We Love Cover Crops
We started planting cover crops while transitioning to organic, around 1990, and over the years we have become passionate about them. In the early years we selected seed mixes for biomass generation and nitrogen fixation. An example of these mixes would be the “rich mix” or “biomaster”. They were made up of just a few, locally abundant and often leguminous species, such as magnus pea, fava bean, and vetch. These mixes generated so much above ground biomass that we thought the disc was our only option to incorporate them.
As we transitioned to “no-till” management around 2014, our seed selection changed as well. Now we select mixes for their biodiversity, forage quality, and eco-system co-benefits. For example; daikon radish can unpack compaction, perennial grasses feed mycorrhizal fungi with their deep root systems, while forbes yield nectar after almond blooms wither. We encourage year round coverage of the soil with photosynthesizing plants, which is achieved by the 10-20 species of cover we seed each year. To ensure this soil coverage, we spread all seed with a broadcaster, as opposed to seed drill, eliminating a tractor pass and maintaining an intact O-horizon.
