ontario, canada, 5b , buckwheat and maple peas, great cover crop, i also add white clover, as i am developing my living pathways. i am retired now but still playing on half an acre, lol, gotta keep busy. i have row cropped for the last 20 yrs., really like how you do things, going to play and see how things work out, thank you
I love your channel live the science behind gardening!
Thank you so much farmer Jessie 🌱💚🙏✨🔥
Kitty wants catnip as the cover crop.
dont apologise your information is great!
Hey love the tips! We have our berry patch (raspberry, blackberry, and blueberries, strawberries too but we are pulling those to another area) chipped with wood chips (back to eden style for 8 yrs or so). What do you recommend for growing in the alleyways? The woodchips are great but we have to add often or weeds start poking through.
I'd highly recommend layering 2 layers of carboard (the heavier duty the better) before your next application of mulch. it functions both as a bio-degradable weed barrier, as well as doing a great job at preventing any light from reaching the weeds below. Just wood chips was much less effective for me, compared to putting wood chips on top of a cardboard layer. You can also put down some Winecap mushroom (aka Garden Giant) spawn to get mushrooms out of the wooden pathways as well!
John Kempf says buckwheat helps make soil become disease suppressive. Oats too.
Thanks alot for the amazing information on this channel!!
Hello. I planted a cover crop for the first time. It´s a mix of sosorghum, Sudanese, radish, oat, beet root, carrot, white mustard and Phacelia tanacetifolia.I´m leaving the garden for the summer. It´s a small garden. Only 4 4m raised rows. Looking for advice on when to terminate. What if it goes to seed before I get back? Can I just cut it at ground level and then plant seedlings for the kitchen garden? I don´t need to use it as mulch. I have a lot of that. I guess my main concern is dropping seed into the beds again. Can a great cover crop turn into a weeding nightmare? Great video! My questions for my garden weren´t addressed hence the mini essay. Not always about me, right? Thanks in advance for any insights.
Thanks for the metric units love
Animals are happy, so you must be doing something right... Cheers!
Always very informative thank you
I would watch for any grasses grown with either Round-Up or Grazon. The seeds can apparently bring those chemicals in. They're two herbicides/pesticides I definitely do NOT want. Anywhere, any time.
You can safely graze animals on pasture sprayed with Grazon after 7 days, so any uptake by surviving plants is very low. Roundup begins breaking down immediately on soil contact and has a half life between 1 and 170 days depending on conditions. It kills on contact, so you won't find it in high concentrations in plants grown after its use.
I have not seen any research that shows seed taken from plants grown after theses herbicides were used having the herbicides IN the seed. There may be some surface contamination if the same equipment was use during the spraying as was used during the harvest, but that would be very low.
The seeds do not incorporate the herbicide into their genetic structure and the resulting plants grown from them will not be contaminated by these herbicides.
@@AJPemberton considering gardeners all over the world are having ours with grazon contamination in their compost they purchase, I can understand hesitation with using seeds that have been sprayed.
Issues with grazon**
@@thatlibertygal Quite understand you'd not want any seeds sprayed with roundup, nor broad-leaf seeds with Grazon.. they be dead after-all, or at least less likely to germinate. I've only ever seen seed treated with fungicides here.
But even if they were sprayed, the amount you'd' bring onto your land would be tiny, wouldn't it? The seeds are not going to be swimming in herbicide. You might end up with a few hundred micrograms per kilo, and that would be effectively 0 by the time the crop had matured.
Compost contaminated with herbicides is quite a different mater to seeds brought for cover crops.
Awesome Video as Always!!
Buckwheat is very well known for making phosphorus more available for following crops. It's an excellent honey plant for bees, but is very strongly flavored honey and the market for Buckwheat honey is small.
You should also mention flax because it's an EXCELLENT mycorrhizal fungi plant and provides significant benefits for surrounding plants.
Buckwheat honey is the best !!!
Very thorough!
Send kids into the fields to collect seed. For next year. It's an excellent lesson for the kids, and possibly saves you cash
Love the Kitty! Mine help me in my garden too
We have a fairly large area designed for cover crops. I am considering crimson clover. But now that I’m thinking about it, what is your recommendation for growing a good chicken feed?
There isn't really a huge reason you need to change your original plans completely - just add variety to the crimson clover. Basically all clover types are edible fodder for chickens, and I have seen them scratch up and eat both the worms that congregate around clover roots, and just the bits of roots themselves that break off. What else you add to the cover crop mix to feed them really depends on your rotation plans, but personally I always recommend adding in some amaranth. It's an underutilized grain-like that chickens really enjoy eating (both leaves and seeds) . . . . plus the red giant amaranth verities look very beautiful.
Edit: I guess I should note that if you are going to put the area back into production after planting amaranth you should probably use a tarping method where you kill the original cover, pull it back for a week to let the volunteer amaranth sprout, and then tarp it over again to kill the sprouts. Its definitely a plant that is happy to colonize an area for the long term.
@@Dontreallycare5 thank you so much. Yeah this area of our property will be a permanent cover crop area for us to grow feed and it will be close to their run. Hoping to cut down on feed costs. That would be great. I will look for amaranth seed. We are seeding this fall.
