Sowing Seed on Compost-in-Place

[digitS']

I went on a little bit about my potato harvest a few weeks ago. (click to read)

At that time, I told you that as I slowly dug the potatoes I was refilling the trench with compostables and then the 8" to 10" of soil that had been dug out. This is my composting-in-place method. (Not just my method - I suspect this technique may pre-date the compost pile .)

Anyway, after the ground had settled a bit -- I sowed bok choy seed.

Here is that potato bed today:

cellphone photo

The process took a couple weeks so, some of the seed is just emerging, farther down the bed.

Steve

 

[obsessed]

Awesome. Looks like your going to have to do some thinning but they will be tasty as they come.

 

[digitS']

I am a little worried that those closest to the camera may bolt to seed if we have much more 90 weather. It has cooled off a bit now and the days already are much shorter.

Then again, that part of the bed has morning shade until about 10am. So, I'm really not sure what some more hot days will do.

If I don't just carry them into the kitchen, thinnings can be transplanted elsewhere. Of course, hot and sunny and transplanting don't go together real well . . .

Steve

 

[obsessed]

I tried to sow some swiss ch ard and beets but they just got burnt in the garden. I need another couple of weeks before I can start planting my toy choi

 

[hoodat]

Great looking crop. It looks as though your pak choy bed is almost as big as my whole garden.
that method is almost like the old French double digging method except they used horse manure.

 

[Ariel301]

Looking good! Makes me want some salad.

 

[digitS']

The way this idea came to me was from reading Better Vegetable Gardens the Chinese Way, by Peter Chan. The original copyright was back in the 1970's and I suppose that's when I read it. It seemed so simple.

I can get in a little trouble with this approach to composting. For 1 thing, the soil settles. It helps if the bed has about a week and is watered during that time before seed is sown. It also helps if the seed can germinate quickly. Something like carrot may not be the best choice. There is a good chance that the settling will take it too deep if the seedling takes too long to emerge :/. At least, that's how I interpret things.

Another problem relates to what I've buried. One year, I had a lot of sunflower stalks and just buried them in a bed. The next spring, I fertilized that bed and set out China aster transplants. I had quite a few diseased plants amongst the asters that year and :/ blamed the sunflower stalks. They were just too heavy to have broken down much before the asters were up and growing above them.

I've still got lots of sunflowers in the veggie garden but usually chop and till them into the ground. When I have used the compost-in-place method, I don't plant anything in that bed the next year. The 2nd year, pumpkins or squash can grow on that bed of decompos(ing)ed sunflowers.

Keep in mind that the soil is frozen every winter here and warms slowly in the spring. There is often quite a bit of evidence of organic matter in the ground if I'm back in 12 months digging thru any of these beds again.

And, all the digging . . . it really helps if I can do this a little at a time thru the growing season. I no longer practice this method, at all, in the big veggie garden. Have to rely on a guy with a tiller on his tractor there.

Steve

 

[bills]

Another problem relates to what I've buried. One year, I had a lot of sunflower stalks and just buried them in a bed. The next spring, I fertilized that bed and set out China aster transplants. I had quite a few diseased plants amongst the asters that year and :/ blamed the sunflower stalks. They were just too heavy to have broken down much before the asters were up and growing above them. Steve

I found the same problem with my corn stalks. They just didn't rot down good. I solved that issue with my small branch chipper machine. Run all and any dried stalks through it and Voila, you have some nice compostable material as a resilt.

I mention dry stalks, as the green ones tended to tangle up in my chippers blades..that was a pain in the patooty..

My wife now runs all her dried taller dead flower stalks through it for her flower garden compost..I seperate the two, otherwise I may have flowers growing throughout my veggie garden..

 

[digitS']

For me, these days, it is a corn knife -- chop, chop, chop . . . chop.

Yeah, and the roots ? They seem to last a year or 2.

Steve

 

[ShowMe31]

Looking nice!

I kinda cheat with my corn stalks. My goats love them. We pull the plant, strip the ears and toss the whole stalk over the fence. The goats pen is then bucketed into garden in the early spring. I should've given your harvet/compost method a try, but with the building of the new raised beds I extended my chicken pen last week over one of the old garden sites.