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Best cover crop for small plot in zone 6B

ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA

6 years ago

There are just so many. The plot is about 16 x 20 feet, used primarily for sweet corn and potatoes, and very weedy when not in season. I'm in NE PA. I've used hairy vetch, but wondering if there is a cover crop that works best in a smaller plot? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Featured Answer

digdirt2

6 years ago

Will you be tilling/turning it into the soil? If so consider clover. Most any of the legumes also work well I find and the seed is easy to find. Red clover if you can get it otherwise regular white. Even a mix of grasses like rye or oats mixed with legumes like field peas or fava beans work well.

JME

Dave

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Comments (6)

ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA
Original Author
6 years ago
I was thinking about red clover. Thanks.
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diamond, that is a tough question because you are in a climate which never freezes. much of the cover crop studies have been done for colder climates. Upthread I suggest favas, and they are good because they are nitrogen fixers, they have a tap root, and they die when you mow them. there are other crops that die by mowing, and you would be better off starting with those. unless you can crimp your cover crops, in which case you can use difficult to terminate crops like rye triticale or vetch, which have a lot to offer in terms of the biology they can develop. navigate to youtube and search for stomper crimper. Mine has a steel edge but apparently this guy is doing well with a wooden edge. it is the small scale equivalent of a roller crimper, which you can also look at on youtube to get the basic concepts of terminating by crimping. time is of the essence for rolling crimping as crimping only works when plants are close to blooming.
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I have grown a cover crop or I have covered the garden bed with shredded leaves, but never both at the same time. Sometimes a few leaves will get trapped in the cover crop but that is not the same as laying down 6 to 8 inches of leaves which would smother any cover crop you are growing. The leaves will have a Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of between 40 and 80 to 1, almost adequate to promote proper composting. When I have plunked down a goodly amount of leaves on the clay soils of NW Indiana and SE Ohio, shredded and unshredded, over the winter we found the soil the following spring to be more workable and that plants grew better with only a small amount of compost added, much less then the previous year when no leaves were added. If this new plot is now ready for planting I would seed Buckwheat which will be ready to cut by the time the leaves start to fall and then cover that cut Buckwheat and the soil with the leaves for the winter.
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beebooks (5): cereal rye is a great cover, but it usually comes back strong early in spring when it will provide stiff competition for your vegetables. For me (Southeast Michigan) it works best if its incorporated deep, and then waiting a month before planting small-seeded vegetables, although you can safely plant potatoes, fava beans, and other large seeded plants. White clover can work, but you need to chop it into the top few inches of the soil in spring; don't expect it to fix nitrogen however, too late for that. How about the option of planting some vegetables that will over-winter, like fava beans, garlic, and lettuce-under-a-row cover? Another thing: I understand that incorporation is a stiff chore, but it does build up live carbon in the soil, which is never bad. Regards, Peter.
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glib
6 years ago
if you want to avoid any work, oats, buckwheat, sunflower, fenugreek, daikon can give you quite a bit of matter and die on their own. That is what i am using these days, plus a bit of hairy vetch that will overwinter and keep the fungi alive.
ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA thanked glib
bcomplx
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Red clover is great, but I think oats are the ultimate fall-to-winter cover crop for 6B. They will get really lush before winter kills the plants, and then the oat straw sits as mulch all winter.
ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA thanked bcomplx
glib
6 years ago
concur about oats (they are also the most mycorrhizal of cover crops, although clover is close) but let me say something nice about buckwheat. It comes up right away with minimal moisture, outracing all those in the list above, which are themselves fast sprouters. It makes non fibrous plants with stems as thick as my thumb, which decay rapidly and will be good fertilizer in early spring. fenugreek is similar in functionality, although it is a legume.
ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA thanked glib
ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA
Original Author
6 years ago
Seems like I can't go wrong. I may give oats a try. Thanks again.

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