Who plants a cover crop?

[Ford850]

I'm getting ready to clean up a garden area this weekend and plan to plant a cover crop of winter Rye. I try to rotate a larger garden area between at least 2 plots with cover crops rotating in the 'off' years.
Do many of you plant cover crops? In the Fall only, or does anyone plant/till/plant/till summer cover crops too?

 

[Western]

I only plant cover for the winter, then till it in, in the Spring.

Only thing I rotate is plant placement in the garden, like one year corn here then next year beans or whatever where the corn was.

 

[Don87]

I'm going to plant rye. Then in the spring, I'm going to let it grow to full height, cutting it at ground level after blooming and before seeding.

I'm planning to use it as a mulch on my garden.

4 seeds per square inch is what they recommend for this.

 

[forgeblast]

I have done both, I used buckweek one year, still have it growing in spots. I tried double ground mulch, and I have so many more weeds this year, Weeds I have never had before. So I will not do that again. I do normally use leaves that I have cut, or the last grass mowing of the season to put on the beds. I usually also take the summers chicken litter out and cover all the beds in it and let it decomp over the winter, along with the wood stove ashes.

 

[ayelvington]

I'm trying to rehabilitate a heavy clay field, so I've been doing two plantings of buckwheat per year. This year I'm putting in winter wheat (no rye available) and planning to mulch it in the spring. The nice thing about wheat is it's so much cheaper than the buckwheat...

 

[wolc123]

My "garden" consists of about 1/2 acre of sweetcorn. I dont plant any covercrop, but I use one that occurs naturally. I find that white clover comes in on its own every year after the corn, probably because the corn takes out so much nitrogen that grass can not compete. I rotate 1.5 acres or so total, so every 3rd year the corn gets planted in the same spot. The year after the corn, the white clover is a little spotty, but by the second year, when I plow it under for more corn, it is so thick you would swear it was seeded and treated with selective herbicide. I keep the 1 acre of clover mowed every couple of weeks and that helps the clover store up more nitrogen and controls other weeds. The clover, on the (2) off-years, really helps minimize the need for fertilizer on the sweetcorn. I go with a very light application of 15-15-15 for starter and that is it. The ears that we harvest are as big as any I have seen on roadside stands.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I use mustard greens and turni greens to fight nematodes and also to hold in nutrients and erosion control.

 

[Western]

I use mustard greens and turni greens to fight nematodes and also to hold in nutrients and erosion control.

And those make some good eating when young too, at least the turnips.

 

[milkman636]

I've had good success using rye over the winters here in Michigan. By the end of this month I'll be turning the garden under and covering with rye.

I also believe in moving the garden around slighty each year, and rye transitions nicley back to grass in any area I'm not replanting.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Ohio State Extension Service has free handouts that can help you decide. Hairy Vetch, for example, would be a good cover in poor soil. But, like anything else, you need to read up on how it should be used.