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Translating Eliot Coleman crop rotation & green manures for Zone 7b (really hot summers)

 
Posts: 3
Location: Hot Spring County, Arkansas; Zone 7B/8A
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Hello. Does anyone know of a resource in which someone has translated Eliot Coleman's crop rotation and green manure ideas for use in the South (ideally in zone 7b, with very hot weather between mid-June and mid-August)? I keep thinking that I can't be the only one who has tried to figure this out and maybe someone already has and has published it somewhere!

Thanks!
 
pollinator
Posts: 926
Location: Huntsville Alabama (North Alabama), Zone 7B
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I got some advice from Dr. Redhawk a few weeks back. Look for my post in soil.  I am in Zone 7a/b and I think Dr. Redhawk is in your area.
"Hau Dennis, I have started using wheat and barley for winter fodder for the deer and quail that share the land. Those are easy to no till, grow to around 6 - 8 inches and stay that height all winter in spring you can crimp or wait and harvest grains.
In my deer area I rotate through Wheat and barley then soybeans 7top, rape, crimson clover, yellow clover. I usually mix seed passes and over seed. "
 
pollinator
Posts: 61
Location: Provo, Utah (zone 7b)
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You know, after reading Eliot Coleman's ideas, I decided I don't want cover crops -- I want winter crops.  I want to treat the plants I'm growing in winter as full-on crops, every bit as valuable and eaten every bit as often as the crops I grow in summer.

We get most of our water in the winter as snow, and we often have 50-degree days in midwinter, so it seems to me that winter crops are an even better idea than summer crops here.

I don't do crop rotation, per se -- too organized for my taste!  I just sow winter crops whenever it seems appropriate and summer crops whenever it seems appropriate.  My eventual hope is to rarely have bare soil, because there's pretty much always something new ready to go into that space as soon as I harvest whatever was there before.

 
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