Daikon cover crop for no till or clay hardpan tillage

[WTM]

the guy that hunts my neighbors land plants daikon radishes every year for deer in his plots. my neighbor gave me some to cook and some of these things were 2ft long and got me to thinking about using them for my garden. i love them for that purpose plus they are good pickled or in stir fry and the deer eat them too. the foilage keeps the fall weeds down and when they rot in the spring release N back for spring and summer vegetables. BUT, like the article says dont plant them where you plant cabbage or broccoli.

http://www.therealgardener.com/blog/bui ... n-radishes

 

[MickThompson]

Don't expect it to grow 1' -2' underground. A lot of that radish ends up above ground, but they are really good for "injecting" organic matter far below where it would reach otherwise. I wouldn't do a pure stand under any circumstance, but it can be a good addition to a cover crop mix.

 

[WTM]

im thinking a 3 way mix of field peas, rape and daikon. that way its killed off by march and decomposes quickly so i can start cabbage, onions, broccoli and snow peas. and would attract deer to put in freezer. what do you think?

 

[MickThompson]

I wouldn't follow rape and radish with cabbage and broccoli. I don't have first hand experience, but have read in numerous sources that you can accumulate brassica pests in the soil pretty quickly. That would be fine on the rest of the garden. I would probably run straight crimson on the areas you intend to plant in late winter/early spring and maybe add some small grains for longer lasting thatch to suppress crabgrass in the summer part of the garden. The cool-season grains work especially well when you roll them down instead of mowing or turning them under. I am going to try that next year by dragging a log or an 8x8 behind the lawnmower. I've seen some folks use this pretty successfully.

 

[WTM]

yeah good thinking. the part of the garden where i grow cabbage, onions, etc is pretty loose i composted and till mulch under so i could get it loose enough to have onions.

how about a seed roller that you fill with water, seem like it would work. maybe i can find a good metal one and wel some angle iron on it?

 

[MickThompson]

I think the corners and weight are critical to do the crimping. Are lawn rollers thick enough to weld to? I just can't justify the cost of messing up a perfectly good lawn roller for 1500 sq ft. If I was doing truck produce, then it would be a completely different story.