No-till seeded spinach after winterkilled cover crops in an organic production system

AbstractOrganic no-till (NT) management strategies generally employ high-residue cover crops that act as weed-suppressing mulch. In temperate, humid regions such as the mid-Atlantic USA, high-residue winter cover crops can hinder early spring field work and immobilize nutrients for cash crops. This makes the integration of cover crops into rotations difficult for farmers, who traditionally rely on tillage to prepare seedbeds for early spring vegetables. Our objectives were to address two separate but related goals of reducing tillage and integrating winter cover crops into early spring vegetable rotations by investigating the feasibility of NT seeding spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), an early spring vegetable, into winterkilled cover crops. We conducted a four site-year field study in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of Maryland, USA, comparing seedbed conditions and spinach performance after forage radish (FR) (Raphanus sativus L.), a low-residue, winterkilled cover crop, spring oat (Avena sativa L.), the traditional winterkilled cover crop in the area, a mixture of radish and oat, and a no cover crop (NC) treatment. NT seeded spinach after FR had higher yields than all other cover crop and tillage treatments in one site year and was equal to the highest yielding treatments in two site years. Yield for NT spinach after FR was as high as 19 Mg ha−1 fresh weight, whereas the highest yield for spinach seeded into a rototilled seedbed after NC was 10 Mg ha−1. NT seeding spring spinach after a winterkilled radish cover crop is feasible and provides an alternative to both high-residue cover crops and spring tillage.

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Beyond soil health: the trophic effects of cover crops shape predator communities

10.1101/2020.03.28.013409 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Carson Bowers ◽

Michael D. Toews ◽

Jason M. Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Natural Enemies ◽

Cover Crops ◽

Cover Crop ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Soil Health ◽

Development Stage ◽

Pest Outbreaks ◽

Winter Cover ◽

Winter Cover Crops

AbstractMaintaining habitat throughout the season in annual cropping systems provides resource stability for arthropod communities. Stabilizing resource availability should lead to diverse predatory communities and their associated ecosystem services such as biological control. There is a need for studies to test change in predator communities due to habitat provisioning and estimate associated food web responses. Here we quantified predator community structure and used molecular gut-content analysis to reconstruct predator food webs in response to winter cover crops (i.e. cereal and legume based) in a cotton agroecosystem. Predators were collected from experimental field plots during each major crop development stage in 2017 and 2018, and PCR was used to estimate predator roles and responses to cover crop treatments. Cotton planted into a rye cover crop residue promoted unique predator communities in the early and mid-season as compared to no-cover fields. Correspondingly, we observed dissimilar prey consumption among cover crop treatments. While predators consumed incidental pests at high frequencies (e.g. aphids), predation on key pests by natural enemies in this system was lacking. The use of winter cover crops and reduced tillage practices increased the consumption of alternative prey by natural enemies on seedling cotton, encouraging high predator diversity that aligns temporally with potential early season pest outbreaks. Therefore, cover crops should be further integrated into integrated pest management strategies.

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Effects of Cover Crops and Tillage on Sweet Corn Production

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.33.3.476d ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 476d-476

Author(s):

Gary R. Cline ◽

Anthony F. Silvernail

Keyword(s):

Cover Crops ◽

Sweet Corn ◽

N Fertilization ◽

Winter Rye ◽

No Tillage ◽

Corn Production ◽

Total N ◽

No Till ◽

Winter Cover ◽

Winter Cover Crops

A split-plot factorial experiment examined effects of tillage and winter cover crops on sweet corn in 1997. Main plots received tillage or no tillage. Cover crops consisted of hairy vetch, winter rye, or a mix, and N treatments consisted of plus or minus N fertilization. Following watermelon not receiving inorganic N, vetch, and mix cover cropsproduced total N yields of ≈90 kg/ha that were more than four times greater than those obtained with rye. However, vetch dry weight yields (2.7 mg/ha) were only about 60% of those obtained in previous years due to winter kill. Following rye winter cover crops, addition of ammonium nitrate to corn greatly increased (P < 0.05) corn yields and foliar N concentrations compared to treatments not receiving N. Following vetch, corn yields obtained in tilled treatments without N fertilization equaled those obtained with N fertilization. However, yields obtained from unfertilized no-till treatments were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than yields of N-fertilized treatments. Available soil N was significantly (P < 0.05) greater following vetch compared to rye after corn planting. No significant effects of tillage on sweet corn plant densities or yields were detected. It was concluded that no-tillage sweet corn was successful, and N fixed by vetch was able to sustain sweet corn production in tilled treatments but not in no-till treatments.In previous years normal, higher-yielding vetch cover crops were able to sustain sweet corn in both tilled and no-till treatments.

