Allen-I have never been able to grow favas here , maybe they needed a special innocculant.I tried several times with seed from Bountiful, as well as another place I can't remember. , perhaps fedco. The seed came up but just sat there and then died. I'm not used to that in our garden I thought it was because it wants an alkaline soil. anyone grow it here in the east? USA? Opps , so you grow it, .Allen? what innocculant do you use, if any, and where do you get the seed, do you save seed to use the next season?I tried with great success Austrian feild peas with oats, as a cover crop.The oats died by spring and I let the feild peas flower and set seed, scythed them off and sowed buckwheat and clover. enough field peas came up from what had shattered to bring me a crop of seed for the next season , as well as add the om to the soil. I also got seed to use in another area. all from one tiny pack of seed. As far as mache, i tried it once and found it flavorless so , never grew it again. Didn't Allen Chadwick grow in California.My experience is that what grows well in one place does not do well in others, even in the same region. lot to learn :)sharon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allan Balliett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 7:07 PM Subject: Re: covers
> >My other favorites are crimson clover (beautiful flower) and fava > >bean -- both are digested fairly easily by the soil when you turn > >them in. > > Dave - Have you found an affordable source for fava as a cover crop? > What about mache? thanks, -Allan > > PS In one of the lecture tapes, Alan Chadwick says that successive > cover crops of fava (winter after winter) will remove fungal problems > from the soil. Anyone had experience with this? He attributes this to > the legume action (nodules) and considers the fava to be one of the > most effective of the legumes > > >
