What is your favorite cover crop?

A simple question with unlimited answers.

What is your favorite cover crop?

What about it appeals to you? Do you use it for a specific purpose in mind? Is the timing important?

I'm still new to the whole cover crop scene but I have done a variety of experiments with a variety of results.

I have had a lot of success utilizing a mixture of radish/daikon/turnip with watermelons. The watermelons like to sprawl but wanted some protection from sunlight which the root vegetables more than happily provide. As the season extends and leaf pressure makes the watermelon vines start to run further I can selectively pluck and increase the amount of light exposure. I have had great success with watermelons doing this this year when I had no luck prior.

I am planning on letting the winter kill off and return the root vegetables to the soil in anticipation that it will leave the bed loose and airy for spring planting. The worst case is I mow it down for biomass/mulch if the winter isn't cold enough.

I like to recommend clover and rye grass.

When it comes to clover there are a lot of varieties so it is good to research to see which one is best for you.

Winter rye grass is the one I am familiar with.  When the weather gets hot it dies so other plants can be planted.

Let me start off by saying I am in no way an expert on cover crops. Biggest issues for our soil are erosion and compaction. My favorite cover crops are:

-Austrian winter peas. Planted in fall. They overwinter for us. Their shoots are edible, good in salads.

-Buckwheat in summer. My only complaint is that it goes to seed quickly and sometimes pops up in other places. Insects love it! Although I would rather have buckwheat as a weed than some other weed.

-Oilseed sunflower in the summer - sometimes. The seed was affordable. I am not sure if it did anything extra positive for the soil, but kept the weeds and erosion down.

-Sometimes, I just use seed that I have available for free. For instance, marigolds because seeds are so easy to save. Not a true "cover crop" but could be beneficial. Same with cowpeas in summer.

From researching the topic, best results are achieved with mixes which I have also tried intermittently.

I've had Austrian winter peas, rye and crimson clover mix. It did better than rye alone. It overwinters here.

When dead nettle or henbit volunteers, I let it stay overwinter. It's short, flowers while it's still cold, and is edible. It dies back in spring with perfect timing for transplanting. I transplant after the other spring planting is completed.

Oh, and chickweed! Here, it stays low, is yummy in salads, it expires several weeks after henbit.

Summer cover crop of buckwheat sown on bare but untilled soil didn't do well. Germination was very spotty. Maybe it needs loose soil for sowing in my area. Try again next year.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Oh, and chickweed! Here, it stays low, is yummy in salads, it expires several weeks after henbit.

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Agree, chickweed is the best. It grows on it's own in the late fall and early spring, no seeding needed, and dies right on time and is easy to remove.

For planted things I use beans and squash and tomatoes. By midsummer hope to have the whole garden buried in vines that also produce nice veggies. They die with the first hard frost and are mostly decomposed by spring. Since I stopped tilling, red and white clover are starting to fill in spaces, and I leave them alone to grow.

Dandelions, dock, vetch, wood sorrel, sheep sorrel, mustard, burdock, clover, mullein, creeping Charlie plus whatever I'm not thinking of right now, plus some things I don't have names for -- they all appear naturally and in profusion. I've also used a few cover-crop mixes, but I haven't observed better performance than the weeds give me. (I'm not saying I love all weeds...I fight with: grasses, bindweed, creeping bellflower, and thistle.)

My favorite cover crop is clover! It’s great for fixing nitrogen in the soil, and I love that it helps control weeds. Plus, the bees love it too! I usually plant it in early spring for the best results.

I've tried tiller radish as a cover crop in the hope that it would self seed, however although it flowered beautifully I've not seen any return :( If I have to sow something during the growing season I like buckwheat - it grows quickly and is easy to pull out, has flowers for the insects and potentially edible seeds, although I've just collected mine with the hope of keeping them to sow next year. I was late sowing the buckwheat, so they were mostly rather green and probably not viable.
I leave clover and self heal and daisies - all are quite low growing and stand a bit of foot traffic, so they are especially useful in path areas to prevent muddy feet. They all die back rather in winter, and I'd like to find a real evergreen alternative to protect the soil, but am still looking. I have to reply on loose mulches at the moment, but adding that on top might smother my 'weeds'.

During the growing season I liked Phacelia "Bee Plant" (Phacelia tanacetifolia) which I planted in the un-used beds (after the kids were grown) for the bees and it has blue flowers!  I would cut it in late summer/early autumn, work it into the soil, either adding fresh manure and covered with old black plastic (saved from nearby farms) for the winter or I'd plant winter rye.

Rye was the only seed I saved, the seed of Phacelia is very small and I would cut it most years before it was ripe.  I never tried to let it be winter killed and worked into the beds for spring planting, I guess I was taught that method and just never tried.  It should work well as winter killed cover crop!

