Cover Cropping Final

Cover Cropping

Cover cropping is a very important part of gardening, without cover cropping the soil weakens. Some common examples of cover crops are Peas, Beans, and soybeans. Not only are they used for covering crops but they can also be eaten once you kill them. They add organic matter to the soil, as well as shade and it also kills the weeds. This is why Cover Cropping has coined he term “green manure. [1]”
“Cover crops are soil-building crops; they give back to the soil. They also help prevent pests, help stop the growth of weeds, they add organic matter, and more importantly they help balance nutrients. [2]” They also increase diversity, and help reduce nutrient leaching. When cover crops are planted to help reduce nutrient leaching they are called “Catch crops” Clay and organic soil holds nutrients and water a lot better then just sandy soil, so when water drains through the sandy soil it brings the nutrients along with it and that is called leaching. Another benefit to cover cropping is your saving a lot of money by not buying nitrogen fertilizer. Farmers don’t use cover cropping because of the time it takes, let’s say you have a farm and you plant corn, the corn takes all the nutrients out of the soil making it harder for future corn to grow. when you cover crop you would have to wait for the corn season to end, then you plant cover crops for the season and then when it comes time to plant the corn again those nutrients will be in the soil. Because of all the time cover cropping most farmers can’t wait, because time is money. Lettuce, spinach, and broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale are just a few of the many crops that need nitrogen. Nitrogen helps plants grow faster, increases the seed and fruit production or the plant, and improves the quality of the plant. But a side affect of having too much nitrogen is it could burn your plant. Nitrogen is a gas that gets converted into a form that plants can use in a process called Nitrogen Cycle. The Nitrogen cycle is a process that converts nitrogen gas from the air into a form that plants can use. Bacteria that forms at the roots turn the nitrogen into ammonium, and then the bacteria convert the ammonium to nitrites (NO 2) and finally the bacteria convert the nitrites into Nitrates (NO 3). Squashes, melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are just some examples that thrive on Phosphorus. Phosphorus helps with the transformation of solar energy into chemical energy, and it helps with the proper plant maturation, it also encourages blooming and root growth, phosphorus also leaches quickly from soil and is found in DNA and RNA. Roots love potassium; a few examples are onions, shallots, leeks, carrots, beets, turnips and radishes. Potassium helps the process of building protein; it helps in photosynthesis, the quality of fruit and vegetables, and the reduction of diseases. “What you do when you cover crop is, you plant cover cropping seeds, and let them grow, they will add nutrients to the soil, and once the seed sets and top growth shows, you have to kill the plant so their roots wont get down too deep, you can kill the plant by cutting at the base of the plant. Once you kill the plant wait two to three weeks before plants vegetables and flowers. [3]” Crop rotation is similar to cover cropping; Crop rotation avoids a decrease in soil fertility, reduces soil erosion, and reduces dependence on synthetic chemicals. If you plant carrots in the same place over and over again, the nutrients that the carrot needs will be decimated, but if you rotate crops and plant a cover crop then the nutrients that the carrot needs will be there when you’re ready to start planting more carrots. There are different families when rotation crops, for example in the grain family there is corn, rice, sorghum, wheat, oat etc. And in the Carrot family there is celery, dill, parsnip, and parsley. When you’re cover cropping, you need to make sure for example if you plant corn from the grain family, and you want to plant something else after you finish with the corn you have to make sure you don’t plant anything else within the grain family. Crop rotation methods were talked about in Roman literature, and were referred to by many countries such as Asia and Africa.
Cover cropping and crop rotation is a very important part in agriculture. Cover Cropping is fairly simple and everyone can do it, as I stated before, if you cover crop you can depend less on synthetic chemicals which will be so much safer for everyone to eat. “Cover cropping could be considered the backbone of any annual cropping system that seeks to be sustainable. [4]"

1. http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-3-81-789,00.html
2. http://www.helpfulgardener.com/organic/2006/crop.html
3. http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-3-81-789,00.html
4. http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/covercrop.html#