Vicia villosa
Hairy vetch
Common names: Winter vetch, Fodder vetch
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −20 °C
- Water need
- Low
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Fabelfroh assumed (based on copyr… · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) is the hardiest of the vetches and an excellent nitrogen‑fixing cover crop for late sowing. Its root nodules enrich the soil with nitrogen, while the climbing stems form a dense, ground‑covering mat. When grown in mixture with winter rye, it can lean on the rye stalks and overwinter very securely.
Care instructions
Sow hairy vetch in August or September (week 32‑39), preferably together with winter rye as a supporting partner. It tolerates light, sandy soils well. In spring (May, week 18) cut or roll the crop to encourage flowering, then incorporate it into the soil, this makes the fixed nitrogen available to the following crop.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingAug–Sep
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 5 °C, ideally 15 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 14 days
- Light
- Needs darkness to sprout
- Sowing depth
- 3 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, well-drained, humus-rich, lean
Hairy vetch is undemanding and thrives on loose, free-draining sandy and loamy soils, also on lean, moderately dry sites. Better avoid heavy, waterlogged soils; as a legume, the plant enriches even nitrogen-poor soils with nitrogen via nodule bacteria.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
As a nitrogen-fixing legume, hairy vetch needs no nitrogen fertiliser. On very poor soils with weak structure, you can work some ripe compost in shallowly before the spring sowing; this promotes soil life and the root nodules. Worked in as a green manure, its biomass itself becomes a nutrient source for the following crop.
Overwintering
Sow hairy vetch as a winter green manure from July to early September and simply leave it standing on the bed over winter. It gets through the lowland climate of Germany, Austria and Switzerland without any protection; no digging up or covering is needed. In spring, cut the biomass and work it in, or leave it lying as a mulch layer; in combination with winter rye it stands even more stably.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate hairy vetch only by direct sowing. There are two main windows: spring from April/May, as soon as the soil is no longer frozen, or late summer from July to mid-September for an overwintering catch crop that then keeps growing in spring. Sow the seed about 1 to 3 cm deep and rake it in lightly; a loose seedbed is enough, and on heavy loam it is worth loosening briefly before sowing. Germination is quick as soon as the soil is above 10 degrees. Because vetch seeds have a hard coat, you can soak hard or old grains overnight in lukewarm water to speed up germination. In a warm autumn the plant often self-seeds if you let a few pods ripen, so that next year you get an area again without further effort.
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 Hairy vetch yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
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