A vegetable lazy Sarthe

[Stef72]

hello the phenocultors,

I had mentioned at the start of the season that I would test the "sugar baby" watermelons, seeds from the germination catalog, known to be cultivable in my Sarthois climate.

Here is my most beautiful watermelon picture (the bottle is for the scale:

I just cut a smaller one: the taste is sweet, even if it lacks red flesh.

The plans were installed in phenoculture (for the biggest) and others under tarpaulin, with only one watering to the implantation in June. I specify that my land is quite wet ...

I keep seeds for the following years!

[Stef72]

Hello everyone,

I do not know how is the hay market by your home, but by home I do not find many ads and I wonder if the lack of water does not take off a little price!

So I'm going to use my woven tarpaulins to prepare some of my boards for the next season:

as I reinstall on my planks grown in phenoculture last year, there are remnants of organic matter under the tarpaulin.
I intend to observe if there is difference in the heat of the soil, and the presence of slugs.

Of course I will try to order hay for the other boards ...

Have a good day !

[Christophe]

Thank you Stef for these returns, how many kg of watermelons?

I tried but I have never managed to make melon or watermelon (in the Ardennes) except leaves!

[Stef72]

that! I only had two watermelons (including a small ...), while I had prepared a dozen plants ... I had big attacks of slugs this year who have eaten everything and I do not I did not intervene so it is to relativize ...

on the other hand the "sugar baby" harvested was excellent and allowed me to collect the seeds for next year ... some market gardeners in my area also offer it, I imagine it is the same variety ??

perso I always missed my melons too ...

[Did67]

I do not know how is the hay market by your home, but by home I do not find many ads and I wonder if the lack of water does not take off a little price!

So I'm going to use my woven tarpaulins to prepare some of my boards for the next season:
bache_tissee_oct2018.jpg

It is tense, with sales to Northern Europe. Prices are therefore high.

One can, for once, wonder about the use of hay having the quality of fodder (that excludes the one who took the water, dragged, the old barns to be emptied, etc) for the kitchen garden.

I remind you that if I recommend this product "all in one" and "balanced", it is not the alpha and omega. What is needed is a high performance, thick, and nutritious (balanced) soil cover.

In my book, I outline some "substitutes":

- the mixture "dead leaves (too poor) / grass clippings (too rich in nitrogen)"

- the mixture "straw (too poor) / grass clippings"

For those who have space, I also recall the "nitrogen pumps" that we sketched I do not know where:

a) end of year n: a thick cover of straw or even sawdust; it will cover, block weeds, form humic substances, but also create a huge nitrogen hunger

b) take advantage of this nitrogen hunger to optimize "symbiotic nitrogen fixation" by forage legumes (of the clover type) in year n + 1: this natural mechanism is "driven" by the nitrogen content of the soils; the poorer that is, the more the binding will be "boosted" (and, conversely, in sufficiently rich soil, it is canceled! Few know!)

c) grow vegetables in year n + 2, after nature has corrected the defect free of nitrogen hunger

Finally, except to be a green khmer, we can correct the nitrogen hunger to grow in year n + 1 by sufficient nitrogen fertilizer inputs: pig slurry pellets, crushed horns, dried blood ... And also by urine. Nitrogen being added to the poor material (straw, dead leaves, sawdust), there will be no appearance of nitrogen hunger, so no depressive effect ...

[Adrien (ex-nico239)]

Hello everyone,

I do not know how is the hay market by your home, but by home I do not find many ads and I wonder if the lack of water does not take off a little price!

So I'm going to use my woven tarpaulins to prepare some of my boards for the next season:
bache_tissee_oct2018.jpg

as I reinstall on my planks grown in phenoculture last year, there are remnants of organic matter under the tarpaulin.
I intend to observe if there is difference in the heat of the soil, and the presence of slugs.

Of course I will try to order hay for the other boards ...

Have a good day !

It is sure that in certain regions it is the penul ...