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Investigation of short-term effects of winter cover crops on compaction and total soil carbon in a long-term no-till agricultural system

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation ◽

10.2489/jswc.74.1.77 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 74 (1) ◽

pp. 77-84 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

C.A. Aldridge ◽

B.H. Baker ◽

A.R. Omer

Keyword(s):

Soil Carbon ◽

Cover Crops ◽

Agricultural System ◽

Short Term ◽

No Till ◽

Total Soil ◽

Winter Cover ◽

Winter Cover Crops ◽

Short Term Effects

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Assessing winter cover crop nutrient uptake efficiency using a water quality simulation model

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-18-5239-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 18 (12) ◽

pp. 5239-5253 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

I.-Y. Yeo ◽

S. Lee ◽

A. M. Sadeghi ◽

P. C. Beeson ◽

W. D. Hively ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Nitrate Leaching ◽

Cover Crops ◽

Cover Crop ◽

Watershed Scale ◽

Source Areas ◽

Winter Cover Crop ◽

Nitrate Export ◽

Winter Cover ◽

Winter Cover Crops

Abstract. Winter cover crops are an effective conservation management practice with potential to improve water quality. Throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), which is located in the mid-Atlantic US, winter cover crop use has been emphasized, and federal and state cost-share programs are available to farmers to subsidize the cost of cover crop establishment. The objective of this study was to assess the long-term effect of planting winter cover crops to improve water quality at the watershed scale (~ 50 km2) and to identify critical source areas of high nitrate export. A physically based watershed simulation model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), was calibrated and validated using water quality monitoring data to simulate hydrological processes and agricultural nutrient cycling over the period of 1990–2000. To accurately simulate winter cover crop biomass in relation to growing conditions, a new approach was developed to further calibrate plant growth parameters that control the leaf area development curve using multitemporal satellite-based measurements of species-specific winter cover crop performance. Multiple SWAT scenarios were developed to obtain baseline information on nitrate loading without winter cover crops and to investigate how nitrate loading could change under different winter cover crop planting scenarios, including different species, planting dates, and implementation areas. The simulation results indicate that winter cover crops have a negligible impact on the water budget but significantly reduce nitrate leaching to groundwater and delivery to the waterways. Without winter cover crops, annual nitrate loading from agricultural lands was approximately 14 kg ha−1, but decreased to 4.6–10.1 kg ha−1 with cover crops resulting in a reduction rate of 27–67% at the watershed scale. Rye was the most effective species, with a potential to reduce nitrate leaching by up to 93% with early planting at the field scale. Early planting of cover crops (~ 30 days of additional growing days) was crucial, as it lowered nitrate export by an additional ~ 2 kg ha−1 when compared to late planting scenarios. The effectiveness of cover cropping increased with increasing extent of cover crop implementation. Agricultural fields with well-drained soils and those that were more frequently used to grow corn had a higher potential for nitrate leaching and export to the waterways. This study supports the effective implementation of cover crop programs, in part by helping to target critical pollution source areas for cover crop implementation.

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EFFECT OF WINTER COVER CROPS AND NO-TILL ON THE YIELD OF ORGANICALLY-GROWN BELL PEPPER (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.)

