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Cover crops reduce water pollution risks and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. [1] Cover crops may be an off-season crop planted after harvesting the cash crop. Cover crops are nurse crops in that they increase the survival of the main crop being harvested, and are often grown over the winter.
Cover crops such as nitrogen-fixing legumes, white turnips, radishes and other species are rotated with cash crops to blanket the soil year-round and act as green manure that replenishes nitrogen and other critical nutrients. Cover crops also help to suppress weeds.
Integrating certain crops, especially cover crops, into crop rotations is of particular value to weed management. These crops crowd out weeds through competition. In addition, the sod and compost from cover crops and green manure slows the growth of what weeds are still able to make it through the soil, giving the crops further competitive ...
Cover crops then need to be killed so that the newly planted crops can get enough light, water, nutrients, etc. [35] [36] This can be done by rollers, crimpers, choppers and other ways. [37] [38] The residue is then planted through, and left as a mulch. Cover crops typically must be crimped when they enter the flowering stage. [39]
The United States aims to double the country's cover crop plantings to 30 million acres by 2030 under a new Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation program launched on Monday.
Grasses and legumes are the most common cover crops. Cover crops are greatly beneficial as they can help prevent soil erosion, physically suppress weeds, improve surface water retention, and, in the case of legumes, provide nitrogen compounds as well. Single-species cover cropping, in rotation with cash crops, increases agroecosystem diversity ...
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