New Grower Groundcovers, and the benefits they can provide.

[Fuggzy]

Hi guys Fuggzy here. I just wanted to share some of the info I have gathered from reading, and my own experiences. So I've been growing for about 1 year now. I am an organic gardener, of our favorite herb, and veggies. I'm no master by any means, and am still learning daily. I started off just like most people here, stalking forum pages, reading guides, asking questions that where listed 14 times (oh, you mean there a search function?) My hope with this is to pass on some of that info I value so much. So to the new guys, I hope you are able to take something from this, and to the vets here, thanks guys. With out the great experiences you have, and the willingness to share it, a lot of us would be up that creek w/o a paddle.

I am going to break this in to a few post, as it may get long. Please feel free to correct, add to, or question the following information.

I should start off by saying that some of this info may not apply to chem fert users. Most of it should, but some of it is organic benefits only. As I have never used chem ferts I am not totally aware of what would not apply, please use your own discretion.

More often than not I see pots with bare, dry soil. You'll see a few plants in a tent, a light that creates AZ desert temps, and a fan that never stops. This can create harsh conditions for your soil. I'm not saying this is bad, as I just described 2 of my tents. Minus the bare, dry soil. The large tent is pushing 75w per sq foot, and the smaller 1 is a bit higher.

There are many different things you can use for ground cover. Anything from living plants to dead decaying wood. All of them providing some benefits, while some provide specific benefits. Here are some general benefits, and I will cover the specific benefits, with the specific covers crops.

• Prevention of weed seed germination
• Decreases evaporation
• Helps sustain microbial life
• Helps prevent soil compaction
• Adds organic matter, and humus to soil (a bit of info on humus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humus)
• Provides habitats for beneficial insects, and other predators
• Helps regulate root zone tempatures
• Cheap to free
• Looks nice (who wants an ugly garden?)

There are a couple disadvantages, but a diligent gardener should not worry. Remember, show her love now, and she will show you love later. Troubles that may arise are.

• In an unhealthy situation, it can provide a habitat for pest, just like it would for predators
• May retain to much water (mainly a newbie over watering. It happens guys, just learn from it)
• Can import pest pending its source

Okay with that part out of the way, lets get to more specific covers you can use. Lets start with dead items as that list is shorter.

We all know what mulch (dead, shredded wood, just in case ) is and come in contact with it daily for the most part. Not only does dead wood do everything above. but it provides fungi for our soil. I know the very word fungi freaks some people out, but it's not as bad as they may think. This is an article I read, and thought was helpful. It has some sited studies that may help put those people at ease. http://www.gardenmyths.com/fungi-wood-chips/

Another great option is dead leaves. Leaves I would guess 95% of you have littering your yard. Look I also just provided motivation to go make the yard look nice too. As leaves decay, they produce leaf mold. Leaf mold is what’s left when the dead, fallen leaves from deciduous trees and shrubs are heaped up and allowed to rot down. As they slowly moulder, only the toughest bits remain, eventually forming spongy, dark brown crumbs to rival any dessert topping. Leaf mold also adds a fair amount of humus to your soil too! Studies show that most leaf mold contains 10 of the 15 most commonly looked trace elements. (sorry i lost that link for the list) It is also very good for water retention. Just be sure to shred the leaves up. If left whole they can form a "seal" over your soil, preventing the exchange of gases, and leading to potential failure.

As mulch

As leaf mold


Another option is evergreen needles. Although not as popular, they are still beneficial. Evergreens have a waxy coating, making it take longer to decompose. They are also somewhat high in nitrogen, providing a slow steady release to your soil. It may not be a ton, but enough to help the soil sustain. These needles are also great at weed suppression. Next time you see 1 in nature, look at its base. Chances are there will be no weeds growing under that tree.

