Cover Cropping for Vegetable Production

Cover Cropping for Vegetable Production

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Cover crops are an important tool for vegetable growers to reduce soil erosion, filter water, enhance soil fertility and break the life cycles of plant pathogens and pests. Any grower who relies on cover crops—and anyone who is interested in learning more about them—will quickly learn to rely on this handbook’s information.
Why this book?
Rich with 17 detailed tables and 68 color photos, Cover Cropping for Vegetable Production is perhaps the most comprehensive, science-based book on cover cropping available to growers.
Brand-new for 2011, the handbook brings together the expertise of more than 20 University of California experts in:
• plant sciences
• farm management
• entomology
• vegetable crops
• weeds
• sustainable agriculture
• agricultural economics
• cropping systems
• nematology
• plant pathology
What's inside?
The handbook describes primary cover crop species, including grasses, legumes, mustards and other cool-season and warm-season options. For each species, the authors have included photos, seeding details, winter vigor descriptions, nitrogen fixation and scavenging, weed suppression and nematode resistance.
In addition to assisting with crop selection, this handbook addresses the effects of cover cropping on water management, pest management and farm economics.
For California growers, the handbook also discusses differences in cover crop use for the Central Valley, Desert and Coastal regions.
Chapters include:
• Botany and Species Selection
• Agricultural Soil Ecology
• Water Management and Impacts on Water Quality
• Soil Nitrogen Fertility Management
• Weeds
• Soilborne Pathogens
• Plant and Soil Nematodes
• Arthropods
• Cover Crop Management
• Regional Differences in Cover Crop Management
• Economics
We believe organic and conventional growers alike will find this handbook indispensable.