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What happens | Crop 1 sown | Crop 1 grows | Crop 1 harvested | Between crops 1&2 | Crop 2 sown |
No green manure | Sow Crop 1 on its own | Crop 1 grows alone | Bare soil. No soil protection at harvest | Bare soil. No green manure. | Sow Crop 2 |
Green manure sown after Crop 1 is harvested | Sow Crop 1 on its own | Crop 1 grows alone | No protection at harvest. Bare soil | Sow green manure. It grows until Crop 2 is sown. Green manure gets going, but not as strongly as it would have if it had started under Crop 1 | End green manure and Sow Crop 2 |
Green manure sown once Crop 1 is established | Sow Crop 1 on its own | Sow green manure while Crop 1 continues to grow. Green manure then grows under Crop 1 and establishes a "cushion" on top of soil. The roots provide many cushions in the soil to help protect it from heavy harvest machinery | Green manure cushions soil from harvest machinery. Harvest frees the green manure from competition with Crop 1 |
Green manure takes off and grows on strongly, having had a good start already. It further develops its ability to cushion the soil, this time from sowing machinery. |
End green manure and Sow Crop 2 into lots of organic matter and nitrogen |
Green manure undersown with Crop 1 | Sow green manure with Crop 1 | Green manure grows on under Crop 1 and establishes a cushion on top of soil. The roots provide many cushions in the soil to help protect it from heavy harvest machinery |