Sunday, July 8, 2012

rhizobia slurry II

i harvested a bed of winter wheat last evening and this morning i went out and turned the soil over, pulverized it with a warren hoe ( which i find to be much more effective with less effort than the three prong cultivator i have been using...just saying ) raked it to as level a state as i could without a transit and planted twenty-seven cowpea seeds i had soaking in a slurry of rhyzobia inoculant for a few hours, pouring the inoculant over the seeds after they were planted...another round of the "green manure" project that will end up with another crop of winter wheat to take up and store the nitrogen the cowpea/rhyzobia symbiosis fix in the soil ( if you do this remember to turn the cowpea plants under in the fall before planting the wheat...they have an abundance of nitrogen in them...which is why cowpeas are always such a deep green...and turning them under adds both nitrogen and organic matter to the bed )...next spring my intention is to turn the winter wheat under ( leaving some to grow for the next autumn's crop ) and find a crop that tolerates partial shade to grow in that particular bed.

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