Fall Cover Crop Update

With the appearance of flowers on the pea half of the cover crop the time has come to destroy the cover crops.  This is part of the life cycle of a cover crop as they are intended to improve garden soil but not to take over the garden.  Many cover crops can become invasive if not properly managed and killed when the time comes.  With proper timing and frost susceptible species you can let mother nature do the killing for you but sometimes mother nature doesn't cooperate and give you the frost when you need it.

Field Pea Flower Head

The best time to manual cultivate or spray with herbicide a cover drop is right before they go to seed.  Watching for flowers is a good indication that the time is coming that you need to do away with the cover crop.  To the left you can see a picture of my cover crop combo of oats and field peas with the peas starting to go to flower.  Now I most likely could have let the cover crop go another week maybe two after the peas started to flower but I didn't want to risk getting a infestation of oats and peas next year.




I chose to try two different methods of killing the oats and peas, you can either dig up and cultivate them into the soil which is a effective method.  It has its plus and minuses however, on the positive side it is simple and you only need a shovel and a little muscle to accomplish it.  On the negative it is work that requires a good shovel and a strong back so is not for everyone.      

There is also the roller crimping method which is a cover crop killing method that is all the rage with organic farmers.  It basically involves dragging a large cylinder covered with rows of dull teeth on it that presses the stalks of your cover crop into the ground.  At the same time it is rolling them flat the teeth are pinching the stalks all the way up the plant.  This basically closes up the plants stem preventing it from moving water and nutrients up and down the stem.

Using a brick for roller crimping.

By doing it this way you reduce the cultivation in the soil which improves soil structure and it lays a blanket of organic matter on top of the soil. This blanket reduces and prevents weeds from sprouting  and creates a nice planting bed by next spring.  In the garden scale of cover cropping I found that using a old brick works for roller crimping the cover crop.

For more info about roller crimping check out this article
               

 So as things decay and season swings back into spring again I will give one last update on the effectiveness of the cover crop as a weed preventative and soil quality enhancer