Cover Crops
by John Yazo
Cover crops, also know as green manures are a big benefit to your gardens soil. It's not a good practice to leave soil exposed to the weather for long periods of time. Rain impact will break down the soil particles, pores in the soil will clog with the fines, causing poor drainage and the loss of air infiltration into the soil. Exposed soil is also prone to erosion due to surface runoff and the lose of organic matter by washouts.
Green manure reduces the germination of weed seeds by shading the ground, roots from cover crops can improve the soil stability, fertility and improve soil structure. The planting of legume cover crops and non-legume cover crops are a great way to add organic matter and nitrogen back into the soil
A legume is a plant or fruit of a plant from the Fabaceae family. The fruit of these plants are commonly called pods. The most common legume plants are alfalfa, clover, peas and beans.
Legume plants have the ability to capture nitrogen gases from the air and convert it with bacteria in the plants root system into nitrogen that is usable to benefit plant growth. This process is know as nitrogen fixation.
Crop rotation using legume plants is also a good method to replenish nitrogen back into the garden soil that has been depleted by crops.
Non-legume cover crops don't supply the same benefits of nitrogen afixation as legume cover crops do. There benefit is to add organic matter and retain nutrients that are in the soil by preventing them from leaching out of the soil.
Non-legume plants that are grown for the purpose of a cover crop can either be turned into the soil to decompose naturally or harvested for composting, then added back into the soil as an amendment of organic matter and nutrients to benefit plant growth.
The most commonly know non-legume cover crop is rye. It grows quickly .
The planting of legume and non-legume cover crops or green manure will add great benefits to the gardens soil by adding both nitrogen rich nutrients and organic matter to improve the structure of the gardens soil while improving the fertility of the soil at the same time.
Legume plants have a quicker release time of nitrogen than non-legume plants do to there ability to convert nitrogen from the air directly into the soil through there root system.
Green manures are a simple and beneficial solution to these problems.
If
you would like to comment on this website or have any suggestions
please feel free to contact us