Peace

Like many other folks here, I really like clover, especially crimson clover. As a legume it fixes nitrogen, it has beautiful flowers that bees and hummingbirds love and it it is perfect for a winter cover crop underneath my Brussels sprouts or in spots where heavy feeders were during the summer.

But fava beans are my favorite cover crop. They are really good at fixing nitrogen, are a tasty protein source and the bumble bees love them. They self sow (if the jays don't find them) and can usually make it through our winters here in Oregon. They also seem to be good at cleaning the soil of root diseases of tomatoes, so I always try to plant them as companions for my tomatoes in late summer  and then let them continue growing throughout the winter.

Weeds = Self-regenerating, zero-input, multi-species cover crop.

I usually plant the big fava beans every year and they overwinter in my climate and produce flowers and fruit in the spring. If its a dry spring they suffer.
This year I'm going to try and create a grand mix of seeds.
I will add nasturtium, oats, calendula, peas,chick peas, poppies, clover and any other seeds I can get my hands on.
I am hoping that the variety of root depths will help keep them growing the spring is dry.

Chickweed is also my favorite weedy cover crop. For planting over winter, my favorites are red clover and oatstraw since I can use both in teas and such.

On the subject of clover, would anyone know if you have to kill it or dig it in to allow the nitrogen in its roots to become available in the soil?

Timothy Norton wrote:A simple question with unlimited answers.

What is your favorite cover crop?

What about it appeals to you? Do you use it for a specific purpose in mind? Is the timing important?

I love crimson clover best for winter here in western NC for weed suppression,  nitrogen fixation,  pollinator attraction,  and beauty!  
This winter, I am adding barley with the clover.  

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Summer cover crop of buckwheat sown on bare but untilled soil didn't do well. Germination was very spotty. Maybe it needs loose soil for sowing in my area. Try again next year.

We found that buckwheat needs to be raked in, not just sown on top. Raking is enough to give it a bit of soil over it for good germination. I actually like that it seeds itself (or I pull the seeds off to save them) - it fills in bare spots and attracts beneficial insects if I let it flower, otherwise easy to chop and drop when small.

So living where I am, we are dealing with bind weed in our garden, so not sure what to do with it. Do you think a cover crop would drown it out. I was thinking clover.

Cover crops are complex--I consider this a study for advanced gardeners. Different crops are better for different purposes in different seasons. For overwintering, my mainstays are winter rye and hairy vetch-- but the rye isn't easy to get rid of in spring, in heavy soil, unless you can let is go to pollen-shed maturity, late May here, If you cut it then, 90% of it will die a and a couple weeks later you can plant. But that's late for most crops. Winter wheat can be used the same way. Winter peas are a good alternative to the vetch for nitrogen fixing, but sometimes hard to find and not quite as hardy.  On the other hand they make edible tips. I also plant daikon radishes, because ideally they plunge roots down into heavy subsoil, then they usually winterkill which means they leave a pocket of enriched, softer soil deep down. Another nitrogen fixer is Sunn hemp, which is tall and has pretty yellow flowers--but you have to plant it early, by the end of August here. Clover I do NOT plant because it's such a pest, hard to get rid of. I've had to uproot strawberry patches in their primes because the clover invades and takes over and the only way to get rid of it is to dig up the whole bed. So I don't plant it, but it plants itself every year, out of the hay mulch which always has mature clover and grass seeds in it.
Then there are the summer cover crops--I've used buckwheat for intervals between crops. Bees love it, it flowers quickly, and if it self-sows I don't mind--it's so easy to get rid of. I wanted to try phacelia which I assume is similar but planted twice, I never saw any germination. I've seen sorghum-sudangrass recommended as a crop to prepare ground for NEXT year's planting--it's tall and tough, I guess you need a tractor to incorporate it so I've never tried it.
Chickweed? I get that every winter, in both beds left bare and insinuated into beds with vetch--along with the even more predominant winter weed, purple deadnettle. And cresses. I've wondered how well they function as cover crops, but googled it and found nothing. But I never curse them, because they're almost as easy yo remove when you're ready to plant as buckwheat.

I can get free "Screenings" from a local mill - the chaff, small seeds, etc that get sorted out from the grain.  
I've been using the rye screenings as cover crop in livestock pens for the past few years and am VERY happy with it.  I can plant it late in the season, and then let it grow more in the spring before letting the animals have access.  This has worked best for the ducks, but I also do it in the cattle and goat pens.  Last year had vetch seed in with the rye, and I see that the vetch is coming back this year after being utterly trampled and eaten over the mid/late summer.
This year I am trying it in the garden.  I know that I am bringing weed seeds in with the screenings, we'll see how much I regret that.  In the animal pens, everything gets eaten down by the end of the season, so weed seeds are (generally) a non-issue.  
I also experimented with Daikon radish last summer, may do more of that in the future.

jason holdstock wrote:On the subject of clover, would anyone know if you have to kill it or dig it in to allow the nitrogen in its roots to become available in the soil?