@@joydavis4087 You might be interested in the system that EdibleAcres uses to combine composting with their chickens. They have an entire playlist dedicated to their design around feeding them with compost, composting worms, in-situ plants that drop food naturally, and sprouting grains for their standard feed. It's a pretty great resource that could offer you more than I ever could.
ua-cam.com/users/edibleacresplaylists
Today I saw a border row boundary crop of Sunchokes planted right where there was a MASSIVE morning glory infestation down near Hollister. I saw a few trailing plants but way way way fewer than the surrounding fields, Lepidium was also suppressed somewhat within a 5 foot buffer. Just sharing observational anecdotes. I'm wondering if we can put together a vid on the reasons behind cover crop and planning cover crop based on needs - this video is good on ellucidating the "how" and "why how" watching it for the third time.
like case studies of different fields and their problems and the selected cover crop.
For field cover crops, I like Hairy Vetch with beets. Note: my cattle with hairy udders, love it. Do you think there might be a connection?
What is planted in the walkways? Looks so beautiful
I'm wondering if you have a video of your method for bed prep starting at the veryyyyy beginning?
I have a lot of ground to rehab at once, so prepping for initial cover crop planting as efficiently as possible is the puzzle du jour.
Thanks!
I noticed you don’t have leaves on your tomato plants. Great idea to minimize powder mildew? Thanks.
Aaaaaaaa black kitty cat!!! Heart eyes!!!
Great video
All that okra at the end having gone to seed... In my garden I find okra to be far more weedy than buckwheat. I have heard of using it as a cover crop, though I can imagine that the rather woody stems might present issues. It's at least drought tolerant, deep rooted, and loves the heat.
Nice information
The jokes are killing me. Lol
I need help getting rid of foxtails without spreading their evil seeds… do you have any tips on that? I’m just trying to do a home garden, but somehow they got mixed into my cover crop and wildflowers….my soil was super bad and neglected…
Do you ever use tree woodchips? My chickens 5 grain feed sprouted EVERYWHERE over the areas where i had 3 to 4 inches of woodchips, i have more than 50 sunflowers, barley & rye growing. I own 2 acres and coveres about 1/10 of an acre with thick woodchips and it helped out so much. Theres mycelium everywhere eventhough im in the sonoran desert.
How do you plant seeds in the massive growth without tilling?
Where buy seed?
Such a great video thank you so much! I seeded a few beds with a summer cover crop mix last week! (Summer max mix from 7 springs, it is already doing the job!) Excited to hear about buckwheat, I often get caught in weird 2-3 week lulls and that sounds perfect. Speaking of summer, I would LOVE a video about how you start your fall crops in the end of summer, especially the brassicas. I am also in zone 6b and between the heat and pest it is looking ROUGH for my fall successions. Thanks for all ya do!
Levelling up would be growing your own cover crop seed. I shuddered a bit when you mentioned buckwheat becoming a weed if it goes to seed, that seems counterintuitive to me ... I get it if you are trying to maintain a stale seed bed, but that only works if you have a source and cost for weed free compost, which I know you have been over. Good cover crop seed will become the new compost, more expensive, and diminishing quality ... so why not grow your own? One more comment: instead of sorghum sudan, grow a grain sorghum, harvest the seed for livestock and replanting the next year. Grain sorghum can also be very prolific, mine is currently 7Ft tall, no irrigation on low quality sloping land
I tried black molasses sorghum. I'm in central Texas sloped white clay. But i grew it in a raised bed. Well it work in clay?
Can you do a cover crop for lawns? What would you suggest?
Not sure what you mean. A lawn is kind of its own cover crop!
Small vegetable garden, West Virginia, zone 6, what is good cover crops?
We just have grass growing in between our garden rows- what is the difference between that and buckwheat or other? Wouldn't grass with roots be better than choking it al out with wood chips and having NO roots in the ground to hold water and prevent erosion?
planting cover crops like tagetes , and help reduce pest / diseases
I love marigolds. Great to mix in!
very interesting
Hey what do you think about going over the covercrop with the milling machine and spraying effective organisms or compost tea?
Good job
I'm still not convinced I should go with a cover crop in winter. Atleast not one that I'd have to kill come spring. For now my over winter plans are just a deep leaf mulch covering both my walkways and beds
I'm figuring egyptian wheat with beans that climb is a good mixture. buckwheat and finger millet?
Buckwheat doesn't seem to work well here in the Fl. panhandle. Either it's too hot, or the local fauna simply won't allow it to "exist." We grow IC peas and (believe it or not...) Curly Mustard.
Thank you!
Thank you
I would argue "why" is the most important word in the english language
you are very impanation for me saludos desde Costa Rica :)
Around 7:30 you point towards a link to the terminating cover crops video, but didn't put it in the video!
Thanks I'll check it out!
How about Rye as a cover crop? Especially with sandy soil. I've read that the roots can reach 2.5meters down.
My favorite question is probably "what?" or more specifically "which?"
Do you have any experience using mustard cover crop? Any tips on killing this crop?