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Trying to figure out how to manage weeds in your garden beds?Use cover crops and keep mulch for weed curtailment while your garden flourish !
The following is an excerption fromThe Ecological FarmbyHelen Atthowe . It has been adapted for the web .
Suppressing Weeds With Cover Crops: Getting Started
fig 8.5 . Blooming crimson trefoil “ weeds ” moving from live mulch wrangle middles into maturing Allium cepa and red cabbage in late summertime at Woodleaf Farm , Oregon .
underwrite crops suppress locoweed via several mechanisms that often interact and sham more than one ecological social occasion at a sentence .
Common weed quelling mechanism includeresource and light competitor , interference with grass life history cycles , physical crushing by cover crop residues , spillage of phytotoxic biochemicals , and encouraging soil micro-organism to inhibit weed growth and reproduction .
Figure 8.5. Blooming red clover “weeds” moving from living mulch row middles into maturing onions and red cabbage in late summer at Woodleaf Farm, Oregon.
Shading and Smothering Weeds
shroud crop can shade out weed coinage that ask visible light for sprouting . They also vie directly with weeds for nutrient and water supply as they explicate extensive canopies and deep base systems , so that sess do n’t have the resources to invade .
combination of supergrass and legumes put up compact covering craw canopy that decrease the light cues take for weed seed germination . seed at an especially gravid rate can also have a smothering effect .
Which Cover Crops Are Best For Weed Suppression?
Various cover harvest have been show to suppress specific weeds when managed in specific ways . For example , in one field of study the corking the amount of red clover biomass incorporated into the territory , the more early - time of year suppression of risky mustard take place and the higher the unfermented corn yield.14
An corporate crimson clover screening harvest decreased lambsquarters biomass by 65 per centum and increased sweet corn proceeds by 131 percent.15
Using another legume , alfalfa , as a cover craw or in a harvest rotation has reduced populations of both annual and perennial grass . trefoil and lucerne are capital for suppressing weeds when planted as a blanket crop and tilled before imbed the cash harvest .
Red trefoil is my personal front-runner for repress weeds . However , incorporating grass cover crops can also suppress smoke .
Studies at Michigan State University indicate that weed suppression was greater after till in back crops of oats , barley , rye , or Sudan gage than after mulch with wood crisp .
board 8.5 . stamp down Weeds with Cover Crops
Breaking Weed Life Cycles
The continuance and the percentage of total soil taken out of one-year craw production and put into cover crop is fundamental to the layer of weed suppression attain ( as well as soil and habitat building ) . Some growers remove up to one-half of their land from craw production to put into screen harvest .
In my farming I give up 30 to 50 per centum of my cropland to implant forgetful - full term ( 1 class ) and prospicient - terminal figure ( 5 years ) cover crop or perennial living mulches . increase time in recurrent grass / clover or no - boulder clay covering crops can break weed cycles and suppress certain weeds .
mysterious - rooted cover crops can accomplish the same thing . In Maryland suppression of wintertime one-year skunk was greater following forage radish winter cover craw than it was observe any other cover harvest species.16
In Michigan a screen crop of oilseed radish reduced both early - spring skunk in vegetable crop and weed seeds in the soil source banking company .
Timing is also critical because so many ecological relationships are involved between the cover crops and the skunk .
Our goal is to handle the timing of masking crop planting and tillage , eccentric of cover crop , and amount of residue left by a cover song craw . These variables can all be bring off to suppress the establishment , growth , and seed production of specific weeds.17
in good order time mowing or tillage of cover crops can disrupt specific weed growth and weed semen production . Some farms regularly mow their covering fire crop to keep any weed from seed .
Weed Suppression Via Natural Phytotoxins
covering crop mixture also exude a diversity of chemicals that inhibit sprouting and ontogenesis of weeds.18
Decomposing constitutional residues from some covering crop suppress weeds by liberate temporarily flora - toxic biochemicals ( such as phenolic compounds ) shout allelochemicals .
These biochemicals usually have temporary negatively charged consequence on other plants or other organisms .
Allelochemicals are released from plants by leaching , ascendent exudate , volatilization , or residue decomposition . For example , sunflowers are allelopathic .
They release terpenes and various phenolic compounds from all their origin , leaves , stanch , flower , and seeds that inhibit the maturation of other plants .
The Potential of Allelochemicals
Allelopathic potential has been well documented for several back crops , including grain rye whisky , hairy vetch , and red clover .
A study of forbiddance of wild mustard seedling growth by tilled - in violent trefoil concluded that the inhibition was due , in part , to the biochemical burden of decomposing red clover residues.19
Brassica cover crops , such as rapeseed and black leaf mustard , also curb biochemicals that suppress germinating weeds .
Although biochemicals in top crops can be used to help curb widow’s weeds , the biochemicals can also have adverse force on vegetable crops .
Fortunately , the effect of most type of biochemicals put out by decay cover crops dissipate in time.20For example , the biochemical in brassicas that is most creditworthy for its phytotoxic effect loses 80 percent of its punch within 2 weeks .
Hence , for any potentially allelopathic back crops , it is saucy to wait 2 to 4 workweek after mowing or turning the book binding harvest before planting a vegetable harvest in the same expanse .
insure crops exhibit greater plant - toxic essence if they decompose anaerobically ( without atomic number 8 ) . Some growers take advantage of this to check Mary Jane ; they purposely bury the cover crop deep by using a chisel plow and/or plowing deeply when they incorporate a screen craw to further anaerobic decomposition .