Heres on of my favorite, not only free, but it kinda gives you money back. Dead cannabis leaves. Thats right, you can chop and drop the same plant you are showing love to. Along with the aboves mentioned, it is recycling your already paid for nutes! What ever you feed those plants can be found in those leaves. At the very least it provides leaf mold upon decomposition. (I use fan leaves for mulch, and sugar leaves for extracts. Both can be mulched or extracted however)

Yet another way to turn trash in to stash.

HAY IS NOT JUST FOR HORSES! There are many different hays, but really any kind would work. For the most part they don't provide anything more than the general benefits. However, if you are able to get seeded hay, it will grow. By it growing you are able to do a chop and drop mulch also which adds benefits of those living organic materials too. I was able to get a bale of alfalfa, and timothy grass hay at my local feed store. (i got a timothy grass mix cause my rabbit eats & loves it too) As an organic gardener, alfalfa (a legume, explained in the live section)is a great source of nitrogen. Just google alfalfa meal and you'll see how it is loved. So when looking for hay, try to find seeded hay. It does not have to be alfalfa, anything seeded will provide materials for chop and drop mulch. Just to be clear also. Don't expect to put hay in your pot, and have a forest grow. With your plant shadowing the soil, it may not grow at all. I actually let the hay bale itself grow, and cut the grass off it. Just throw it in the yard with some sun, and a week later you'll have grass. Thats it in the top of the image.

For the most part, any dead plant will work.
I do bid you to use caution. I would not suggest using night shade, poison ivy, or anything that might be harmful. Dead or not, some organic materials can make you sick or worse. I use mainly a dead mulch, and minus the evergreen, I use all the above together.


That concludes part A. I will try to get part B up tonight. I hope you enjoyed it and found some of it to be educational. Next up will be live mulches, their benefits, and the many different kinds we can use. Till later, take care guys.

 

[Fuggzy]

Part B,
Living mulches, and/or cover crops.

Okay before we actually get in to the living groundcovers, lets find out what a legume is, and why they can be important to us.

• Le-gume: Any of a large family (Leguminosae syn. Fabaceae, the legume family) of dicotyledonous herbs, shrubs, and trees having fruits that are legumes (sense 3) or loments, bearing nodules on the roots that contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and including important food and forage plants (as peas, beans, or clovers) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legume

• A legume (/ˈlɛɡjuːm/ or /ˌləˈɡjuːm/) is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for their grain seed called pulse, for livestockforage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans,peanuts and tamarind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume

• The atmosphere is made up of 78 percent nitrogen in the form of a gas. But, most plants are unable to use this form. However, legumes can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form they can use. This conversion process is actually a mutual effort, called symbiotic nitrogen fixation. It includes the legume plant and microorganisms that live in very small nodules attached to the plant's roots.
  
  In a symbiotic relationship, both organisms mutually benefit. In this case, microorganisms obtain food and energy from the root of the plant while converting, or fixing, atmospheric nitrogen to a form the plant can use. The form of nitrogen fixed by legumes is the same form of nitrogen that is found in several types of commercial nitrogen fertilizers.
  
  When legumes die, their residue is easily broken down by microorganisms that release nitrogen back into the soil. The result is a net increase of nitrogen in the soil system, because much of the nitrogen released from the decaying plant was not obtained from existing nitrogen in the soil. Simply put, the legume took nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil.

  http://extension.missouri.edu/p/WQ277

Okay so that is what a legume can do, and why it can be valuable to us. I would like to point out that the legume plant needs to die in order to release the nitrogen stored in its roots.

This is a picture of the nitrogen storing nods of a soybean plant. It is where all the magic happens.

A few examples would be:

• alfalfa
• clover
• hairy vetch
• peas
• beans
• winter rye

Now not all legumes would fit our needs. In most cases our plants are to close to the soil line. A popular choice by ganja gardeners is Dutch white clover. It stays short, grows like a weed, looks nice, and is easy to kill. Kill sounds so harsh. How about... Let it flourish during it's after life. Most people have this growing wild in their yards too. FREE FERTS!!!

