Revitalize Your Soil with Fall Cover Crops

By Ashleigh Smith, Managing Editor at True Leaf Market

One of the greatest contributors to a healthy harvest is the overall health of your soil. While you may be focused on harvesting your current crops, consider what will happen with your garden once the fall season sets in. Utilizing the off-season to improve your soil is the best way to prepare for the next growing season.

During the fall, cover crops become your most valuable tool. These are plants grown specifically to be cut down or tilled back into the soil; they are not grown for harvesting. If you aren’t growing a fall garden, consider sowing an all-purpose garden cover crop mix to improve soil tilth, replenish nutrients, and prevent wind and water erosion.

Cover crops need to be planted 4-8 weeks before the first fall frost. This timeframe allows the seeds to germinate and begin establishment before the frost stops their growth. The cover crop can then be cut down and tilled into the soil or left as green mulch over the winter and tilled in the spring. Waiting until the spring to till is best for preventing winter and spring run-off erosion.

While soil does build over time, it does so at a very slow average pace of 1 millimeter per year. This makes caring for your soil imperative to maintaining healthy land for years to come. If you live in a region with little organic matter in the top layer of soil, experience high winds, or erosion due to spring run-off, it is important to both preserve and build your soil between growing seasons. Cover crops protect against erosion by physically holding the soil in place with their root systems.

Otherwise, bare soil is exposed to winds that can carry valuable soil over to neighboring land. Without a biological anchor, patterns of wind erosion can result in larger formations such as sand dunes, loess deposits, and pediments. Roots provide a pathway for drainage in the spring while slowing the flow of water for greater absorption into the land and less soil movement.

In addition to keeping soil where it belongs, cover crops also improve the tilth or quality relating to its ability to support future plant production. Soil is made up of three main components that determine its texture: sand, silt and clay. While a combination of these three is best, imbalances can be counteracted by applying amendments like compost and manure and utilizing cover crops. For example, radish and mustard cover crops reduce compaction by drilling their roots deep into the soil. The roots are able to free up space for water drainage and microorganism activity.

While their roots are hard at work within the soil, the foliage developing at the surface grows to eventually break down as a biomass builder. Adding organic plant material back into the soil aids nutrient and water retention. Crops such as wheat, oats, and rye are especially valuable for building biomass. The more organic material you have in your soil, the more efficient it will be at utilizing water. If your region struggles with drought and high heat, consider utilizing cover crops to improve the soil's resiliency against these conditions.

One of the most valuable benefits of growing a cover crop is its ability to add nutrients back into the ground. By growing crops in the same area year after year, you are depleting the soil of the basic components it uses to build with. Cover crops can be used as a tool to add these basic nutrients back into the soil and reduce fertilizer needs throughout the season. Legume crops like peas, vetch, and clover are known nitrogen fixers. This means these plants are able to transfer nitrogen from the air into a form usable within the soil.

The longer these crops grow, the more they feed the soil. Other plants, like mustard, are known as nutrient miners. They dig deep into the soil and pull leached nutrients back into the usual root range. As these crops grow, they enrich the soil for continued use. When they are tilled back into the soil, they not only release any nutrients stored in the plant material but improve the soil's ability to hold onto them.

The value of cover crops is widely underestimated. They can save overworked land by building the soil and preserving it against constantly eroding factors like wind, rain, and snow. In regions where the soil is not currently suitable for growing crops, it can be conditioned over time through natural biological processes. Cover crops are more than a nice thought, they are the answer to improving the lasting effects of large-scale farming by feeding, improving, and protecting the land. By considering the needs of the soil first, we are paving the way for truly sustainable living. Learn more: www.trueleafmarket.com.

About the Author:

Ashleigh Smith is the Managing Editor at True Leaf Market with a bachelor's degree in Horticulture from Brigham Young University - Idaho. True Leaf Market is a nationally certified organic, non-GMO seed and horticultural company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The True Leaf Market staff specializes in supplying a large selection of conventional, heirloom, and organic seeds to home gardeners everywhere. Learn more about our sprouts, microgreens, supplies, and other seeds and growing ideas: www.trueleafmarket.com.

All articles are copyrighted and remain the property of the author.

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