Succulent Sweet Corn

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Why Hairy Vetch is Good for Gardens

Cover crops don’t usually make headlines, but even with a clunky name like “hairy vetch,” Vicia villosa has gotten the attention of vegetable growers — and other gardeners — from New York to California. A legume that’s often winter hardy to Zone 5, hairy vetch can add 60 to 120 pounds of nitrogen per acre to soil. Let it grow until it just begins to flower, then you can cut it down. Let the vinelike foliage dry into a mat and plant vegetables into the pre-fertilized, pre-mulched site.

For 15 years, researchers at the U.S.epartment of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., have been growing tomatoes in hairy vetch mulch. They have found it increases yields, enhances nutrient uptake, improves disease resistance and frustrates Colorado potato beetles.

Other good crops to grow in hairy vetch mulch include pumpkins, bush beans and sweet corn, which requires about 150 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Many organic growers have found that a good stand of hairy vetch, or hairy vetch mixed with wheat or oats, planted in late summer and turned under in spring, can provide most of the nitrogen needed by corn. In central Illinois, organic grower Henry Brockman plants a mixture of hairy vetch and wheat all over his farm as space begins to open up in late summer. The following spring, he chooses where to plant his sweet corn by looking for the lushest stand of hairy vetch, which he turns over with a tractor-mounted tiller. “I chop it in rough, let it sit for at least a week, and then till it one more time before I plant,” he says. “Corn has large seeds, so it will germinate all right even if there’s still a little rough stuff in the soil.”

To put hairy vetch to work on your land, here are some important guidelines for making a good crop:

Choose an appropriate hairy vetch variety. For Zones 6 to 9, Auburn University in Alabama has developed AU ‘EarlyCover’ and several other varieties that make remarkably rapid growth in spring. In colder winter climates, it’s best to go with common hairy vetch or ‘Madison,’ a hardy variety developed in Nebraska.

Plant at the right time. Hairy vetch doesn’t fix nitrogen when soil temperatures drop below 40 degrees, and it needs at least six to eight weeks of growing time before the first fall frost. In spring, it should be allowed to grow until two weeks before vegetables usually are planted.

Inoculate the seed. Vetch needs the same rhizobium (nitrogen-fixing bacteria) used by peas, which is a different strain from the one used by beans. Lightly dampen the seeds and toss them with the powdered inoculant before planting them one-half to 1 inch deep. Ideally, neither peas nor vetch should have been grown in the same location for five years, so it’s a good idea to rotate your crops.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print