Not necessary to kill the clover.  My understanding is that the nitrogen is shared with neighboring plants as it is produced.  (Think three sisters, the beans are feeding the corn and squash throughout the season they are planted).

But here’s something I wonder about:  do you really have to inoculate legume seeds?  Isn’t there some form of nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil waiting for a host?

And if I inoculate one year, planting an annual, won’t those bacteria still be there next year?  I mean surely that’s how those bacteria have survived the millennia. 🤷🏻‍♀️?

But on the chance they require a living host, or survive in greater number in a living host, then there’s a reason to have a perennial clover in your cover crop.  I like white clover because it doesn’t block my pathways.  Of course other clovers are always welcome.

Thekla--here are the rumors I've come across. The bacteria are good for four years after innocculating a patch of ground. There are different kinds suitable for different plant partners. And, Carol Deppe said she experiments, keeps track of which sections she has innocculated and which she hasn't, and so far sees no difference. So--very likely, if you're planting the same kind of legume where you put an innocculent last year, you don't need it this year.

Here's this years experiment in cover cropping, five species cover cropping.


https://blog.nutri-tech.com.au/cocktail-cover-crops/amp/?

My application of it with things that work well in N. FL will be grasses (winter rye), cereals (oats), brassicas (turnips and red russian kale), chenopods (chard) and legumes (peas)

some of that is based on seed I already have, or that I know will work here without difficult termination required.

We'll see how it works.

I've had very limited use of cover crops.  2022 was the first year we took back about 3 acres from the neighbouring farmer...it's our land and the previous owner let them use it to keep the weeds down.  We took back a bit on the edge initially (bought the property in 2008) and planted a bit of an orchard.  The issue is that we've had a couple overspray events into the orchard area.  It hasn't definitively impacted the orchard plants, but you could see the pattern of the wind-blown spray on the ground cover.  So, in late 2021 I let them know we'd be taking it back over and had a survey done to determine the corners of the property again.

We managed to garden about a 1/4 acre, but that meant we'd have a lot of bare soil.  Ultimately I found a local company that sells cover crop mixes.  We wound up purchasing a bag each of their Terra Gold Pollinator Mix and Terra Gold Annual Pollinator Mix (see this page at Imperial Seed for what's in it)  The Pollinator Mix is a blend of annuals and short-lived perennials and includes some leguminous plants for nitrogen fixing.  The weeds got a head start on them, but a high mowing allowed the mixes to shine.  We have harvested some of the German (golden) millet...while it isn't really part of our eating repertoire (need to get better at cooking it), we can also use it for seed...it makes a really nice tallish grassy plant and the insects and birds love it.

Here's a short video with some of the buzz around the mix.



Since then, we haven't really been able to keep up with the area and it is fairly "weedy".  That said, in three seasons we have seen a succession.  We have also seen some of the pollinator mix plants come back.  I did buy a bag of phacelia as well, since we enjoyed that and the bees really really enjoy it.  That said, I have been planting trees and shrubs (including apple cores) in the area.  The downside to the tall weediness is finding my plantings again.  The upside is they are also hidden somewhat from herbivores like whitetail deer and jackrabbits that like to consume them.

Wild strawberry is my most favorite

On slopes: carrots (I use the greens like parsley)
Ground cherries

Bee plants:
Late bloomers: Aster (important fall bee flower) and heal-all (prunella) and red clover (dual purpose)

Echinacea
Red Bee balm (monarda)

Also buckwheat, mustard, radish, wild oregano, field peas etc., also weeds

Exceptional year: I had surgery so did something a little differently:
stinging nettles:

Until recently I had difficulty getting nettles started in a section where a sort-of neighbor likes to break down people's fences, steal, drive his all terrain vehicles ... the nettles are great!

The nettles finally began popping up all over and being the year I had ankle surgery, I let them take over. It will be pretty easy to relocate many of them in the spring, but I will leave some in the my spiral of compost around the big red pine that has become native edible plants in case my transplants aren't too happy. I even had a nicer neighbor ask me for some for tisane.

Ra Kenworth wrote:Wild strawberry is my most favorite

On slopes: carrots (I use the greens like parsley)
Ground cherries

I hadn't thought of ground cherries as a ground cover, but it makes sense.  They self-seed if you don't harvest the fruit.  We got some from a couple volunteers this year.  We saw them frequently in our time in Peru as jam with breakfast or in desserts.  They are also known as golden berries and just this weekend my wife saw them at the Co-op grocery store (imported from Colombia).

We have also used carrot greens for a pesto.

