Cover Crops for Vegetable Growers

Why cover crops?
Soil Health

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Early summer
Mid and late summer
Late summer legumes
Early fall
Fall
Early spring

Cover crop information

Annual ryegrass
Buckwheat
Sudangrass
Mustard, spring
Mustard, fall (includes radish, rape, kale)
Red clover
Hairy vetch

Oats
Wheat (includes spelt, triticale)
Rye

Photos

Seed sources

Research

Buckwheat planting date
Buckwheat field preparation

Fertility

Grain and crucifer winter cover crops after the snow melts. These pictures give an idea of how well the soil was covered and how quickly the cover crop will decompose in spring. At the bottom are photos of spring weed suppression.

All of these were sown on August 30, 2007.They grew vigorously, producing about 1 ton of dry matter per acre by the end of October, except the buckwheat that was well past its growing window.

Winter cover.  Cover crops were photographed March 17, 2008, after snow melt.

'Tilney' Yellow Mustard Bolted early and flowered. Was about 24" when killed in December.	'Bonar' rapeseed Bolted to 14", Killed in December.
Buckwheat Flowered, stopped growing in October. Was about 18" when killed by first light frost in November.	'Rangi' rapeseed Bolted late to 8", Killed in December.
Tillage radish A thin stand. Good growth, no bolting, killed in December.	'Pasja' forage turnip Didn't bolt, made 2-3" turnips. Growing point survived, but root did not.
Oats Grew to about 15" with erect leaves, no blting. A thick mat of dead vegetation.	Wheat Grew vigourously but a low plant. A think mat of living vegetation will regrow.

Weed suppression in spring. Plots were photographed on May 1, 2008

Fallow ground was covered with shepherd's purse and chickweed, both making seeds.	'Bonar' forage rape had almost decomposed, but there were virtually no weeds. The ground below was in excellent condition.
'Appin' forage turnips had decomposed except for short (3 inch) pieces of stem. There were virtually no weeds.	'Pasja' forage turnips survived partially, but not enough to be useful for organic matter production or further weed suppression. All the surviving plants were ones that did not bulb in the fall.
'Tilney' mustard had standing straw about 18" tall. There few weeds, mostly annual bluegrass.	Wheat was weed free and growing vigorously. Not heading yet, about 14" high.