Arm your soil against drought and flooding

Weather extremes are a fixed fact in the Dutch climate. We are dealing with dry, hot periods alternating with locally very heavy showers. The way to arm your crops against this is through the soil.

Healthy soil with a good structure and sufficient organic matter is more resistant to both drought and waterlogging. Maintaining and where possible increasing the organic matter content in the soil is of great importance. Organic matter binds and supplies nutrients to the soil life and the crop. It improves the soil structure, which ensures bearing capacity, infiltration capacity, limitation of silt sensitivity, reduced risk of soil compaction, reduced susceptibility to soil diseases and increased crop yield.

In addition, organic matter in the soil has a direct and indirect effect on the availability of water. Particularly on sandy soils, more organic matter ensures increased water storage, so that irrigation is required less quickly and less often. Indirect effect is that plants can root deeper and can therefore use more water.

Supplying organic matter
You supply the necessary organic matter with a menu of crop residues, organic fertilizer and compost. Green manures provide a considerable amount of organic matter with their roots and crop residues. The amount of effective organic matter (EOS) depends on the underground and above-ground mass and the C/N ratio, and therefore differs per green manure. Green manures that provide maximum EOS include:

• LG Orgamax: 1.400 kg EOS, frost-sensitive mixture of sunflower, Japanese oats and yellow mustard
• LG Greencover NKG: 1.200 kg EOS, special nkg mixture of sunflower, yellow mustard, facelia and flax
• Silky Japanese oats: 1.150 kg EOS
• Tagetes, Italian ryegrass and perennial ryegrass: 1.150 kg EOS.

Of course, the amount of EOS depends on the sowing date and success of the green manure.

NKG and green manures
Keeping the soil covered in winter also helps to maintain the organic matter content in the soil. This also applies to less intensive tillage and no plowing. By growing green manures that are sensitive to frost, it is possible to keep the soil covered until early spring and then to sow or plant without being hindered by crop residues. Tip: the new mixture is especially for this purpose LG Greencover NKG developed.

View all recommended green manures for organic matter production here

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