All that stuff you say about C/N ratios just drives me crazy, I don't
understand a word of it.

Me, I have a lot of ground that will be spare over the winter. I just
want to know how to go about simply sowing green manure and digging it
in afterwards.

But you're making it sound too complex for me , ,,,,,,,,,,,maybe I just
leave the soil bare.

Ed


I'm sorry Ed, I will try to explain it better:

You can use different green manures: the better you can use are fodder
crops (Leguminous plants): they will cover the soil during the fall
(autumn) (- cover-crops) and prevent the washing away of nutrientsand
soil erosion.
Before the crop will flower you need to mow, grind an dig it in the soil
so that it could decompose little by little.
This green manure will increase the content of organic matter and also
the N content because leguminous plants store high levels of nitrogenum
in their tissues.
When they decompose they generate a humus with low C/N (very good is C/N
= 10) ratio. If you, on the contrary, use, for example, the wheat straw,
you will have a compost with high C/N ratio.
This fact will cause humus balance its N content taking it from the soil
so that the plants, next, will probably suffer from N hunger.

So mow it, grind it and dig it not too deep in the soil, because in that
case, if the soil clay content is very high (as frequently happens in
certain places), you will risk the manure fermentate and generate toxic
compounds. Infact the organic matter needs oxygen during is composting
to generate a good compost/humus.

Luca