Fall Cover Crops Emerge!

Healthy soil is the foundation of our farm. We believe healthy soil = healthy food = healthy people. One of the ways we make sure our soil is healthy is by planting cover crops. Cover crops have a variety of benefits including protecting the soil from erosion, adding organic matter to the soil which feeds the soil, providing habitat for insects and scavenging nutrients that future cash crops can use.

We had a very nice rain last week totaling just over a half inch just a couple days after I had planted our fall cover crops. This combined with nice weather caused our cover crops to emerge quickly. The forecasted continued warm weather will ensure our cover crops get off to a good start and provide maximum benefit before they succumb to the inevitable cold.

Our fall cover crop mix consists of oats, peas and faba beans. This mix of cover crops main benefits are preventing soil erosion, adding organic matter to the soil and fixating nitrogen, a critical plant nutrient, from the air. The oats are great for protecting the soil and breaking up any compaction. The faba beans will fix some nitrogen and have a tap root that can penetrate hard pan. Finally, the peas will fix nitrogen so we have more nutrients available for next seasons crops!

Cover crops emerge!