TY - JOUR
T1 - Achieving diverse cover crop mixtures
T2 - Effects of planting date and seeding rate
AU - Murrell, Ebony G.
AU - Schipanski, Meagan E.
AU - Finney, Denise M.
AU - Hunter, Mitchell C.
AU - Burgess, Mac H.
AU - Lachance, James C.
AU - Baraibar, Barbara
AU - White, Charles M.
AU - Mortensen, David A.
AU - Kaye, Jason P.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank D.J. Spackman, B.M. Bradley, and the staff of the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center, for planting, managing, and assisting in data collection in our experimental plots, D. Wilson of King’s Agriseed and our Farmer Advisory Committee for their recommendations on seeding rates and planting practices for cover crop treatments, numerous undergraduate assistants for their assistance with data collection, and J. Guretzky and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript. This project was primarily funded by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (2011-51300-30638). Additional funding was provided by USDA NIFA grant 2012-67012-22889. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. DGE1255832. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the American Society of Agronomy.
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Cover crop mixtures may provide greater diversity of benefits than monocultures. To develop management principles to establish diverse cover crop mixtures, we conducted a 3-yr study in which monocultures and mixtures of six cover crop species (cereal rye [Secale cereale L.], oat [Avena sativa L.], common medium red clover [Trifolium pratense L.], Austrian winter pea [Pisum sativum L.], forage radish [Raphanus sativus L.], and winter canola [Brassica napus L.]) were planted in a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–maize (Zea mays L.)–soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation aft er wheat (AW) and after maize (AM). Post-emergence stand counts and aboveground biomass in fall and spring were measured by species for all cover crop treatments. All species planted manifested in monocultures and mixtures in fall, though oat dominated and red clover, canola, and radish underperformed in mixtures. Cereal rye had the highest spring biomass in all mixtures, especially AM. Pea spring biomass was disproportionally greater in relation to seeding rate in the six-species mixture (6 Spp.) than in monoculture when planted AW. A four-species mixture (4 Spp.) planted AW retained the highest diversity after overwintering in two of the three planting years. Our study demonstrated that (i) cover crop mixtures retain higher diversity when allowed sufficient grow Thin fall; (ii) cereal rye dominates mixtures in spring, particularly when fall planting is delayed; (iii) grasses overper form in mixtures compared to their grow Thin monocultures; (iv) brassicas underperform in mixtures vs. monocultures; and (v) legume grow Thin mixtures depends on species and planting time.
AB - Cover crop mixtures may provide greater diversity of benefits than monocultures. To develop management principles to establish diverse cover crop mixtures, we conducted a 3-yr study in which monocultures and mixtures of six cover crop species (cereal rye [Secale cereale L.], oat [Avena sativa L.], common medium red clover [Trifolium pratense L.], Austrian winter pea [Pisum sativum L.], forage radish [Raphanus sativus L.], and winter canola [Brassica napus L.]) were planted in a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–maize (Zea mays L.)–soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation aft er wheat (AW) and after maize (AM). Post-emergence stand counts and aboveground biomass in fall and spring were measured by species for all cover crop treatments. All species planted manifested in monocultures and mixtures in fall, though oat dominated and red clover, canola, and radish underperformed in mixtures. Cereal rye had the highest spring biomass in all mixtures, especially AM. Pea spring biomass was disproportionally greater in relation to seeding rate in the six-species mixture (6 Spp.) than in monoculture when planted AW. A four-species mixture (4 Spp.) planted AW retained the highest diversity after overwintering in two of the three planting years. Our study demonstrated that (i) cover crop mixtures retain higher diversity when allowed sufficient grow Thin fall; (ii) cereal rye dominates mixtures in spring, particularly when fall planting is delayed; (iii) grasses overper form in mixtures compared to their grow Thin monocultures; (iv) brassicas underperform in mixtures vs. monocultures; and (v) legume grow Thin mixtures depends on species and planting time.
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U2 - 10.2134/agronj2016.03.0174
DO - 10.2134/agronj2016.03.0174
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85010416867
VL - 109
SP - 259
EP - 271
JO - Journal of Production Agriculture
JF - Journal of Production Agriculture
SN - 0002-1962
IS - 1
ER -