Rhizobacteria success with red clover green manure

14 years ago

Late last August I sowed my first green manure patch with Red Clover seeds. Not having a handy supply of rhizobial inoculant, I just watered and hoped. By mid-October of last year, the bed looked like this -- you can click the photo for a larger image:

It stayed green and healthy-looking well into the snowy season and rebounded this spring with impressive growth. Currently the clover is 4-6" tall and lookin' good.

However, I was concerned last fall because the roots of the clover did not seem to develop the distinctive nodules of rhizobacteria. Multiple times between sowing and freezeup, I gently uprooted a few plants and checked closely. Every time, the roots appeared entirely free of the characteristic lumps.

Over the winter I read a couple of tips which gave me hope. One tip suggested using a garden tool to break the roots free when checking for nodules. Apparently they are easy to strip off when just pulling the plants out of tight clay soil, which I have.

Another tip suggested many legumes will not show overt signs of colonization by rhizobacteria if there is enough free nitrogen in the soil to encourage good growth. Seems some legumes have the ability to choose their preferred source of nitrogen -- and if it's easier to get their N from the soil than grow it symbiotically, they'll resist colonization.

My guess is -- and this is only a guess -- with the cold soil temperatures of early spring, the available fixed nitrogen in the soil was greatly reduced from last fall. If so, perhaps this stimulated the clover roots to encourage the bacterial colonization.

Once our local night temperatures begin to regularly stay above the 55F mark -- usually by mid-June here, though if the current warm weather continues it could be mid-May -- I'm planning to smother this bed with cardboard, UCG and compost, then plant cucumbers and melons. The nitrogen boost from the decaying clover should be a real help to summer and early fall growth.

All the best,

-Patrick

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Comments (8)

paulns
14 years ago
Patrick it's always wonderful to see these experiments you're performing in a small urban space. You may be right about the nodules; even without them you should still get a good N fix out of the clover. Hope it's broken down enough by the time you plant your melons etc. If you do find nodules, split them with your thumbnail - if they're red or pink inside that means the nitrogen fixing bacteria are at work.

I've been meaning to respond to posts on my own cover crop adventure and will soon. I will be planting red clover too.

There's something about growing cover crops makes a person feel like a farmer. Next step is to grow grains. Imagine patches of oats and barley waving in the breezes of downtown T.O.
madmagic
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you kindly, Paul. Good to know that about the colour of the nodules, will check them today.

Sometime in May I'll be off for a week or two up to the cottage of a friend, up in a south-eastern Ontario farm country. Figure to stop by and pick up 50lb sack of alfalfa pellets and as many 1-2lb packages of rye, barley, wheat and oats as they'll sell me at the local seed & feed.

It's a heckuva note when the only way you can get buckwheat seeds in the big city is to buy packages sold for sprouts. I'm feeling downright deprived and underprivileged. :)

Will look forward to your posts. The red clover was very easy to sow and grow, hope it turns out well for you.

All the best,
-Patrick
(AKA the local Mr. Greenjeans)
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joepyeweed
14 years ago
That looks so lush and soft. It makes me want to roll around in it. I could lay down and take a nap there.
madmagic
Original Author
14 years ago
"Roll JPW over, in the red clover..."

:)

It's not quite so soft and lush as it looks in the photo, unfortunately. Having multiple pounds of Red Clover seed on hand and not much space or likelyhood of using it, I oversowed heavily, raked them lightly into the surface soil and then pressed the seeds down with a flat board prior to a gentle watering.

No thinning followed and many plants grew. They're still in heavy competition for light; fast growing tall and spindly. And the clay of the bed underneath is stubbornly resistant to being amended. Think I'm going to have to lasagna it many feet thick, this coming fall.

However, Lyn's photos do make it look real nice, she knows how to work a digicam. Here's another clickable image from last fall, a clover closeup:

All the best,
-Patrick
blutranes
14 years ago
Patrick,

Were I to sow a bed as pretty as that I would have deer knocking on the door in the middle of the night asking for something cold to drink, and for the keys to the truck so he can go get his girlfriend and treat her to dinner. Nice looking bed for a city feller...

Blutranes
madmagic
Original Author
14 years ago
Hehe, Blutranes. Thank you kindly for the compliments. With a large park just behind the back yard, the ecology here is more active than most places downtown. But I've seen no sign whatsoever of deer... so far. :)

All the best,
-Patrick
paulns
14 years ago
Patrick when you do grow a small patch of grain, somebody is liable to tell you there's no point in anything less than an acre of it, so why bother. But growing enough wheat even to make a muffin, in downtown Toronto, would be more than satisfying, I think - it would be a political statement and even a poetic one. So good luck with your pioneering.

I'll be planting a narrow 60' row of grains including flax alongside a new raspberry planting this spring. Maybe enough to make a loaf of bread in August? Lots to learn, eg. how to avoid 'lodging' (and what is 'lodging').
madmagic
Original Author
14 years ago
Paul, I'd be more inclined to grow potatoes than grain here. There's only a few hundred square feet of garden space and spuds don't require thrashing or a grist mill. :) But the thought of a 6' stand of rye, wheat or oats rising up in the front flowerbed does tickle me. I can just imagine the reaction of the neighbourhood.

Good luck with your grains experiment and please let us know how it turns out. BTW, I think 'lodging' refers to grain stalks being blown down or falling over when they're heavy with seed, near harvest time.

All the best,
-Patrick

Rhizobacteria success with red clover green manure

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Rhizobacteria success with red clover green manure

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