Zone 5 Winter Cover Crops

[Manda_Rae]

Which is your favorite Cover crop in areas where it snows and gets below freezing? And why?
I've looked at several types and I'm having a hard time deciding.
Then the ones that say No till, so do you just pull them up before planting your garden? How does that work?
I also have chickens that I usually let roam my garden in the spring so they could fertilize and till up the garden for me.

 

[ducks4you]

Oats. Go to a farm supply store and buy 50 pounds, which will run somewhere between $10-$15
Every other cover crop will be very expensive, since you will be buying online.
Oats sprout quickly and become a thick mat, which will die down in the winter.
If you have a small area to fill, try turnips. I grew turnips one year, then forgot about them. They survived the winter and then went to seed. This was 3 years ago and I STILL have volunteers.
I like turnips to eat, but they make a good plant to take the insect heat off of something else that you like to grow.

 

[digitS']

I no longer have a large garden that can be left untilled through the winter. (The small backyard garden doesn't fit for winter cover crops because its square feet [about 200] are either growing over-wintering veggies or I've dug out the ground to bury compostables right up until it freezes.) Still have a large garden but the person who owns the ground may have the tractor guy in most anytime during the off-season.

When I did have a garden for which I was accountable 12 months/year, I experimented some with cover crops. First off, with below zero temperatures, Austrian winter peas didn't work well. Over 50% of the vines died. Maybe I planted too late, too early - don't know.

Winter rye did and didn't work. One time, I planted late and had real problems killing them in the spring with the the rototiller. I'd introduced a grass to my garden! It worked to plant them early ... real early, about the first of August. About the time that I needed that ground in the Spring, they were above my knees! Rototiller? No. I could easily pull them by hand, dig out the bed, and bury them.

Well, all of the shovel work wasn't easy but the result was a super amount of green material and fertile soil.

I've grown oats for both hay and harvested it for grain. It can grow in cool weather but dies in the cold. It might work well.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

if you have a local grain elevator and farm supply place you can go in and buy cover crops by the pound.

if you want a uniform grass look all through winter and into spring use winter wheat or winter rye (the grain), both will survive frosts and freezing and grow when the weather is warm enough. when spring shows up you can turn under what you don't want to let go or let the chickens take it out.

since i don't much care for monocultures i suggest instead a cover crop mix which can include all sorts of things like turnips, radishes, cowpeas, etc.

oats are grassy, but they won't survive through the winter.

 

[ducks4you]

I used to fill used grain bags with oats for my horses. There was an elevator 3 miles from where I used to keep them, and I would buy by the weight. No elevator that close that sells oats, but it was VERY economical. If you are planting you can be less picky about how they Look. They will still grow for you.
I first heard about planting oats in the Spring where you need to fill in grass. Most lawn grasses will burn out and die, especially if there is a drought. The oats will keep growing, and then you can grow grass right now, while it is getting cooler.

 

[ducks4you]

Cover Cropping the Easy Way: How to Grow Field Peas for Fertilizer

What if I told you that you can add an abundance of nutrients to your soil, all without buying more amendments or trying to remember the proper NPK ratios? And by that, I mean growing your own fertilizer—an edible fertilizer, at that! I've been growing cover crops for years as a way to mulch my e

www.gardenbetty.com

 

[ducks4you]

Here's something else to do to improve your garden fertility.

In-Garden Composting

www.almanac.com

You could dig holes, cover with cardboard, which EVERYBODY has too much of, and remove the cover to fill. The first frost is a good time bc the ground is not frozen.

 

[seedcorn]

Soybeans make a nice cover crop. Will get tall and die in winter. I use where I grow sweet corn. I use left over plot seed so it’s free for me