Subject: RE: Cover crops

From: John Schinnerer <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 13:46:14 -0700

Aloha,

-----Original Message-----
From: Guy Clark [mailto:[email-masked]]
>This study found that the
>combination that was the best, and incidentally had not been included in
>the original study, was rye and hairy vetch. The study reported on nitrogen
>fixation, coverage percentage, and biomass I believe. I will look for the
>exact article and send more later.

Matches up well with Ecology Action's top winter compost crop choice, which
is a combo of winter rye and wheat, vetch, and cold-weather fava beans.  
Rye (and to a lesser extent wheat) creates an amazing amount of microfine
root mass, growing more organic matter into the soil.
Vetch fixes N, covers the soil and creates a fair bit of biomass.
The favas fix N and create quite a bit of compostable biomass.  They are cut
& composted before they produce seed, so the nitrogen in their root nodules
stays in the soil. 

John Schinnerer

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