In this video, Tricia demonstrates how cover crops can be managed as green manure. Green manure is plant material grown and returned to the soil system through incorporation, surface residue, composting, grazing where appropriate, winterkill, or another planned method.
What the video helps explain
- Why gardeners grow cover crops for soil protection and organic residue
- How grasses, legumes, and mixtures contribute different kinds of biomass
- Why legumes need compatible rhizobia for biological nitrogen fixation
- How cutting and residue management prepare a bed for the next crop
- Why termination must be planned before the cover crop becomes mature
Use the video with the written guide
The demonstration is supplementary. Termination timing is not controlled by one universal flowering stage, and decomposition does not follow a fixed waiting period. Species, biomass, stem maturity, water use, soil temperature, moisture, residue placement, and the next crop all matter.
Read Turning Cover Crops into Green Manure for the complete comparison of mowing, incorporation, rolling, composting, winterkill, and grazing. Use When to Cut Down Your Cover Crop for timing decisions.
Plan the next planting
Work backward from the next crop's planting date. Determine whether it will be transplanted or direct-seeded, whether residue will remain on the surface, how regrowth will be controlled, and how much soil moisture must be conserved.
Legume residue and mature grass residue decompose differently. Do not count all nitrogen in plant tissue as immediately available fertilizer. For inoculation and nodulation, read Nitrogen-Fixing Cover Crops.
Shop Green Manure Seeds, compare Soil-Building Cover Crops, or browse All Cover Crop Seeds.