UK gardening - Re: Leafmould and green manure

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Re: Leafmould and green manure

robertharvey@my-deja.com

2006-11-30, 5:25 pm

Rupert (W.Yorkshire) wrote:
> The idea of green manures is to lock up nutrients, from both the air and
> soil, in the plant. The plant is then dug in and after decaying it releases
> its goodies to the soil.
> The decaying process takes time and consequently if veg/plants are sown too
> soon then they will in effect be growing in depleted soil.
> This explanation might fit the poor results you commented on.

I also suspect that the decay process /requires/ nitrogen, thus
removing a small amount of existing nutrition until it is complete. I
suspect that adding urine might help, and may have accompanied animal
husbandry when this was used commercially.

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