The flower.

The leaves are easy to spot too.

I encourage you to research legumes more on your own. For you veggie gardeners, I really suggest it as you normally have more room to work with, giving more options of use.



Okay so you say you don't need any nitrogen. How about some phosphorus? Bring in the buckwheat!

Silly lil' rascal!!!!

There we go.

So buckwheat is not just good for pillows. Among it plentiful benefits, it can provide your soil with the big P. I am not exactually sure how it goes about doing this, but I have some link to some great information.
http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center.../Text-Version/Nonlegume-Cover-Crops/Buckwheat

Okay some reason I can't actually get the link to this PDF. The following link is a google search, and it is the 2nd option. The "Buckwheat Cover Crop Handbook" is available for free download. It is provided by Cornell university, and funded by Sare (same people as the above link) https://www.google.com/search?clien...F-8&oe=UTF-8#q=is+buckwheat+a+good+cover+crop

I am sure there are more "nutrient fixing" ground covers, but for our needs, these are what we would be looking to use. Lets move on to some other plants we can benefit from.


A popular choice for landscaping here in FL is thyme. Now I have yet to see it used for ganja, but I see it being a great choice. There are many different types, some very short and tiny flowers, others a bit taller, more abundant in flowers. The flowers come in white to dark pink, while varieties do not bloom at all. Thyme can take partial shade or full sun and most are hardy to about Zone 5. The Thymus praecox arcticus varieties are reported to be hardy in zone 4. On top of it helping out our soil, it's pretty, edible, and come in a variety of smells. Take lemon frost thyme for example. As the name implies it smells of lemons, and when it blooms, its tiny white flowers look like frost covered grounds.

Dainty, fragrant, and goes great in soups.

A sunny frost?

Mint and, creeping rosemary would be 2 more examples of edible fragrant choices.

As tough as its common name, brass buttons (Leptinella squalida'Platt's Black') grows no taller than 3 inches with textured, feathery foliage in shades of bronze-black to purple-gray and small, button like yellow-green blooms in late spring and early summer. This versatile New Zealand groundcover plant grows in full sun to partial shade and moist but well-drained soil. Zones 5-9. Not to mention it looks awesome.

This is an image of blue star creeper. I don't know anything about it. Point of it is, it's short, dense, and beautiful.

When it come to living groundcovers it is pretty easy to get creative. Regardless of your choice you should at least get the general benefit from the 1st post. Take a few bong rips and get creative with it. Color cordanate your garden, grow some mint to complement your Romulan cuts sents. A good plant starts from the soil up. Why forget about the space in the middle?

That wraps up part B. Part C will pertain to green manures, and the plants we can use for that. I hope you enjoyed, and learned from this. Till later, take care.:smoking:

 

[Fuggzy]

Alright ladies and gents. It's time for part C of this excursion. Today I will be going over green manure, where/how to get it, what to do with it, and some specific plants that are clear winners. This section could easily tie in to using a live cover crop too, pending on your choices.

Okay, what is green manure? According to the wiki page it is:

In agriculture, green manure is created by leaving uprooted or mown crop parts to wither on a field so that they serve as a mulch and soil amendment.[1] The plants used for green manure are often cover crops grown primarily for this purpose. Typically, they are ploughed under and incorporated into the soil while green or shortly after flowering. Green manure is commonly associated with organic farming and can play an important role in sustainable annual cropping systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_manure

So it just a plant that you chop and drop (this is known as "chop and drop" easy enough to remember huh?)on the soil you are amending/covering. Sounds pretty basic, and for the most part it is. Just as with using your cannabis leaves, your green manure will contain whatever that plant has been eating. So lets take a look at what could really make green manure shine.

So we know all plants need nitrogen, so we can obviously find that in our green manure. Most plants contain sugars too that will help feed the microorganisms, as a result, hastening the decomposition process. With nitrogen being so easily available, lets look at what other elements we can get out of this process.

