Meadowlark
Member
- Location
- East Texas
- Hardiness zone
- 9a
Chop and Drop is a powerful Organic gardening technique for replenishing soils to a "No N-P-K required" level without using synthetic fertilizers. Gardeners using Chop and Drop grow and cut down plants, allowing them to decompose in place. Reasearch at Texas A&M University has shown that "the primary pathway for nitrogen transfer from legumes to the soil is through decomposition of dead legume plant material." Not through plant roots but through decomposition.
This thread demonstrates how I use cow peas (a legume) in a chop and drop process in my garden to organically replenish the soil to the status of “No N-P-K” required without the use of synthetic fertilizers. In summer, the peas have a maturity cycle of just over 60 days making it possible to have multiple crops during a growing season.
This demonstration row is 75 ft long and was planted in pink eye peas about April 1 of the growing season. On June 3, it was shredded in the first round of chop and drop as shown below.
The beauty of using cow peas for soil replenishment is that with just one handful of seeds, for well under $5, you can perform this chop and drop multiple times in the growing season without ever having to replant/reseed … if you leave sufficient numbers of mature peas to reseed each cycle. In the photo below, the peas from that initial shredding have germinated and are on their way to a second cycle of chop and drop. Note all the organic matter now in that row.
The second cycle progressed into July, once again growing large amounts of great organic matter.
By the end of July, the plants had developed a good stand of matured peas suitable for picking and/or eating. This time, I elected to harvest a small basket full of peas to eat fresh because they are so delicious.
As you can see in the photo below, there are still many peas left behind to reseed the third cycle.
You can use a lawn mower or whatever to “chop” or you can do this manually with a machete but that’s hard work in the Texas summer. With a mower, it takes less than 2 minutes to shred the entire 75 ft. row. This leaves a natural seed bed in which the peas left behind will germinate in a matter of days and begin the cycle all over again.
By early October, this third cycle of peas will be mature and can be harvested again and/or you can take a gamble on a fourth cycle which I have done in some years.
In a season with adequate rainfall (which this was not), this process will easily generate over 300 pounds of green organic matter each cycle totaling approximately 13 pounds of organic matter added per foot of row (assuming three cycles).
Significant green organic matter added to the soil and natural nitrogen made available for the next planting. …all for less than $5 worth of seed. Nothing I am aware of in gardening can even approach that kind of efficiency/cost ratio.
This thread demonstrates how I use cow peas (a legume) in a chop and drop process in my garden to organically replenish the soil to the status of “No N-P-K” required without the use of synthetic fertilizers. In summer, the peas have a maturity cycle of just over 60 days making it possible to have multiple crops during a growing season.
This demonstration row is 75 ft long and was planted in pink eye peas about April 1 of the growing season. On June 3, it was shredded in the first round of chop and drop as shown below.
The beauty of using cow peas for soil replenishment is that with just one handful of seeds, for well under $5, you can perform this chop and drop multiple times in the growing season without ever having to replant/reseed … if you leave sufficient numbers of mature peas to reseed each cycle. In the photo below, the peas from that initial shredding have germinated and are on their way to a second cycle of chop and drop. Note all the organic matter now in that row.
The second cycle progressed into July, once again growing large amounts of great organic matter.
By the end of July, the plants had developed a good stand of matured peas suitable for picking and/or eating. This time, I elected to harvest a small basket full of peas to eat fresh because they are so delicious.
As you can see in the photo below, there are still many peas left behind to reseed the third cycle.
You can use a lawn mower or whatever to “chop” or you can do this manually with a machete but that’s hard work in the Texas summer. With a mower, it takes less than 2 minutes to shred the entire 75 ft. row. This leaves a natural seed bed in which the peas left behind will germinate in a matter of days and begin the cycle all over again.
By early October, this third cycle of peas will be mature and can be harvested again and/or you can take a gamble on a fourth cycle which I have done in some years.
In a season with adequate rainfall (which this was not), this process will easily generate over 300 pounds of green organic matter each cycle totaling approximately 13 pounds of organic matter added per foot of row (assuming three cycles).
Significant green organic matter added to the soil and natural nitrogen made available for the next planting. …all for less than $5 worth of seed. Nothing I am aware of in gardening can even approach that kind of efficiency/cost ratio.
