cover crops at the kerr center
DESCRIPTION
Presentation describing cover cropping practices on the Cannon Horticulture Plots at the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in southeastern OklahomaTRANSCRIPT
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The Kerr Center's horticulture program has converted bermudagrass pasture to
organic horticulture production.
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Controlling bermudagrass is a challenge...
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...but sorghum-sudangrass shades it out. For more detail, see
“How We Converted Bermuda Pasture to Organic Vegetables.”
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Sorghum-sudangrass is one of several cover crops, both warm- and cool-season, that are
used in the rotation on the Cannon plots.
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Cover crops, both winter and summer, are an important element of the evolving organic system design. For more information, read
“Rotations, Cover Crops, and Green Fallow....”
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The system features a 4-field rotation. Each year, half of the land is in a "green
fallow" of full-season cover crops.
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We grow grain rye as a winter cover crop.
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George Kuepper mowing a rye/vetch cover crop
with a BCS walk-behind tractor with sickle-bar
mower attachment
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The mowed material can be tilled in, or left on the surface as a "green mulch."
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A 2011 organic no-till demonstration used this approach to grow heirloom pumpkins and
squash. Results: 2011 Organic No-till Pumpkin Demonstration
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The project is experimenting with using a roller-crimper as another way to kill cover crops.
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In addition to suppressing weeds, cover crops add fertility. Vetch, a winter cover
crop, adds nitrogen to the soil.
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Purple hull peas, a warm-season cover crop, fix
nitrogen, too. (They also make tasty eating.)
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When flowering, purple hull peas also provide habitat for beneficial insects.