Most potent cover crop?

Jason S. · Aug 8, 2014

After reading the thread about organic corn it made me think about cover crops. I started doing cover crops last year but there are so many choices. I used winter rye this past year but I should have used a legume. Im going to use a legume this year.Which legume puts the most nitrogen in soil?

dustycoal · Aug 8, 2014

We use a lot of different ones here on our farm in
North Florida. Sunn Hemp is a real good one and
has become a favorite one , Lots of plow down
organic material. Needed here to help keep
nutrients up in soil as we have very sandy soil in
Florida. Pearl Millet, Sorghum Sudan grass,
Buckwheat, Cow peas,Hairy vetch,and Soybeans are
summer types and winter rye over the winter.
A real good source of information on cover crop is
a book put out by SARE.org. Managing Cover Crops
Profitable. Free down load on their web site or
you can buy the book about $19.00. Or you could
get with your county extension office they should
have info also. Hope this helps you

Dave H (MI) · Aug 8, 2014

I can highly recommend, if you can find it on line, the project that Michigan State University did in cooperation with two others regarding cover crops. They put out a pretty handy field guide type booklet with sections on all cover crops and listing all information pertaining to planting, tilling, pros and cons, and then follow it up with a table rating them for such characteristics as nitrogen scavenging, etc. Look for it if you are interested. Great info. If you can't find it and want more info, I probably have a link in some of the material they gave us.

David G · Aug 8, 2014

Add in some oil radishes

Anonymous-0 · Aug 8, 2014

This is what I am thinking of putting in for over-winter. Will then turn in for green manure:
Cold Grazer Rye grows quickly to produce a garden cover crop; starts growing 30 days earlier than wheat for spring garden plow down. Winter Peas- legume will climb the rye stalk. An excellent source of Nitrogen Crimson Clover- an annual clover provides beautiful crimson blooms and produces Nitrogen to be added back into the soil Purple Top Turnips- add organic matter to the soil, or may be eaten. Driller-Type Radishes- Grow deep to break up clay soils and acts as a collector and storehouse for Nitrogen

Anonymous-0 · Aug 8, 2014

Hairy Vetch can produce 95-100 lbs/acre nitrogen as a winter annual cover crop. It produces the majority of that amount in the spring and needs to grow until first of May to do that. Being a legume it needs planted in August if possible to establish itself before winter. Don't think the seed is very expensive either. That book another poster suggested below is an excellent cover crop guide.

Fergienewbee · Aug 8, 2014

Dave H;

Please post a link if you can find it.

Larry

paul · Aug 8, 2014

A southern alfalfa that winter kills, like Nitro, but the seed is
expensive.

The northern alfalfas need a year to set up and produce much
N.

Clovers are good, red or mammoth.

Rye is good for working in a cold climate, at least something
grows.

If your soil is deep, a tillage radish or turnip will send down
deep thread of roots, feed the bulb up at th surface, and store
all the nutrients up where you will be planting next spring. This
works better in richer, deeper soils to recycle the nutrients to th
surface.

Paul

Jason S. · Aug 9, 2014

I found this and it has some good reading but I don't know for sure that this is the one he was referring to.

Farmall43 · Aug 10, 2014

Here is a link that will answer many questions
Untitled URL Link

Jason S. · Aug 10, 2014

(quoted from post at 13:24:25 08/09/14)
I found this and it has some good reading but I don't know for sure that this is the one he was referring to.

I see the link didn't post. Let me try it again.

http://www.covercrops.msu.edu/index.html

Most potent cover crop?

Jason S.

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dustycoal

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Dave H (MI)

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David G

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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Fergienewbee

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paul

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Jason S.

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Farmall43

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Jason S.

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