When choosing your green manure, instead of looking at the plant, look at its roots. This is where the plant gets it's food, and it also tell you where in the subterranean levels it gets the elements from. Now why would this matter? Its a plant, it has roots, and it eats enough said, right? Not really. Not when we can make something good, better. The deeper the roots go, the more abundant those elements are. The soil directly under your grass is constantly being feed on, and is exposed to a more harsh environment. While the soil a few feet down does not get nearly as much use from nature. Thus leaving more elements behind for us to harvest. Take a look at this pic, it is corn VS alfalfa.

Mine baby mine!

So here we can see the dramatic difference in roots. Here the alfalfa has access to WAY more elements than the corn, making it a better option for our uses. Also, the roots store different elements than the plant making them great for this use too.

A few good miner plants are, of course alfalfa, comfrey, & safflower. There are more out there, these 3 are just what I am familiar with. Any plant with very deep roots would work, as long as it is not something that will harm you. If you can handle it, so can your plant. *this is with in reason. I would not suggest using something that could suppress your plant.

So that disclaimer brings me to the next part. Companion planting. Now here we are not talking about actually planting these companions, but still doing a chop and drop with them.

Here is a brief explanation of companion planting by: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1494

Companion planting, briefly, is the act of planting different crops in your garden in close physical proximity, based on the theory that they will help each other. The main use of this method is for deterring pests and disease without resorting to synthetic or chemical treatments. The right companion plants may even attract helpful insects, discourage weeds, improve the flavor of a fruit or vegetable, or simply beautify your fruit and vegetable garden ornamentally.

The part I want to focus on is "The main use of this method is for deterring pests and disease without resorting to synthetic or chemical treatments." By using plants that naturally suppress invaders, we are not only providing protection from the open atmosphere, but also from those damn critters that love our plants as much as we do. Here is a link to a rather large list of plants that repell pest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pest-repelling_plants

The very first option is artemisias. It is know for repelling insect including ants, cabbage looper, cabage maggots,carrot fly, codling moth, flea bettels, whiteflies, cabage white, small white, and mice.

Seaweed is another good option. Seaweed contains trace elements such as iron, zinc, barium, calcium, sulfur and magnesium, which promote healthy development in plants. Seaweed fertilizer in mulch or spray form will enhance growth and give plants the strength to withstand disease. Seaweed mulch also repels slugs. @Chester This ones for you bud. (shh i haven't made it to the beach to get some, bad fuggzy)

So who here like to see moth in the garden? Not me, their caterpillars are hungry, and greedy. So whats a natural option to help suppress them from even landing? Try using some cedar tree leaves. Don't have access to cedar? Not to fret. You can also use bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, eucalyptus leaves, lavender, pepper corns, and wormwood. Also you could use a ring of copper at the base of the plant. I know its not a green item, but very effective, and I feel that should be posted.

So properly sourced plants will feed our plants, keep the soil in a favorable condition, and be part of our integrated pest management. That equals less work we need to do, and healthier plant, and a happier gardener. Its a win win win situation.

When I go foraging for green manure, I like to get a little bit, of a lot of plants. In this manner I am trying to help create biodiversity within my soil. I will also try to get plants from different areas, as they will be eating different foods. This can simply be the other side of the yard, or other side of the city. It all depends how much work you want to put in. I'll use roots like turmeric, and also use flowers I find. The flowers and roots contain different "building blocks" than the leaves and stems. Just like a trepen build in a cannabis plant being the "building blocks" of smells and effects.

So next time you are looking at your plants with pride in your eyes. Ask yourself. Am I showing this plant the love it deserves? Are my microbes as happy as I am? Would that pink flower complement my 3 shades of ganja green? (i like to plant purslane in my outdoor grows. beneficial to the plant? I don't know, but man it looks nice) With that I am going to conclude this soiree. I hope at the very least you enjoyed this, and if you where able to learn something, I just ask that you pass it along to the next guy needing help. When we come together for the greater good (ha, never heard that 1) we are capable of doing much more. I bid you adiea. Till later, take care guys.:smoking:

 

[surffreak]

Awesome man! Thanks for posting that, eagerly awaiting parts b and c!

