In agriculture, green manure refers to crops which have already been uprooted (and have often already been stuffed under the soil). The then dying plants are of a type of cover crop often grown primarily to add nutrients and organic matter to the soil (i.e. nitrogen-fixing crops). Typically, a green manure crop is grown for a specific period of time, and then ploughed under and incorporated into the soil while green or shortly after flowering. Green manure crops are commonly associated with organic agriculture, and are considered essential for annual cropping systems that wish to be sustainable. Traditionally, the practice of green manuring can be traced back to the fallow cycle of crop rotation, which was used to allow soils to recover.
Read more about Green Manure: Functions, Nutrient Creation, Green Manure Crops, Use in Organic Farming, History
Famous quotes containing the words green and/or manure:
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“I see that I must get a few dollars together presently to manure my roots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)