Influence of Winter Cover Crop and Residue Management on Soil Nitrogen Availability and Corn

Nitrogen use efficiency and fertiliser fate in a long-term experiment with winter cover crops

“…Therefore, in addition to the year-long effect of residue decomposition, there was a cumulative effect on the soil N mineralization supply of the cover crop treatments, which was more evident for the vetch treatment than for the fallow treatment. This result agrees with Raimbault et al (1990), Kuo and Jellum (2002) or Kramberger et al (2014), supporting the idea that the cover crop aboveground can be removed without causing a yield decrease in the subsequent cash crop, even though it may have an effect on the long term yields. This suggests that making an allowance for the N supply from the cover crop is better achieved by using N nutritional indexes (i.e., optical crop sensors) to adjust the N fertiliser application to the subsequent cash crop than by estimating the N content in the biomass of the previous cover crop.…”

Environmental advantages of binary mixtures of Trifolium incarnatum and Lolium multiflorum over individual pure stands

“…Similar results of pure stands of the cover crops and their mixtures yields were obtained in many studies (Rannels and Wagger 1996, Vaughan et al 2000, Kuo and Jellum 2002, while some studies reported the dry matter yield of binary mixtures to be between the yields of the individual pure stands (Rannels andWagger 1996, Hanly andGregg 2004) or at least at the same level as that of the pure stand of the less productive crop (Ćupina et al 2011). This variation in the results can be explained by ecological concepts of niche differentiation.…”

Influence of root zone nitrogen management and a summer catch crop on cucumber yield and soil mineral nitrogen dynamics in intensive production systems

“…It is possible to recover residual soil mineral N by prolonging the vegetable growing season or planting a catch crop during the fallow period (Thorup- Kristensen et al 2003). A number of crops with deep root systems and high N uptake have been selected as winter cover crops to scavenge residual NO 3 − during the winter in Europe and the United States (Kuo and Jellum 2002;Logsdon et al 2002;Meisinger et al 1991;Thomsen and Christensen 1999;Thomsen 2005;Weinert et al 2002). It seems that non-leguminous cover crops may potentially lower NO 3 − leaching by 29-94% in comparison to legumes for which the corresponding range was 6-48% (Sainju and Singh 1997).…”