good morning and welcome to what i'm hoping will be just the first video in a series of videos
covering cover crops and how i use them in my own garden i'm kicking off today by featuring
the mighty mustard power trifecta blend which with a name like that how can it not be amazing
but what got me interested in this blend was its claims that it helped to kill off nematodes now
nematodes aren't a particularly large problem here in my garden but i know in many areas they are
and i was interested in how exactly this blend worked now this mix contains kodiak pacific gold
and white gold mustards and the reason this mix is so effective is because these varieties contain
two different glucosinolates one which suppresses broad leaf weeds and one
which reduces pathogens and harmful nematodes secondary benefits of this mix include things like
providing biomass improving soil aeration and water penetration via the root structures of these
mustards the blossoms attract beneficial insects and pollinators and it can work as a trap crop
for crucifer flea beetles and cabbage aphids now this mix has some very specific usage instructions
and it's not like my typical cover crops that i often just chop down and either use as a mulch or
mix into the soil and just let it go with that to get the full effect from the glucosinolates that
are released from these plants you need to follow the proper protocol when terminating this crop
and that protocol is that at the first sign of flowering which is usually about 30 to
35 days after sewing you want to chop up this top growth as finely as possible now your options for
doing this are a little bit different in the home garden than they are for like a big scale farmer
so what i have found works well is either bringing the push mower in here chopping this all down
using a weed whacker hedge trimmer type tool or just getting out your pruners or
scissors or something and chopping this all up you want to get this incorporated into
the soil as soon as possible after chopping this down so don't wait until the next day
make sure you're able to do it all in one day and that is because the glucosinolates
that are released from these plants are short-lived and you want to get them into
the soil as soon as possible or you're going to lose that effect so you get the
chopped up top growth all mixed into your soil i just used a garden fork to do this
and then the instructions say that you want to roll your soil again that's not
really possible in a home garden so i tamped it all down really well using my garden tool
you want to water it in if your soil is not already really moist because the moisture is
crucial again for those glucosinolates and then i just mulched everything over the top pretty
heavily with grass clippings just to kind of seal that all in and because i would go back and mulch
anyway now one more crucial point is that for optimal results you should not plant for at least
three weeks after doing this so if this is a cover crop you're interested in using make sure that you
have your timing right and that you're not having to get in there and plant one of your vegetable
crops right away now your other option if you have decided to use this as a trap crop rather than a
cover crop is to allow this to grow to maturity and you're basically going to wait until you see a
full infestation of whatever critter you're trying to get rid of whether it's the flea leaf beetles
or the cabbage aphids once you see that at that point the crop can be terminated or you can spray
with like an organic pesticide targeted to those pests that you're trying to get rid of and the
idea with the trap crop is that the pests prefer this to the other things that you are growing
so you draw them all into this crop and then destroy it basically so as i mentioned in the
beginning nematodes are not a really big issue for me here i do have problems with broad leaf
weeds so i'm very interested to see what the suppressing results are in my garden bed where
i've planted this cover crop but if you've used this for nematodes i'd love to hear about your
results a few other important key points about the mighty mustard blend this is a cover crop that's
best planted in the spring or the fall and that is because it is day length sensitive for the most
biomass production you want to plant it when your day length is a little shorter the mighty mustard
blend will winter kill at sustained temperatures of 26 degrees fahrenheit or colder so if you plant
it going into fall it will winter kill once your winter temperatures get to that point
the seeding rate is about a fourth to a half a pound per thousand square feet now to be honest
i just kind of broadcast or scatter all of my cover crop seed and just kind of eyeball it
i tend to get mine a little thick but it still works really well a hand cranked broadcast sewer
also works well for this the ideal planting depth is about a quarter inch to three quarters inch
deep again i just tend to broadcast so i'll kind of tamp the seed into the ground either with a
rake or my foot but i don't get really particular about making sure that it's planted at a certain
depth and i've had no issues with doing it that way and be sure to subscribe to see more updates
on the cover crops that i use in my garden thanks for watching and i'll see you next time