Vicia sativa
Common vetch
Common names: Summer vetch, Fodder vetch, Spring vetch
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Flowering
- Jun–Aug
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −5 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Common vetch, botanically Vicia sativa, is an annual, climbing legume found in our region on fields and along roadsides, also called summer vetch. Its slender shoots grow 40 to 100 cm long and climb upward on stems with fine tendrils. Without support, they lie down and cover the ground. About six to eight weeks after sowing, purplish-pink to violet flowers open and are visited by bumblebees and bees. In the garden, it serves as a quick green manure for spring and summer and may be planted in beds from March onward. It suppresses weeds, shades the soil, and fixes atmospheric nitrogen with root nodule bacteria. It is often mixed with oats, which provide support. It dies back in winter.
Care instructions
Sow common vetch from March to August in a sunny spot with fresh, loose soil. It works best in a mixture with seed oats, since the oats support the climbing shoots and the stand stays airy. Water evenly until emergence and afterward only during long dry spells. Cut or mow the stand about six to eight weeks after sowing, when the first flowers open. Let the cut material wilt for a few days, then work it shallowly into the soil so the fixed nitrogen benefits your soil. If you wait until the pods ripen, the vetch will self-seed. In crop rotation, count it among the legumes, and do not grow peas, beans, or clover directly before or after it on the same bed.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingMar–Aug
FloweringJun–Aug
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 3 °C, ideally 15 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 14 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 4 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, sandy, humus-rich, well-drained
Common vetch grows on loamy to sandy soils that are humus-rich, well-drained and do not dry out. On light sandy soils it thrives if you water it occasionally in summer. A pH between 5.5 and 7.5 suits it; it does not like strongly acidic soils. Avoid waterlogging and compacted spots, or loosen them thoroughly beforehand.
Feeding
Light feeder
Common vetch needs no fertiliser. With nodule bacteria on the roots, it collects nitrogen from the air itself; additional nitrogen feeds tend to slow that down. On very depleted beds you can rake in a little mature compost shallowly before sowing. The gain for your bed only arises when you cut the plants down at flowering and work them in.
Overwintering
Common vetch is an annual and not hardy. The first severe frost kills it; light late frosts in spring are usually shrugged off by young plants. The dead shoots stay as a mulch cover on the bed and protect the soil. In spring, rake off the remains or work them in shallowly. If you are looking for a green manure for winter, take hairy vetch, which tolerates frost much better.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate common vetch from seed, which you buy as green manure seed. It is sown directly in the bed, from March to August. Loosen the soil, scatter the round seeds broadcast and rake them in 2 to 3 cm deep. Keep the area evenly moist until emergence. Because the shoots climb and lie down without support, you may like to mix the vetch with oat, which serves as its support. It is better not to save your own seed: the ripe pods burst open and scatter the seeds, and plants that come up then disturb the next crop.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
particularly well establishedLeguminous plants collect nitrogen in the soil, from which Brassicaceae benefit as heavy feeders.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
carrot family (Apiaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example CarrotCeleriacDillParsleyFlorence fennelCoriander and 21 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
particularly well establishedAllium species inhibit the nitrogen‑fixing rhizobia of legumes through their root exudates, which slows their growth.
For example GarlicOnionLeekChivesWild daffodilRocambole and 12 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop‑rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Common vetch yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
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