The tarp removes "weeds" but does not feed the soil.
As recommended by Didier hay on the contrary nourishes it

It may be the opportunity to test the natural cover instead of wanting to trash it
At least on a part of the surface.
After all he is already present and he is free
It remains to watch him from "meadow" so that he does not compete with your crops if it is possible of course

As an example I am trying to test the cohabitation of winter spinach and potentilla ... at this moment everything is going well.
Spinach seedlings cross the "canopy" (it's not the jungle either) of cinquefoil that covers the ground without hay necessarily because it is sowing
On the "physical" level the potentilla is a razmoquette which, at once, does not seem to compete anymore when the vegetable rises (to confirm however)

This is probably not valid with all vegetables but it is a track.

I do not know what Didier thinks of the work of Jean Martin Fortier who works in sowing or transplants but with a density such that it is actually a ground cover

It can also be another track that knows?

And of course all the other "substitution" hay covers mentioned by Didier

But it would be interesting to make a comparison between all this ...

[Did67]

I do not know what Didier thinks of the work of Jean Martin Fortier who works in sowing or transplants but with a density such that it is actually a ground cover

.

Joker. I still have not read it. His book is on the list for Santa Claus. If only to be able to speak about it knowingly!

It's another system, with other constraints. And benefits. Defects (it's him we see in front of his tiller in another thread?). This does not mean that we can not transplant some elements of the puzzle that is a system.

In my house, without cover, dense sowing / planting does not solve the issue of weeds: they are, almost in essence ("they do just that"), faster than vegetables (which produce nutrient biomass). So one way or another, it goes through the box "fight against weeds":

a) well heated compost, which can be a "seed bed" free from weed seeds (but it must be "successful": heat at 65 ° for several days, in all respects!); then, the vegetables, sown / planted, can overtake the weeds ...

b) "false sowing": preparing the surface; let the weeds germinate; weed without stirring the earth (thermal eg; very shallow weeding blade); sow / plant

c) by hand (knife) ...

[Did67]

I forgot, for dead leaves, to say that we must avoid those that are too tanned: oak, chestnut ... Tannins are "antibiotics". Or the walnut leaves, even if it's less dramatic than they say (I used some to see!). This will "slow down" the activity of your soil, even if nature will correct it gradually ...

[Adrien (ex-nico239)]

Joker. I still have not read it. His book is on the list for Santa Claus. If only to be able to speak about it knowingly!


It's another system, with other constraints. And benefits. Defects (it's him we see in front of his tiller in another thread?). This does not mean that we can not transplant some elements of the puzzle that is a system.

Yes it is.

I already knew but a little far in fact I have a little deeper by putting it in "exergue" (well almost ) in the subject on your book

Basically it is part of the MSV movement, the ultimate goal is to no longer work the soil even if it must sometimes be done in stages.

Especially for pros

In my house, without cover, dense sowing / planting does not solve the issue of weeds: they are, almost in essence ("they do just that"), faster than vegetables (which produce nutrient biomass). So one way or another, it goes through the box "fight against weeds":

a) well heated compost, which can be a "seed bed" free from weed seeds (but it must be "successful": heat at 65 ° for several days, in all respects!); then, the vegetables, sown / planted, can overtake the weeds ...

b) "false sowing": preparing the surface; let the weeds germinate; weed without stirring the earth (thermal eg; very shallow weeding blade); sow / plant

c) by hand (knife) ...

For the moment, I watch very regularly and I do it at the mimine in places where I can not do otherwise: sowing.

For the seedling of cabbages, except the board mixed with radishes I put hay ...

We will see later if I let go under cabbages .... what would cross the hay

[Stef72]

sorry but for me, Fortier is anything but non-tillage. His work deals mainly with the manner of being marketed on a small surface, with permanent planks with close succession of cultures, but they are all amended and worked. He gives especially good tips to standardize his boards, irrigations and avoid wasting time on his vegetable garden.

my cover story is closer to the MSV techniques used by François Mulet ...