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Sunflowers for extra organic matter
Since 2019, sunflowers have been allowed in a mixture of catch crops for the Ecological Focus Area (EA). That's good news: sunflowers are not only very beautiful, but they also provide an enormous amount of organic matter.
Sunflowers produce a lot of mass both above and below ground, with a fairly high C/N ratio. This is slowly broken down and therefore produces a relatively large amount of effective organic matter. An additional advantage is that the sunflower continues to grow strongly, even in drought and high temperatures.
Benefits of sunflowers
Stimulating biodiversity in the arable landscape is high on the agenda. Flowering green manures provide the perfect habitat for insects such as bees, bumblebees and flies. This means that a green manure mixture makes a major contribution to maintaining the native insect population.
The benefits of sunflowers as a green manure
During the cultivation period for green manures, we have had to deal with higher temperatures and little moisture in recent years. Sunflowers are not bothered by this and develop quickly. Furthermore, the benefits of sunflowers as a green manure are:
- intensive rooting,
- Provides a lot of organic matter,
- strong frost sensitivity,
- Low sowing costs,
- Very high success rate,
- beautiful appearance,
- Food source for insects and field birds.
LG Orgamax with 50% sunflower
In the range of green manure fertilizers this year the LG ORGAMAX renewed. This composed of 50% sunflowers, 15% yellow mustard and 35% Japanese oats. The greening mixture provides a substantial organic matter yield with a favorable C/N ratio, intensive rooting in different soil layers and offers a beautiful living environment for field birds in autumn and winter. Read more about LG ORGAMAX here.
