Green Manure Mix | Autumn-Spring Cover Crop Seed

Why sow Regenerator Green Manure Mix ?

It captures nutrients before they’re lost. Bare or fallowed soil leaches nutrients below the root zone with every rain or irrigation. A growing green manure crop acts as a nutrient sink, holding those nutrients in living plant tissue and returning them to the topsoil when the crop is incorporated.

It fixes nitrogen from the air. The lupins, field peas and faba (tic) beans in the blend draw nitrogen from the atmosphere and store it in their roots and foliage. Once dug in, that nitrogen becomes bio-available to following crops, reducing your reliance on externally sourced, artificial fertilisers.

It builds fertility and structure. Incorporating a lush, leafy crop adds significant organic matter, feeding soil life and improving structure. Subsequent crops often need less irrigation as a result.

It protects bare ground. Green manure stabilises soil that would otherwise sit exposed, helping prevent erosion through the wetter months.

Who uses it

Green manures are sown between produce crops, most commonly in autumn and early winter, though there are spring and summer applications in some situations. They are a mainstay of vegetable cropping rotations, but they’re just as useful for preparing ground for ornamental gardens, improving soil ahead of broadacre crops, and as inter-row cover in vineyards, orchards and other perennial horticulture.

What’s in the blend

Species	By weight
Faba beans	30%
Lupins	20%
Field peas	20%
Ryecorn	10%
Oats	10%
Barley	10%

The three legumes (70% of the blend) supply nitrogen; the three cereals establish fast, produce bulk biomass and give the climbing field peas something to scramble up.

Want to add brassicas or phacelia? Add 5% by weight of phacelia, mustard, rape or tillage radish if you’d like these species in your cover crop. Tillage radish is popular for breaking up compacted layers; phacelia and mustard bring in pollinators and beneficial insects while assisting to balance the soils micro-biome.

When to sow

Late summer through to early spring. Regenerator is built for crops grown in the cooler part of the year. Autumn and early winter sowings are the most common and reliable. For summer green manures, sub-tropical species are a better fit and should only be sown in early summer.

How much seed do you need?

Home garden

Sow at roughly 30–50 g per square metre, which is about two to three good handfuls.

Example: a bed 5 m wide by 10 m long is 50 m². At 50 g/m², you’ll need 50 × 50 g = 2.5 kg of seed.

Broader scale

Sow at 200–300 kg per hectare (about 75–125 kg per acre).

Err on the higher side if you want fast ground cover. Because the crop isn’t being grown to maturity, a denser sowing is an advantage, not a waste.

Growing and managing your green manure

Choose the right species for the season. Many annual plants, including weeds, offer some green manure benefit, but the best results come from species that establish vigorously at the time of year they’re sown and that break down readily once incorporated. Regenerator is formulated with exactly this in mind for cool-season sowings.

Feed it if the soil needs it. A green manure’s main job is to capture and recycle nutrients, but if your soil is lacking a key element, growth will be limited and so will the benefit. A soil test and a look back over your recent cropping history will tell you whether a fertiliser application is warranted before sowing.

Aim for fast biomass. Quick ground cover is the key to success. Sow at a rate that closes the canopy early, and remember you are not growing this crop to harvest.

Finish it pre-maturity. The best results come from a crop that is still young, lush and vegetative when you finish it. For peak carbohydrate exudation, time crop termination to coincide with the milky ripe stage of the cereal species. Allow around 8–10 weeks of growth, then slash, mulch or dig in when plants are leafy and tender at about 40–60 cm high with full ground cover. Let it grow taller and the crop turns fibrous: harder to manage, slower to break down, and prone to leaving unwanted stem and residue behind.

Specifications

Species	Faba beans, lupins, field peas, ryecorn, oats, barley
Sowing window	Late summer to early spring
Water requirement (min)	500 mm+
Soil pH	5.0–7.5
Home garden sowing rate	30–50 g/m²
Broader scale sowing rate	200–300 kg/ha (75–125 kg/acre)
Time to incorporation	8–10 weeks, at 40–60 cm high
Pack sizes	5 kg and 25 kg
Optional additions	Phacelia, mustard, rape or tillage radish at 5% by weight