Acta Horticulturae ◽

10.17660/actahortic.2008.767.25 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 243-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

J.C. Díaz-Pérez ◽

J. Silvoy ◽

S.C. Phatak ◽

J. Ruberson ◽

R. Morse

Keyword(s):

Capsicum Annuum ◽

Cover Crops ◽

Bell Pepper ◽

Capsicum Annuum L ◽

No Till ◽

Winter Cover ◽

Winter Cover Crops ◽

Organically Grown

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Runoff, Soil, and Dissolved Nutrient Losses from No-Till Soybean with Winter Cover Crops

Soil Science Society of America Journal ◽

10.2136/sssaj1989.03615995005300040037x ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 53 (4) ◽

pp. 1210-1214 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

J. C. Zhu ◽

C. J. Gantzer ◽

S. H. Anderson ◽

E. E. Alberts ◽

P. R. Beuselinck

Keyword(s):

Cover Crops ◽

Nutrient Losses ◽

No Till ◽

Winter Cover ◽

Winter Cover Crops

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Effect of Winter Cover Crop Residue on No-till Pumpkin Yield

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.42.7.1568 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 42 (7) ◽

pp. 1568-1574 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

E. Ryan Harrelson ◽

Greg D. Hoyt ◽

John L. Havlin ◽

David W. Monks

Keyword(s):

Cover Crops ◽

Cover Crop ◽

Crop Residues ◽

Fruit Size ◽

Vegetable Production ◽

Surface Residue ◽

No Till ◽

Wide Range ◽

Winter Cover Crop ◽

Winter Cover

Throughout the southeastern United States, vegetable growers have successfully cultivated pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) using conventional tillage. No-till pumpkin production has not been pursued by many growers as a result of the lack of herbicides, no-till planting equipment, and knowledge in conservation tillage methods. All of these conservation production aids are now present for successful no-till vegetable production. The primary reasons to use no-till technologies for pumpkins include reduced erosion, improved soil moisture conservation, long-term improvement in soil chemical and microbial properties, and better fruit appearance while maintaining similar yields compared with conventionally produced pumpkins. Cover crop utilization varies in no-till production, whereas residue from different cover crops can affect yields. The objective of these experiments was to evaluate the influence of surface residue type on no-till pumpkin yield and fruit quality. Results from these experiments showed all cover crop residues produced acceptable no-till pumpkin yields and fruit size. Field location, weather conditions, soil type, and other factors probably affected pumpkin yields more than surface residue. Vegetable growers should expect to successfully grow no-till pumpkins using any of the winter cover crop residues tested over a wide range in residue biomass rates.

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Evaluating Cover Crop Mulches for No-till Organic Production of Onions

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.45.1.61 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 61-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Emily R. Vollmer ◽

Nancy Creamer ◽

Chris Reberg-Horton ◽

Greg Hoyt

Keyword(s):

Soybean Meal ◽

Cover Crops ◽

Cover Crop ◽

N Uptake ◽

Organic Production ◽

Weed Suppression ◽

Soil Mineral N ◽

Soil Mineral ◽

Mineral N ◽

No Till

Cover crops of foxtail millet ‘German Strain R’ [Setaria italica (L.) Beauv.] and cowpea ‘Iron & Clay’ [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] were grown as monocrops (MIL, COW) and mixtures and compared with a bare ground control (BG) for weed suppression and nitrogen (N) contribution when followed by organically managed no-till bulb onion (Allium cepa L.) production. Experiments in 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 were each conducted on first-year transitional land. Mixtures consisted of cowpea with high, middle, and low seeding rates of millet (MIX-70, MIX-50, MIX-30). During onion production, each cover crop treatment had three N rate subplots (0, 105, and 210 kg N/ha) of surface-applied soybean meal [Glycine max (L.) Merrill]. Cover crop treatments COW and BG had the greatest total marketable onion yield both years. Where supplemental baled millet was applied in 2006–2007, onion mortality was over 50% in MIL and MIX and was attributed to the thickness of the millet mulch. Nitrogen rates of 105 and 210 kg N/ha increased soil mineral N (NO3– and NH4+) on BG plots 2 weeks after surface application of soybean meal each year, but stopped having an effect on soil mineral N by February or March. Split applications of soybean meal could be an important improvement in N management to better meet increased demand for N uptake during bulb initiation and growth in the spring.

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