A month or so ago I sowed some mustard seed in the polytunnel.
The idea being that it would be a quick green manure crop and maybe take the edge off the duck manure that had been "laid" their while the winters avian flu lockdown took place.
It's nearly time to plant the tomatoes and cucumbers out in the tunnel, so my thinking now is to just chop and drop this and cover with plastic.
Anyone have experience doing this? I'd rather not dig it over if I could help it! Maybe I'll add some well rotted manure on top as well.
You probably don't even need the plastic. We used mustard in overwintering patches all the time, and simply chopped it and left it lying. The only thing to know about mustard is that until it is well rotted (6-8 weeks) it inhibits germination of seeds. So you can't sow seed crops in soil you have just dug the mustard back into (or on top of).
ReplyDeleteThis will be for plants that are look quite healthy (except my melons that are really struggling) the tomatoes should romp away. I even invested in some grafted tomatoes so I'm looking forward to seeing if these do better than the others.
DeleteI'm terrible at weeding so the plastic would probably be more for that than anything else.
Kev, maybe cut and overlay with manure and then hay or straw? I overlay most of mine with leftover hay from the rabbits and it really seems to keep the weeds down.
DeleteI have cut and put some straw on there as I have so much from a large bale I got to keep the chickens clean. Might add some manure next week as well, of all my crops the tomatoes are the most important to me (other than apples)
DeleteOnly thing I would say is mustard is a member of the brassica family so you should be ok planting tomatoes. Mustard is very good where clearing wireworm on ild pasture.
ReplyDeleteYeah, ,my reason for choosing a brassica is because it'll never be in rotation in the polytunnel for a crop, so makes a good fast green manure.
DeleteI have started using plastic mulches. Wonderful results last year! I'm able to buy used billboard advertising vinyl cheaply. It is tough, non-fraying and works great. I put the advert side down. Cut a small hole for the plant, and presto! The soil stays uniformly moist; the earthworms love it under there, and I don't have weeds to fool with. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteYeah the plastic works wonders, only downside is it provides hiding places for slugs and snails. I've been using some of the same sheets for about 6 years now - still going strong.
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