Unless you can plant the cover crop IN the mulch, they aren't compatible.

...and if you could sprout and grow the cover crop, its best use is to till it in come spring. That means digging in your 4 inch wood chip mulch and not only losing it but tying up nitrogen in your soil as the wood chips break down. There goes your benefit of a green manure.

tj

Can you get similar benefits from green manures without tilling, just cutting it off at the ground, laying it down where it falls, mulching over it and letting the SFW break it down and incorporate it? I'm wondering if I could get away with alternating winters, wood chips/cover crop/wood chips/cover crop, and build up large amounts of OM in the soil that way with no tilling.

I'm also suddenly wondering about the possibilities of growing green manures vertically for incorporation into the compost, rather than directly into the soil.

Heavy mulches and cover crops are not compatible unless you can get the cover crop to grow in the mulch, I've not been able to do that.

The Rodale Institute some years back developed what they call a crimper, a roller that knocks down the cover crop and lays it on the soil as a mulch. Perhaps this link might be of some interest.

http://www.covercrops.msu.edu/crimper/about.html

kimmq is kimmsr

I am not suggesting anyone with a backyard garden go out and buy a crimper but to think about the concept There are most likely hundreds of ways to knock over cover crops and many probably do not involve mechanical equipment. I have, for example, used my feet.

kimmq is kimmsr

i suggested cover crops that winterkill in Zone 7, or die when scythed while blooming. the crimper not only knocks them down, it crimps them too, or else they will pop up.

Vetch planted in narrow rows could be mulched between after it reached a few inches. Beans during normal growing season add's N and improves tilth of my black clay remarkably.

After my beds were done for the fall, I planted rye grain for cover crops. It has grown up nicely (4inches) in all the beds. When everything thaws in spring do I just cut top off and let roots die off ? or should I loosen up and mix with the bed mix?

if you cut rye before it is tasseling it will regrow. you can wait for it to tassel and knock it down, you can smother it now or later, or turn it in now or later. Rye is a good crop to precede summer crops, because it is ready to die about the time summer crops go in.

I got a thick stand of sweet clover growing tall, mowed it really low a few short months later, then piled about 2+ inches of mulch on top. That was an attempt to kill it. The sweet clover has had no issues growing up again thick and lush through the woodchips. Its still going strong and hasn't been watered in months. Next time I'll double the mulch as an experiment.

Same thing happened to me with crimson clover, but the mulch there was a little thinner.

I'm going to attempt heavy mulch on top of hairy vetch soon, also as an experiment.

I mulched a 1500 square foot area with leaves and wood chips up to 6 inches deep. I then broadcast a mix of leftover seeds and spread fertilizer a bit heavy handedly. Drug a rake lightly a toss the top. I have a great crop of radishes, turnips, red giant mustard and kale. I don't recall what all was in the mix, so I can't say what didn't work.

I've done it in the past with beans and cowpeas-again, with good results.

How about using some sort of a dibbler (kind used to plant bulbs) to penetrate the mulch, back filled with a little compost, to plant a daikon or similar plant. Something that would benefit being planted on a wide grid pattern rather than being broadcast