Sunday, January 4, 2009

Highly recommended #1


Planting corn after broad beans.

I read about planting corn in between broad beans early last year and decided to give it a go.

Having never grown broad beans before I wasn't sure what to expect so I prepared the soil with aged horse manure and compost and planted the beans which grew really well and gave me a nice crop of broad beans.

Next after the broad beans were finished I removed the above ground parts and left the nitrogen rich roots in place.
I didn't turn the soil I just loosened it a bit and planted my corn seed directly into the soil between where the beans plants were and after 3 mts my corn is ready and probably the healthiest crop I've ever grown.

Now I used corn here because it is a high user of nitrogen which the broad beans seem exceptionally good at fixing to their roots and as they say the proof is in the eating(pudding)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Stewart very interesting about the broad beans and corn I have just cleaned up my corn area(see my blog) and will put in root veges like carrots ect. But I have noted to put broadbeans in as I have never grown them and will make a point of following them with corn. Not in the area I just harvested of course.
Love your blog