Which cover crops should I use, and how can I integrate them?
Popular cover crops include alfalfa, buckwheat, cereals, clovers, cowpeas, daikon radishes, sunn hemp, millet, and Australian winter peas. Cover crops can be used in almost any production system, and they can reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers while still supporting high crop yields and microbial life. Plus, cover crops are great for soil health, explains Nicole Pramik, a team member of The Farm at Okefenokee, a rural agriculture community near Folkston, Georgia. “They suppress weeds and can help prevent erosion. We consider it a living mulch. We can chop and drop them in place, where they give back nutrients to the soil, like the much-needed nitrogen and phosphorus.”
Some cover crops, such as daikon radishes, aerate…