The use of oil radish as green manure - features of use

Radish qualities

The culture is an annual plant belonging to the cruciferous family. Sometimes it can reach a height of 2 m. Branched leaves of bright green color are characteristic of oil radish. It grows quickly and gives a pale purple color. The crop can be sown in the fall - it tolerates the cold well.

Plants have a strong root system that can penetrate deep into the soil. It is thanks to such a bulk of the culture that it cleans the soil of weeds well - even the notorious wheatgrass is not able to squeeze through the root thickets. The composition of plants contains a large amount of protein (protein), therefore, in terms of their nutritional value, they are not much inferior to traditional feed. True, such a radish can be used as feed for livestock very limitedly - the leaves of the culture contain toxic substances.

Video "Sowing green manure"

From the video you will learn about the features of planting green manure.

Use as a siderat

You can sow oil radish on any soil. This plant is undemanding, it develops well without additional care. Oil radish as a siderat does not need additional manual irrigation - the root system of the culture develops vertically, therefore it is able to receive moisture from deeper soil layers.

Plants perfectly tolerate cold, sprout amicably even when the temperature is at 0 degrees.

But they are also resistant to drought and undemanding to the quality of the soil and top dressing (fertilization of oil radish is needed only when it had to be sown on alkaline soil). It is used as a fertilizer after harvesting early fertile, winter or vegetable crops. It fully manifests its properties only if the soil is sufficiently moistened.

Beneficial features

• since the plants have a powerful vertical root system, they effectively raise the nutritional properties from the deep layers of the soil to the surface;
• promotes structuring and loosening of the soil;
• improves air and water permeability;
• perfectly protects the earth from autumn or spring oversaturation with moisture, as already mentioned, powerful roots require a sufficient amount of moisture for development;
• another positive property of the radish is that its root system can bind free nitrogen in the surrounding air;
• destroys pathogenic microorganisms in the soil;
• thickened crop plantings effectively inhibit the growth of weeds;
• helps to increase the acidity of the soil;
• is an excellent natural green fertilizer;
• rotted plants contribute to the development of beneficial microorganisms and worms that improve the condition of the soil.

Sowing radish

The plant goes through its life cycle in about 50 days, so it can be planted several times in one season. The selected area must be well loosened, and the seeds must be planted to a depth of three cm. Before sowing, the seed is mixed with sand.In a few days, seedlings will appear, and after a month and a half, the culture will fully ripen.

Digging green manure

When this happens, the site is dug up... It is important to have time to dig up before the radish blooms, otherwise there is a high probability of self-sowing. If the aboveground part of the plants is very high, it is tedious to cut it off, and only then start digging. At the same time, it would be nice to grind the stems with a shovel - this way the decay process will take place faster. But if the moment was missed, and the culture has overgrown, the thickest stems should be removed into a compost pit, where they will probably have time to rot before the set deadline.

Video "Planting radish in the fall"

See the secrets of planting oil radish in the fall as a siderat right now.