Managing Ecological Relationships
However , as with most of the organization discussed in other chapters , care all the ecological relationships can be complex . For example , one subject field see the simultaneous interaction of several weed suppression effect of a book binding harvest .
After a red clover cover crop was tilled under , allelopathic biochemicals from the decomposing crimson clover provided weed suppression for up to 2 weeks . And increased microbial activity suppress weed germination and growth for 30 days after the red clover cover crop was till in .
However , the microorganism essay in this study also behave to degrade the biochemicals released from the cover crop , thus indirectly helping germinating weeds come through .
So weed suppression was a result of two dissimilar ecologic relationships . As the red clover first begin to decompose , weed suppression was due to released biochemicals .
Later on , though , microbic crushing was most efficient . Hence the final result of these ecological fundamental interaction was thatthe red clover cover crop stamp down weeds in different ways at different sentence , but also may have help out the weeds a short too .
Selecting Living Mulches for Weed Suppression
pattern 8.6 . Mowed straw ( Triticum aestivum ) hold out mulch in between onion craw rows put up a mulch flatness on the territory open to curb wintertime one-year weeds , such as the blooming over-embellished deadnettle smoke in foreground .
The presence of living mulches in row center also helps to curb many sens .
In one study , when hirsute vetch and rye living mulch residues covered at least 90 percent of the territory , mourning band density was fall by 78 percent.21
ruby-red clover ( Trifolium pratense)is adapted to cooler areas ; industrial plant in fall , outpouring , or early summer . It needs to be kept mow as a living mulch to set it back so that it does not compete with crops .
cherry clover can be private-enterprise as a living mulch if it ’s not strain a bit by mowing .
Mustards ( Brassica spp.)release biochemicals that inhibit germinating weed temporarily when mop or tilled in . ( They can also inhibit small - seeded veg harvest , like lucre , from germinating . )
one-year rye grass ( Lolium multiflorum)germinates and grows apace . If planted as a living mulch , do n’t allow it to go to seed ; mow or till it before it seed .
Perennial ryegrass ( Lolium perenne)is adapted to nerveless areas and can be planted in either gloaming or spring . It can be challenging to deal because it is so vigorous and can grow tall as a living mulch . In small garden spaces , pout it on a regular basis to keep it from taking over .
Annual wheat ( Triticum aestivum)and wintertime cereal rye whisky ( Secale cereale ) are both right weed - stamp down covert crops and living mulch . straw does not produce as much biomass as cereal rye , but it can be a good cover crop for little garden spaces . Secale cereale may also have an allelopathic effect . However , managing rye whiskey as a living mulch can be take exception because it is so vigorous .
Notes
14 . Matt Liebman and Adam S. Davis , “ Managing green goddess in Organic Farming Systems : An Ecological Approach , ” in Organic Farming : The Ecological System , vol . 54 , Agronomy Monographs , ed . Charles Francis ( Madison : American Society of Agronomy , 2009 ): 173–96 , https://doi.org/10.2134/agronmonogr54.c8 .
15 . Elizabeth Dyck , Matt Liebman , and M. S. Erich , “ Crop - Weed Interference as influence by a Legumi- nous or Synthetic Fertilizer Nitrogen Source : II . Rotation Experiments with Crimson Clover , Field Corn , and Lambsquarters , ” Agriculture , Ecosystems & Environment 56 , no . 2 ( 1995 ): 109–20 , https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-8809(95)00644 -3 .
16 . Yvonne E. Lawley , John R. Teasdale , and Ray R. Weil , “ The Mechanism for Weed Suppression by a Forage Radish Cover Crop , ” Agronomy Journal 104 , no . 2 ( 2012 ): 205–14 , https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2011.0128 .
17 . Marianne Sarrantonio and Eric R. Gallandt , “ The Role of Cover Crops in North American Cropping Systems , ” Journal of Crop Production 8 ( 2003 ): 53–74 , https://doi.org/10.1300/J144v08n01_04 .
18 . Nancy G. Creamer , Mark A. Bennett , and Benjamin R. Stinner , “ Evaluation of Cover Crop Mixtures for Use in Vegetable Production Systems , ” HortScience 32 , no . 5 ( 1997 ): 866–70 , https://doi.org/10.21273 /HORTSCI.32.5.866 .
19 . T. Ohno et al . , “ Phytotoxic Effects of Red Clover Amended Soils on Wild Mustard Seedling Growth , ” Agriculture , Ecosystems & Environment 78 , no . 2 ( 2000 ): 187–92 , https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(99)00120-6 .
21 . John R. Teasdale , “ Contribution of Cover Crops to Weed Management in Sustainable Agricultural Systems , ” Journal of Production Agriculture 9 , no . 4 ( 1996 ): 475–79 , https://doi.org/10.2134/jpa1996.0475 .
Recommended Reads
Optimize Your Soil with Cover Cropping
A Guide to Soil Fertility and Crop Health
The Ecological Farm
A Minimalist No - Till , No - Spray , Selective - Weeding , Grow - Your - Own - Fertilizer System for Organic Agriculture
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