Simultaneous Green Manure and Hop Growing

[Stormageddon]

I've recently decided to purchase hop rhizomes to start growing my own hops come spring. As long as quantities hold up by the time I go to order. I'd like to plant eight total plants, four varieties (two aroma, two bittering) of two plants each Fuggles, Cascade, Magnum, and Nugget. I'll be planting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - two rows spaced three feet apart and digging a slight alley in between. One plant of each variety planted in each row spaced five feet apart and across the alley from its counterpart. Above I'll suspend lines at a height of 18 feet that I can run strings to for training vines.

I have a little experience with gardening, but not as much as I would like. I'd like to keep the growing process as organic as I can as well as providing the best environment for the plants that I can, so I've been looking into green manure to provide fertilizing and nutrients. I've been finding some useful information, but not as much as I would like. I'll also be starting some compost for organic coverings, and looking into use of ladybugs for pest prevention (it shouldn't be hard to find someone in Lancaster with a ladybug infestation once they start hatching).

I'm considering trying to simultaneously grow a perennial green manure at the same time as the hops in the alley between my rows, that I can mow occasionally for mulching, and eventually dig into the soil. I figure having a simultaneous green manure can help with soil quality providing nutrients as the hops are growing, as well as nitrogen fixing, stopping soil erosion, providing organic material for mulching, and keeping unwanted weeds from growing up. Is this a good idea, or would I be better off planting a cover crop in the off season each year? I've been looking into the possibility of using red clover primarily because it is perennial. Are there better choices (I wouldn't be opposed to something else that could also be harvested).

 

[El_Exorcisto]

I'd go with alfalfa, but that's just me.

 

[Stormageddon]

Well I know it'll certainly grow in the area, there are farms of it everywhere. Any particular reasons you would choose alfalfa? Is it better to allow alfalfa to overwinter and re-establish in the next growing season or dig it in and re-seed? If I can get away with a little less work it would be nice, as well as being able to have year-round cover.

 

[El_Exorcisto]

The farmers here cut it in in the spring with oats as a cover crop. Apparently it is sensitive to too much sun when it's first growing. I'd go with it because it is incredibly durable. Ommegang's secondary parking lot is a small section of an alfalfa field, and even after being driven on by a few hundred cars it is back growing and looking happy within a week. I've never done anything with clover, but alfalfa looks a pretty durable.

 

[Hopfarmer]

Don't use alfalfa. It is really invasive,it does produce N if no inputs are added as soon as you add N it robs it. Sub-Clover,White clover and other clovers work well.

 

[Stretch]

Do a search, I believe on google books. I found some papers talking about the ideal cover crops that can be tilled in at the beginning of the season as some of them are pretty winter hardy. If you can't find any, I'll see if I can find it when I get some time.

 

[Stormageddon]

It seemed a little concerning to read that alfalfa could easily grow roots at a depth of 20 feet or more within two years and that metabolically active roots have been found deeper than 60 feet. I don't know why I had seemed to forget that google books existed. I found an article on cover crops for wide-row planting that suggested a mixture of red clover, white clover, and buckwheat, going on to explain that mowing only a portion of the flowering plants at a time would give a nice home to beneficial insects.

 

[cram]

What about soybeans and/or pole beans to accompany the hops through the growing season? Both are N fixers, even though you might not get the benefits until next year...in SoCal we can get away with snow peas in the winter or buckwheat or white clover but that might be a stretch in NY & PA--not sure. I have found that cilantro grows really well with hops and attract predatory wasps to keep other pests at bay.

 

[garnede]

What about soybeans and/or pole beans to accompany the hops through the growing season? Both are N fixers, even though you might not get the benefits until next year...in SoCal we can get away with snow peas in the winter or buckwheat or white clover but that might be a stretch in NY & PA--not sure. I have found that cilantro grows really well with hops and attract predatory wasps to keep other pests at bay.

The beans are not perennials and if allowed to produce beans actually add negligible nitrogen into the soil. For them to work you would have to till them under as they begin to flower.

I would go with a clover mix. You can frost seed clover now and it will germinate as soon as conditions are appropriate. As long as your hops field does not get heavy traffic there is no problem with clover. You may consider adding a comfrey plant or two with each hop rhizome. The comfrey also fixes nitrogen and it is considered a nutrient miner. It pulls up trace minerals from the subsoil. You just have to chop the tops of the comfrey 3-5 times a year and drop them next to the hops. YOu should get a comfrey blocking 14 if you decide to do this. There are many varieties including a common comfrey that produces seed. If the plant produces seed then it can become weedy. They are propagated from root divisions, when they do not produce viable seed. Comfrey is also an attractant for beneficial insects and pollinators.