Home garden cover crop establishment
This article will be the second in a series on cover crop use in the home vegetable garden. There are too many positive aspects of adding cover crops into your gardening efforts to not give them strong consideration. Cover crops can help build the garden soil, be an aid in preventing soil erosion plus can reduce the start or at least limit the spread of certain diseases and insect populations.
Last week, we centered on the benefits of cover crops and also talked about the seed options when you are planting a cool season or warm season cover crop. This week, we will center more on the planting and establishment of cover crops by use of a UGA publication by Bob Westerfield, UGA Extension Horticulturist and Carmen Westerfield, USDA District Conservationist.
As part of a quick review, keep in mind that cover crops can indeed be beneficial for garden areas. Cover crops can be a cheap form of nutrition for vegetable garden plants when the cover crop is turned under and allowed to decompose into the soil. Cover crops can also build the organic matter in the soil too. Cover crops can even attract beneficial insects including pollinators to your garden spot and can help reduce weed issues. Cover crops along with crop rotation can even help starve out soil pathogens by providing a non-host plant.
When you have legumes as part of a cool season cover crop combination, you can add the ability of legumes to fix atmospheric nitrogen that will then be used by the next garden planting as a bonus too. I will add that seeing a cover crop growing on what would be bare soil can visually just look better also.
With summer gardens beginning to fade, I will center more on cool season cover crops. With cool season cover crops, it is suggested to think of a seed combination of a cereal grain with a type of legume. Cereal grains would be more commonly wheat, oats or rye planted with a legume such as clover or winter peas. Do not make the mistake of planting ryegrass. Ryegrass is different that cereal grain rye. Ryegrass is too competitive and will be hard to eradicate if established in the garden area.
My previous article went into more overall detail, but a typical seeding rate for a cool season cover crop would be 3 to 4 pounds of a cereal grain with .25 pounds of a legume per 1000 square feet. For a vegetable garden as large as an acre, you can plant at a rate of 50 pounds of a cereal grain and 5 pounds of clover per acre. Go back and read up on the importance of legume inoculant in the last article.
For cool season cover crops, it is suggested to try to establish from early September into the first part of October. It is also recommended that if you are not planting a winter vegetable garden to consider planting the entire garden area in a cover crop. Cover crops will establish quickly when planted on a well-prepared seedbed. If planting a seed combination of a cereal grain type plus a legume note that the grass-type cereal grain may be quick to establish and will help protect and hold the soil while the slower germinating legume crop takes hold per our information. When establishing a cover crop, you will need to prepare the bed by removing old vegetable plants and then till the area to a depth of 4 or 5 inches.
You can broadcast your seed at the rate previously mentioned. You still have time to run a soil test in order to obtain fertilizing and liming recommendations for the cover crop.
Your fertilizer and lime can be applied at the time of planting and should be tilled into the soil just prior to broadcasting your seed.
After the seed has been planted, you need to lightly rake or drag the seed into the soil. This will help insure good seed to soil contact. Keep in mind that tiny seed such as clover cannot be buried too deep in the soil. Tiny seed such as clover should be just barely below the soil surface. I will add that if you have a roller or cultipacker, it is a good idea to go over the seedbed with such a tool.
This will help firm up the seedbed and will help seed germination. Make sure to water the newly planted area every other day for the first week or two to aid seed germination. Then when the crop is up and growing, you can cut back the watering efforts to once a week. When the cover crop is established then rainfall should be enough for moisture. Note that the use of cover crops is one of the best aids in prevention of soil erosion. Cover crops will reduce the time a soil is left bare. Plus, a growing cover crop and plant residue will slow down raindrop energy that would hit bare soil than can lead to erosion.
Cover crops will also slow the flow of surface water and will increase the rate of water absorption into the ground. Finally, follow us on Facebook at Gordon County Extension/ Agriculture and Natural Resources.