Delaying termination or even planting green instead of killing cover crops weeks ahead of planting, could allow timely cash crop planting and extended cover crop growth. Past research provides considerable data to show how important a few weeks of extra growing time during the warmer part of spring can be for cover crop biomass production, soil health, weed suppression and water conservation. For some growers, the attraction of natural enemies and other beneficial insects when
cover crops are allowed to flower is another major benefit.
We propose research on promising cover crop systems designed to provide maximal environmental, economic and agronomic benefits. We will use our results along with information in the literature to help educate farmers about the advantages of longer cover crop growth in spring, along with strategies that have been successful in overcoming (or disproving) some of the issues of concern to some farmers such as soil moisture depletion, hair pinning cover crop residues, crop damages by slugs, nutrient immobilization, etc.
We will conduct our experiments on commercial farms and on University of Maryland research station sites. For the current proposal we are collaborating with several farmers on the Eastern Shore (in Kent, Somerset, Caroline and Queen Anne Counties) to plan spring cover crop termination treatments to compare for cover crops they have already establish in fall 2023. Two of these farms have legume-mix cover crops where we will study nitrogen availability and stands, and two have slug
infestations that will allow us to study cover crop termination effects on slug damage. We will collect data on soil moisture, temperature, nutrient release and immobilization, stand establishment, slugs, weeds, cover crop biomass and crop yields to help farmers optimize soil health, lower costs and obtain higher yields.