When to sow mustard green manure

[MClan]

Hi helpful people.

We're just eating our first potatoes from our allotment. Highland burgundy ones. Anyway, the remainder is in the ground. The foliage had died off so I had cut it back last week. So do I leave them there or do I dig them up and store them? Do I put our chickenpoop from on first and then lime after the mustard?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

If it were me, I'd be getting the spuds up now and storing them, getting the green manure down and then leaving it until early spring before turning it in and liming / manuring. Liming increases the activity of soil bacteria, and early spring is when I'd want to get the stored fertility moving.

[diggernotdreamer]

I am not sure where you are in the world. If you want a green manure to overwinter, and you get cold and frost, mustard will probably not survive till next year. My favourites are winter tares, they make loads of foliage and really keep the weeds down, plus you can cut some foliage to feed to hens when forage is in short supply or you can use phacelia tanacetifolia which you can sow now and it is quite tough, will succumb to a very hard winter, fits in anywhere on a rotation and leave some to flower early to attract bees, again provides a lot of bulk. I know a lot of people manure in the autumn, but I never have, I like to use my well rotted stuff in the early spring as I think the weather can wash away any benefits. As a no digger, I pull up the green manure before flowering takes place,lay on the soil and cover over with newspaper and spoiled hay or straw and then put my transplants through a few weeks later.

Lyn