Market Garden Quick Flip - 6 Week Cover Crop
NOT to WA & TAS
Fagopyrum esculentum, Vigna radiata, Trigonella foenum-graecum
Suitable for: Market gardeners, intensive veggie growers, no-dig practitioners, urban farmers, community gardens, allotment holders
Sowing rate: Market garden beds: 50–80 g/sqm (1 kg covers 15–20 sqm). Intensive: 80–100 g/sqm for maximum weed suppression.
Season: Best in warm conditions (soil above 15°C). Buckwheat and mung are frost-sensitive.
Contains: Buckwheat, Mung Bean, Fenugreek.
Time is money in market gardening. When you have a 6–8 week gap between crops, every day that bed sits empty is a day when soil biology starves, weeds germinate, and nutrients leach away. Our Quick Flip mix turns that dead time into active soil building.
This cereal-free 3-species blend is engineered for pure speed. Buckwheat is one of the fastest cover crops available - it germinates in 3–4 days, smothers weeds through rapid canopy closure, mines unavailable phosphorus and makes it available for your next crop, and reaches flowering in just 4–6 weeks. Fenugreek adds rapid biomass and soil conditioning in a fast 10-week growth cycle. And mung bean germinates in 3–5 days with warm-season nitrogen fixation.
At 45% buckwheat, this mix dominates the canopy and provides weed suppression through shading rather than allelopathy - actually faster in warm conditions than cereals. For cool-season quick flips, pair with Product 10 (Triple Cereal Carbon Builder).
Inspired by JM Fortier’s intensive market garden methodology that’s sweeping through Australian small-farm communities.
Sowing Instructions
1. Sow immediately after clearing a finished crop. Don’t leave beds bare.
2. No-dig systems: scatter seed on surface and cover with 1 cm of compost.
3. Conventional beds: lightly rake the surface and broadcast at 50–80 g/sqm.
4. Water in thoroughly. Mung bean and buckwheat germinate in 3–5 days; fenugreek in 5–7 days.
5. No further inputs needed. Rapid canopy closure eliminates weed competition.
6. At 6 weeks (warm season) or 8 weeks (cool season), terminate by slashing and incorporating, crimp-rolling (no-dig), or covering with a tarp for 2 weeks.
7. If incorporating, wait 2 weeks before planting your next crop.
8. For continuous cropping: Quick Flip → cash crop → Quick Flip → cash crop through the season.
Climate Suitability
Best in warm conditions (soil above 15°C). Buckwheat and mung are frost-sensitive.
