Cover Crops for Managing Root-Knot Nematodes

Cover crops are grown between cash crop cycles or incorporated with cash crops to improve soil fertility and struc­ture, decrease soil erosion, and suppress weeds, insects, nematodes, and other plant pathogens. Cover crop residues can be incorporated as “green manure” to increase soil fertility for...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Harsimran K. Gill, Zane Joseph Grabau, Robert McSorley
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries 2023-01-01
Series:EDIS
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.flvc.org/edis/article/view/131306
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Cover crops are grown between cash crop cycles or incorporated with cash crops to improve soil fertility and struc­ture, decrease soil erosion, and suppress weeds, insects, nematodes, and other plant pathogens. Cover crop residues can be incorporated as “green manure” to increase soil fertility for the next crop. Cover crops also help to enhance many beneficial organisms and may contribute to carbon sequestration. They help curtail the spread of nematodes because nematodes cannot migrate to another field if a cover crop is not a host to them. Instead, some of them may starve, which helps to manage their population. Fallow soil also helps keep nematode populations lower, but it may lead to erosion and other problems. Many different types of cover crops are adapted for cultivation in the southern United States, including cowpea, sorghum-sudangrass, sunn hemp, marigolds, jointvetch, sesame, grasses, rye, wheat, oats, crimson clover, vetch, lupine, and, of late, legumes.
ISSN:2576-0009