Cool Season Soil Builder
Regular price
$16.50
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DESCRIPTION
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Green Cover's Cool Season Soil Builder is a multi-species cover crop mix that includes 11 different species designed for improving soil organic matter and suppressing weeds.
This diverse blend of legumes, grasses, brassicas, and broadleaves all work in synergy to build soil. Legumes convert nitrogen in the atmosphere to make it available to other plants while prolific grass roots improve soil aggregation and water infiltration. Brassicas scavenge nutrients and make them available for other plants while broadleaves offer a deep taproot to break up compaction. Several species also attract beneficial insects and pollinators. If you want to improve the quality of your soil, this mix is for you!
This mix will cold kill when winter temperatures reach 10 °F.
Not sure where to start? Check out our Quick Start Guide on Cover Crops in the Garden.
Ingredients
Spring Forage Pea, Common Vetch, Crimson Clover, Spring Oats, Spring Barley, Rapeseed, Radish, Turnip, Mustard, Sunflower, Flax, Phacelia, Elevate'd Fungi Inoculant, and Bolster L Inoculant
Although these seeds are not certified organic, our seeds are non-GMO and not treated with pesticides. All inoculants are manufactured to organic standards.
Planting
Broadcast Seeding Rate: 2 lbs/1000 square feet (90 lbs per acre)
Broadcast and lightly incorporate when soil temperatures are 45 degrees fahrenheit or higher. If planting in the fall, plant 4-6 weeks before the first average frost date.
Termination
When planted and terminated properly, cover crops can act as an excellent mulch, preventing weed seeds from germinating.
In climates that reach 10 °F lows in the winter, Cool Season Soil Builder will normally cold kill. At this point, you may choose to remove the biomass or crimp the terminated cover crop to act as mulch for your following crop.
For no-till applications, we recommend terminating Cool Season Soil Builder with a flail mower followed by a tarp for 2 weeks before your next planting.
Cool Season Soil Builder can also be terminated by tilling and incorporating as a green manure.
Where the context allows, grazing can be effective at terminating if it is followed by a silage tarp.
On a very small scale, cutting with a hand sickle or turning the soil over with a shovel and following with a tarp can also be effective.
Inoculants
This product is pre-inoculated with Elevate'd Fungi and Bolster L Inoculant to increase the biological activity in your soil.
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Elevate'd Fungi is a seed applied inoculant derived from natural products designed to stimulate seed germination, increase root and biological biomass in the soil, and improve soil structure. OMRI status has been applied for and is pending.
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Bolster L Inoculant contains multiple families of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria plus Azospirillum Brasiliense (free living N fixer) and two phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria, Pantoea Eucalypti and Pseudomonas Baetica.
>Note these inoculants are NOT currently OMRI approved, however many of our certified organic customers have received approval to use these products. Please contact your certifier and refer to these documents before using this product on organic certified land.
The Six Principles of Soil Health
Cover crops are most effective at building your soil when you follow the principles of soil health:
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Keep the Soil Covered
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Maximize Biodiversity
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Integrate Livestock
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Maintain Living Roots
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Minimize Disturbance
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Know Your Context
About Green Cover
Not all seed is created equal
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Clean seed? Check.
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Excellent germination? Check.
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Evenly mixed ratios? Check.
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Pre-added biology with helpful microbes? Check.
When you’re ready to amp up the diversity in your cover crops look no further than Green Cover.
We believe that the same soil health principles that work in large-scale farming apply to the home garden. Our expertly designed pre-made mixes are some of the most common mixes we create, designed to improve soil health, no matter the size of your field (or garden bed!).
Regenerative Resources
Drawing upon our team’s expertise and experience, we collaborate with farmers, ranchers and soil health researchers to produce a bounty of free, educational resources. Each year, we release the Soil Health Resource Guide, webinar series, conferences, field days and more in order to help you to make informed decisions about your soils.
Faith Based, Farmer Built, Family Owned
Like many farmers, faith and family go hand in hand with the day to day operations. We built our company to help people regenerate God’s creation to be enjoyed for many generations after us. Together with our family and employees, we’ve built this dream, and we’re all here to serve you and watch your soil health dreams become a reality.
SHIPPING & RETURNS
SEEDTIME FULFILLED SHIPPING (items fulfilled by Seedtime)
- We ship to the USA only.
- We offer free shipping on all products fulfilled by Seedtime with an order value over $49
- Orders placed before 12pm Eastern Time ship the same day. Orders after 12pm Eastern Time will ship the next business day. Timing applies to orders in the lower 48 States.
- Standard delivery time is 3-7 business days.
- Easy 30 day returns or exchanges.
Vendors Seedtime fulfills include High Mowing, Southern Exposure, Down to Earth, Earth Juice.
RETURNS
Your satisfaction means the world to us which is why all of your orders are backed with our 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Either you love it, or you can return it for an equal exchange or get a full refund. Just send us a support ticket to support@seedtime.us and we'll be glad to help you with your return.
Other Vendor Fulfilled Shipping & Returns
We offer products that are fulfilled by other vendors. Vendors shipping rates and return policies may vary and returns may be subject to a restocking fee. Please reach out to support@seedtime.us for any specific questions on vendor shipping or return policies.
REVIEWS
I planted this mix during mid-April in Western Wisconsin, with the goal of weed suppression and leaving some organic matter at the end of the season. I used a Great Plains no-till and planted into fairly heavy corn residue left from the previous year. I set the drill to plant a little heavier than recommended, at about 70lb per acre. This worked to prevent nearly all weeds except for ragweed. Next time, I would consider going even double the recommended seed rate.
I planted approx. 20 acres, and harvested 15 acres. Harvesting hadn't been the original plan, but produced over 500 bushels of barley, oats, forage peas, rapeseed, and flax to be used for feed, during winter. There was quite a bit of stems and leaf matter, which was expected from this mix of plants.
Another note about seeding with a no-till, I frequently stopped and checked the seed dispersal but rarely found any seeds in the ground, other than the occasional oat or barley. Most are too small and blend in. However the seeds were evenly mixed over the whole 20 acres and all varieties came up beautifully, and when they were supposed to.