by Anne Verhallen

In the rush of the harvest don’t forget to plant those cover crops. It is easy to get busy and postpone cover crop planting but in the long run that is going to cost you. You can lose important growing time for cover crops – those warm days in the fall when we can get the maximum growth out of the plants.

This is a common problem in any area where winter can come suddenly but achieving maximum growth from cover crops is important. Work with cover crops in Ontario after wheat harvest has shown that 3 weeks difference in planting in the summer can almost double the biomass production. Earlier is the better when we are talking cover crops (usually)!

Sjoerd Duiker a Soil Management Specialist from Pennsylvania has found the same results, especially as the fall goes on. “Cover crop biomass accumulation and root growth…