Grow-How
Regular expert advice from Fruit Hill Farm on organic growing.
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Seeds for grassland, forage and soil fertility
Research is confirming that a diverse mix of grasses, legumes and other plants improves pasture and grassland for soil health, animal health and for wildlife. The Organic Research Centre in the UK has published a summary of results from a recent study that clearly shows the benefits of incorporating more than two species of legumes to help build soil fertility: Legumes: building soil fertility (pdf file) Legumes such as clover help build soil fertility They also found that including different grasses in the mix helped: "There are benefits from the inclusion of -
Controlling blight using organic methods
It's the time of year to start thinking about preventing blight - especially in your potato crop. There are now some excellent blight resistant varieties suitable for organic growers. We saw great demand for these this spring and sold out quickly. We'll make sure to have as many blight resistant varieties as possible next year. Another way to avoid blight is simply to grow earlies or 2nd earlies and get them harvested before blight takes hold. This does mean that you may not get such a large yield, and may not be suitable for people looking to store through the