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.
