The Lowdown on Cover Crop Mixes

This Q&A is pulled from a collection of questions posed to me by students of my Online Permaculture Design course (PDC). Learn about permaculture with my free four-part Masterclass series, here:

Question: People are marketing and selling "cover crop cocktails" where a mix of species are presented together. Are there reasons to not use such a mix? Are there benefits to doing so easily missed at first glance? What would you consider as you determine if a mix is best for your site? Is there such a thing as a bad mix?

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[gnerd]

So glad you’re on you tube now. I’m just up the road, I think that chipper was at my place, getting rid of some overhanging trees.

[nobodyspecial]

Hi Geoff, some New Zealand permaculture topics!!! Love your work!

[outbackscout]

Note to self
Ground Summer: Cow pea, sorghum
Ground Cover: Winter: Vetch, field pea (maple pea, dun pea) and lupin

[drpk]

Alfalfa is what is missing from the permiculture.
You can plant it once and stays over 10 years. Fixes N and all livestock love it. It also produces good honey.

[richardb]

At one point, I was thinking of using sweet potato as cover crop. A mulching mower would be used to cut it down and a bag the greens for a salad.

[nicolasbertin]

I never do legume alone in a cover crop coz I need that carbon. Mixes are fine, I'm in a clay soil that compacts in winter if I just have wood chips, so I use a mix of rye, wheat, canola, fava beans, winter pea, daikon that kind of thing. For a good mix, you need at least one grass, like rye, wheat or oat, one legume, and if you got a compact soil, or in my case alkaline, a brassica is good too (radish, mustard or canola). There are species that tend to squash others. If you put too much canola in, it's gonna win easily. On the other hand, legumes need to be oversown, coz their seeds are huge so you don't realize that you got a lot fewer seeds than your rye or canola. It's been proven that the more plants you have in your cover crops, the more productive it is. The most productivity is reached above 10-12 species, but honestly home gardeners can't afford to go that high in diversity.

[vrwesternaustralia]

The ability to find right price.... I know how that feels. I used to pay alot for Web Development now there is solutions to those problems, just like permaculture has taught me.

[przybyla]

In cool temperate climate, if only planting one legume CC, go for vetch - it is the best.

[monkeymanwasd]

oooh first, more content on chinampas please

[jonocarter]

Do you have any advice for couch grass? Bane of my existence...

[Ultimatefitness]

Hey geoff will u mulch these sorghum and cow pea on ground or u will mix them into soil ??
If i start from 0 then what should i do should i mix cover crop in soil or just mulch them on ground please tell

[tcotroneo]

There really is no simple answer! I am trying to build a food forest on my 4.5 acre property. I have numerous sections of my property that have different soil profiles and climate conditions.. What works in one section doesn’t work in another! For instance, I have a leech field region that got a new septic and pure sand fill dirt.. I added compost and a 10 species cover crop in spring and barely anything took.. I mulched heavy with green manure, more compost and tried another fall cover crop mix and got about a 55% coverage.. Mostly from cereal rye, but clover and vetch were scarce. This same mix did beautifully in another area on my property which I will crimp and then add another cover crop...