I use a variety of cover crops, including just letting the weeds feed the soil for a while. But the one I use the most, so it must be my favorite, is Winter Rye.  I grow winter rye for hay/straw mulch for garden annuals that can be mulched; tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc... For garden beds that I know I'm going to rotate those plants into next season, I'll plant winter rye, and sometimes with harry vetch or winter peas, the fall before. About mid May, the rye is in the milk stage and I can crimp it to kill it if it's just rye. If I have vetch or winter peas with it I'll have to cut it. I wait a week or so and will then  plant the tomatoes/peppers/squash right into the crimped or cut rye. Thus, I get a soil conditioner ( living roots in the ground all winter ) and a nitrogen fixer, plus a mulch all in one. The rye mulch keeps the soil soft and moist all summer, and it slowly breaks down and returns nutrients to the soil.

I also plant winter rye as a green manure and for dried straw for making compost. Again, it's cut at the milk stage so the seeds are not viable, so I can use the whole plant seeds and all. I just let it dry and when I need carbon for my compost I have it.

I have garden beds set aside for just cover crops. After the rye I'll but in a quick round of buckwheat, and then oats and peas for summer to rejuvenate what I have taken out with harvesting the rye.      

Buckwheat does really well here, and because it is very predictable, you can time it to help honeybees [30 days after seeding the plot, but it is a tender annual....] This said, it seems to be allelopathic to crops coming afterwards in the succession don't seem to do too well.
Now that I have a [little] duck pond in the summer. I'd like to plant barley. Any advice for barley in sandy soil?Barley grass kills mosquito larvae, so it's a good idea to have some handy, just in case...
Otherwise, since it is extremely sandy here, I will plant some sort of clover. Dutch clover is always recommended but crown vetch seems to really do well, invading all my flowerbeds. Since it is a legume, I've decided to allow it. It makes pretty purplish flowers. It gets leggy after it decides to go to seed, but I don't mind: That's where the seeds are.
Also, no matter how I plan, I find myself with seeds I didn't plant or give to the chickens at the end of the growing season, so I toss these helterskelter anywhere.
There are a few crops that chickens won't touch [and they will keep the bed clean]Sunchokes, after they are up a bit. Agastache foeniculum [I make a pretty mean Mock Galliano out of the stems & leaves] Mint soothes them just to walk through it. You can make Peppermint schnapps out of it or just put a couple of strands in their laying boxes.. and finally, Liatris. Just for pretty. Liatris makes a small bulb about 1" in diameter and it is just under the surface, so if you want to make a really pretty flower bed, knock yourselves out! My chickens have never disturbed them [You would think, with all that scratching, that they would kill everything, but no.] I'm planning to cut all the spent flower stems and plant them closer to the house, and maybe relocate the bulbs too, as I just love this kind of purple flowers.

On our farm here we've kept it simple. Our rule of thumb is Buckwheat and Sudan Grass before August and Tillage/Field Radish after August. Tillage/Field Radish is our favorite for biomass and reduction in compaction. Though I've recently become convinced that cover crop mixes is the way to go in order to diversify root exudates, so this rule will probably change next year.

One great thing about using Tillage/Field radish as a cover crop in early August, is you can get a yield of tasty radish pods that sells well at the farmers' market as a snack.

Sudan grass is excellent for reducing weed pressure while generating quick biomass. It has allelopathic properties.

Where I'm at (raised beds) is crimson clover and winter rye. I leave crimson clover to self seed and hope for more.
but the rye, I trim right down to the soil and plant what I can into it. No tilling, no digging. Love both of them. Will they help my soil?  I'll find out better next Spring, as I started  experimenting with both, last year in Fall.

Looks like a lot of us are still cover cropping!

Bags of soil !!!
aka
Carbon negative, rainwater retention
Free Rehab!!! Lol

I resurrected the ground cherries thread about the giant ground cherries I grew on my fresh compost hill while on crutches and even posted a picture

But also I popped my branches of asparagus berries right on the flat top, and will be leaving them well alone and watching for seedlings

I know one dollar bags of non organic top soil don't count as a cover crop, but I was severely limited in mobility this year (screws removed and well on my way to almost complete recovery) and to stabilize the slopes I did stand up bags and most of them are now two doors down at a newbie permie gf of long time neighbor. She's recovering nicely from fibromyalgia and allergies in our very rural mountainous area with no cell reception, so I've been generous and encouraging

Anyway, some of the bags were split and I started seeds in them, I killed my Egyptian onions and ground nuts, oh well, and the sides are now small cereal / other boxes of food scraps, then covered with sheets of large cardboard

The rest of the bags will be gone in a year, but I thought I would give soil bags an honourable mention for holding down soil and compost hills when physical limitations hinder the process

I am sticking my neck out here: plastic bags, fuel to transport soil...