Cover Crops
and Green Manures
Cover crops are defined as low-growing understory crops that often grow outside the main-crop growing period. Cover crops offer services to the cropping systems such as adding soil N, reducing soil erosion, increasing soil quality and suppressing weeds. Green manure crops are crops grown specifically to replenish the soil system, typically with N, but also P and other nutrients. In wet areas, green manure crops are often grown as cover crops, while in drier areas green manure crops are typically used during the summerfallow phase of the rotation.
Articles
Green Manure Crops
- NEW! Decomposition of Mulches in No-till Organic Systems
- Grazed Green Manures
- Grazed Green Manures: Phase 2 - The Next Crop
- Video: The Crop Roller - Reducing Tillage in Organic Farming
- Organic Crops Field Laboratory: Carman, MB - a crop rotation based on green manures for fertility
- Green Manure Crops for P Availability
- Legume Cover Crops as a Fallow Alternative
Cover Crops
- Effect of Black Medic Cover Crop on N Supplying Power of Prairie Soils
- The Effect of Cover Crops on Nutrient Aquisition by the Main Crop
- The Fertilizer Replacement Value of Late-Season Legume Green Manure Crops
- Seeded Cover Crops for Late Season Production
- Self-Seeding Cover Crops for Late Season Production: Black Medic
- Fall Rye Cover Crops for PFP and Organic Pulse Production
This page created October 2005.
Last updated May 2011.