 

[Fuggzy]

@surffreak Well thank you very much bud. Part B was just updated, and is eagerly awaiting your viewing.

 

[Joe383]

O man this post gave me an idea I have to try out now. I am going to start experimenting with reflective ground cover. I am going to start with white sand and see were things go. Give me a few months tell I start the experiment. I will write it on my fridge so I don't forget. My current pots are 17" inside diameter and my current plant at day 20 or 21 is only 10" wide and 8" tall. I know it would benefit from it. I just have to grow out 2 of the same strain next time and use one as a test subject.

 

[Chester]

Have you found any ground covers you would recommend for Florida ?

 

[Fuggzy]

Sure bud. I happen to live in Florida too. Personally I use the hay, wood, and leaf options. If you where looking for a living option, I would recommend the Dutch white clover (commonly found in our yards ), or the Elfin thyme. Both are heat and drought tolerant, and offer a bit of color. I know the color aspect doesn't appeal to everyone, but I like an attractive garden. The Dutch white clover is a legume also, so if you feel you could use nitrogen, I would pick it. Just be aware the root needs to die, and start to decompose to release it goodies. Also, if you soil has higher levels of nitrogen already, legumes tend to get lazy, and will actually collect less nitrogen from the atmosphere. (i need to add this above...)

If you have a well feed soil, and it is relatively loose, I would recommend the thyme. It has a pretty shallow root system, and if you cook like i do, its a duel purpose. With the clover roots going deeper, it would help to aerate, and loosen the soil up.

The living options would work out best for a no till system, as replanting it , and having it establish every ~70 days would probably be more of a pain in the rear.

Hope that helps some bud. Any other questions feel free to let them fire off. Till later, take care.:smoking:


By the way, thyme is pretty popular for normal landscaping in my area. Maybe you could call a local landscaper, and see what specific strain they would recommend.I just read about the elfin thyme there might be better strains.

 

[Fuggzy]

@Joe383 Hi bud, and thanks for stopping in. Now, I already know you are a "get my own results" kinda guy, and that awesome. I am too. However I did a bit of reading on the subject of reflective floors, and the general concise is that is won't do much good.

Okay, so the underside of leaves won't process the light. Thats the main disadvantage. Now what the reflective floor could do, is shoot that light back to another reflective surface, and broadcast to the top of the leaves in that manner. This is mainly cause the chances of the light reflecting exactly where it can from are darn near impossible. So it would be reflected and thrown in to a game of old school pong, until it reaches a surface that could absorb it. If you where running a scrog, or a solid canopy though, it would probably be useless, as the light shouldn't/wouldn't reach the floor.

These are just my thoughts though. I don't actually have any scientific info to back it up. When you are able to run your project, I would be grateful if you could add you thoughts here, if you remember.

Lol, on a side note how long did it take to count out 904 seeds? I can't wait to get my first fully pollinated girl. If I am lucky enough to get a Tangie male, I will be crossing to to some Night terror OG. 904 sounds like a good goal. Till later, take care bud.:smoking:


Edit: I was just informed that recently it was proven that plants can in fact absorb light from the under side of the leaves. I have not personally read the study, but it makes me feel like you are on the right path Joe.

 

[guerilla]

Great info...
You can git , at least here, a bag of mixed ground cover n an p fixers at the garden shop, the one yer Nanna goes to. Just spread a couple handfuls after ya harvest , cut it down fer mulch when ya plant.
I would not use pine needle though..far to acidic..wich is one of the reasons things don't grow under pine trees. Take yer meter an check.
As for reflective ground cover...seems a good way to attract the sky popo.