Kitchen Garden Forum

Is it too late to sow a green manure? If not what would anyone recommend? Thanks

Dear Victoria, field beans are fine for sowing about now, or even a little later, they are also good for fixing nitrogen into the soil from their roots.

Thanks for that!

Grazing rye, too, can be sown until November. Depending on the weather, they usually grow quite slowly after sowing but then suddenly shoot up in spring, just in time to knock them back and bury them.

I find grazing rye more reliable than field beans, probably because the field beans get carried off by mice before they have a chance to germinate!

The soil is probably still warm enough to get a crop of phacelia or winter tares to come up.

Where can I buy green manure seeds in bulk,or,at least in kilogramme packs?I've "Googled" but can only find American sites as suppliers of bulk purchases.

Edwin Tuckers at Website
I searched in Tuckers seeds / Garden Seeds for "Green Manure" and got eight results, some discontinuing next year or out of stock.

RAP22 Giant Rape Hobson (1000 seeds)
PRGL03 Perennial Ryegrass
RYE01 Ryecorn (Grazing Rye)
AGR14 Sanifoin (1000 seeds)
STP01 Stubble Turnip Delilah (1000 seeds)
MSD22 Vitasso MustardDescription
WCV02 White Clover
WCV01 White Clover Aberace (1000 seeds)

Morning Snooky, a couple of places you could try are, www.gardenorganic.org.uk and www.wallis-seeds.co.uk, with the wallis seeds, if you give them a ring they will give you a quote on bulk buys at a very reasonable price. They are very helpful, infact only last week i e.mailed them to see if they knew where i could get hold of some brown pickling onion seed from, in a larger amount than i could buy out of any other catalogue, at this point i would just like to say that wallis don't actualy list them, but i got an e.mail back saying he will be listing some in a couple of weeks for me. Hows that for service.

Hi Snooky,
Contact Edwin Tuckers and ask for their commercial catalogue.
They have the best assortment of green manures that I have seen from any of the other Seed Houses.
Without seeming to be ungrateful for OH's posting I feel that cost-wise
the two he mentions will be very pricey compared with the Tuckers.
JB.

I looked at the Tuckers website and found very few items of green manure. They are sending me their catalogue, so we'll see what's there.

Hi Mike,
I have not visited Tuckers website recently but I have kept their Amateur Catalogue for 2005 because it has a Green Manure Sowing and Utilisation
Guide with 18 different green manures in it. There are also 9 Agricultural crops which can be grown as beneficial for composting etc.
In the Commercial Catalogue they have the same but the quantities are commercial. Hell of a lot of seed in a Kg of Phacelia!
JB.

And 1kg of Phacelia should do about 450sq meters, i reckon.

And Phacelia is my favourite Green Manure; it grows quickly, it is lush and its flowers attract the right sort of insects.

I just sowed some red clover to overwinter on my (mini) allotment, newly acquired - keep your fingers crossed it isn't too cold for it to germinate

Thanks everyone for your help and tips.Both Wallis Seeds and Tuckers have Red Clover for £10 or so a kilogramme inclusive of P&P.