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Summer Cover Crop Use in Arizona Vegetable Production Systems

4 pp. / Summer cover crops can add nitrogen to the soil, build up and maintain soil organic matter, suppress pest populations, mitigate soil erosion, and reduce nutrient leaching when they are used in Arizona vegetable systems. However, careful management is required since cover crops can modify the availability of soil nitrogen and other critical nutrients. The ratio between carbon to nitrogen (C:N) in decomposing cover crop biomass is a critical indicator of the overall process of breakdown and eventual release of nutrients. This article introduces five cover crops that could improve vegetable systems in Arizona. The mixtures of a legume and a non-legume cover crop species can also be planted to obtain desired C:N ratios to optimize the benefits of cover crops.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/147024
Date07 1900
CreatorsWang, Guangyao (Sam), Noite, Kurt
ContributorsPlant Sciences, School of
PublisherCollege of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Pamphlet
RelationUniversity of Arizona Cooperative Extension Publication AZ1519

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