You never dreamed of such a harvest: what green manure to sow for tomatoes

Here are the green manure plants that experienced gardeners recommend planting before planting tomato seedlings in the garden.

The benefits of green fertilizers are hard to overestimate. They help to improve the soil, displace weeds from the garden, saturate the soil with nutrients necessary for a particular crop and fight pests.

Once you have decided where exactly in the garden you will plant tomatoes, you can choose the right green manure to sow before tomatoes. SSPDaily tells about it.

What green manure to sow for tomatoes

Experts believe that tomatoes will grow and bear fruit better if you sow mustard, hairy vetch, or phacelia in front of them. Some gardeners practice sowing oats.

According to experts, mustard helps to fight the most terrible disease of tomatoes - late blight. This is a fungal disease caused by Phytophthora infestans. Many people call white mustard a "garden nanny." Its roots can grow three meters deep. This is another useful property of the plant, as it additionally fights soil compaction.

Phacelia helps to deoxidize the soil. As you know, tomatoes do not tolerate acidic soil. Therefore, after decomposition, phacelia creates a fertile environment for tomato rhizomes.

According to American scientists, hairy vetch is the best green manure for tomatoes. It enriches the soil with a large amount of biomass and nitrogen. It was found that thanks to this green manure, tomatoes do not need additional fertilization for a large harvest later.

When to sow green manure for tomatoes

In any case, sowing green manure is carried out no later than two weeks before planting seedlings in the ground. During this time, the plants should grow up to 20-30 cm and are pre-mowed and then buried in the ground.

Some gardeners also practice growing tomatoes directly in the garden along with green manure. They argue that this method helps to further protect the garden from overheating and drying out, the soil becomes looser, and the tomatoes are protected from pests and diseases.