Garden cover crop termination (without a tractor!)

One of the most intimidating parts of cover cropping in the home garden is figuring out how to kill it: different cover crops require different termination methods, so it's always smart to research that BEFORE you plant!

I like using the peas when doing spring cover crops because they are easy to terminate and provide organic matter and nitrogen very inexpensively (the total cost for this entire area was less than $10)!

You can go back and watch our planting video for more details on how we do this (linked at the end of the video). We planted the peas in about 6 weeks before last frost and terminated right at last frost, since peas are a cool season grower this works out quite well!

Have you tried spring cover crops before? Let me know which ones you like or DON'T like!

[lindaschaefer]

Brianna, you will get more followers as people discover or even rediscover you. You are a no-nonsense, informative gardener. I love the way you never comb or curl your hair for the camera!😂😂

[marybendfeldt]

Super helpful for someone who just started cover cropping, thanks to my husband who promotes 4 the Soil here in Virginia. We started a little late last fall, but will continue to use the practice! Keeping the soil happy and healthy… Thanks for spreading the word!

[susan_beaver]

4:51 C'mon, Dave! It's fascinating stuff! :D

In all seriousness thank you for covering (ha!) this topic, it's an important one!

[stephentueller]

I tried peas for the first time this year and am curious why you recommend waiting 2 weeks after termination. I have been terminating minutes before transplanting into the pea residue and wonder what unforeseen complications this practice might lead to. Thanks!

[jimkingsland]

Thank you Brie for yet another informative video. I always learn so much from both your narrative and your demonstrations. What variety of peas did you use and how did you inoculate them? Looking forward to the direct sowing sequel. Thank you!

[Plantandpeoplecarer]

Just found your channel, thank you for your videos! Love your methods and farm!

[LindaBeckett-rk]

I like your heavy duty irrigation set up. Could you share what brand you use and the diameter? I'd like to do the same as you. Great video. I just ordered peas to plant for our fall covered crop. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

[gardeningonthewestforkwith]

I learn so much from your videos thank you.

[mwmingram]

Just what I needed to know. Thank you.

[RC-ybdp]

My questions have been answered, thanks. 😮😊😮

[dhdrum]

Hi, thanks for the video. For pea cover crops like this, WHEN is the right time to terminate them? What are you looking for to determine it's time? If waiting to see flowers is "too late" b/c the nitrogen will already have started going to the fruit/seeds, then when is best?

[fromthehutt]

I have not done cover cropping but would like to start experimenting this fall. Any suggestions for a winter kill crop? I am in Nova Scotia so our winters get down to about -20c. One year I accidentally had a broccoli go to seed so it became a cover crop but would love some practical solutions.

[thomcdixon]

curious about N content if the peas are allowed to fruit then the entire plant is worked into the soil (at a shallow depth to minimize soil disturbance).

[kimberlylumsden]

I'm curious about the stage of the soil when the peas were planted six weeks before last frost. Had it been bare? Was there residue covering it from a winter-kill cover crop? Was it covered by some other non-vegetative thing?

[peterellis]

I'm a cutter ;) Chop and drop is about as simple and efficient as things get ;) Also - never trust a gardener with clean hands ;)

[Liz]

Question about green matter left behind and pests. I have lots of pests in my garden and all the guidance says to remove dead plants and leaves on the ground

[jenn]

Thanks for making this video. Question: I grow my sweet peas (ornamental) in large pots which I re-use from year to yer. My method has been to dump that used soil into other areas of my garden for the nitrogen but I’ve routinely done it in the fall. I only grow about 30-40 sweet pea plants so cutting by hand would work for me. After cutting down to the roots, should I leave the soil/roots in the pots over winter and wait until early spring to dump that soil in garden beds? Would that give me the most nitrogen-rich soil to work with?

[justinsane]

Weed is my cover crop, Sativa, not Stirred.

[aryafeydakin]

Not sure how much nitrogen 3 inch tall peas have accumulated in the nodules. Probably not much, if none at all.
In temperate regions, the real reason for winter/spring cover crop is not fixing any nitrogen at all, but pumping back nitrogen leachates, closing the loop. The more agressive and deep the root system of the cover crop is, the more nitrogen residues are pumped back up and maintained into the living organic matter rather than lost into the sea.
Because with bare soil, nitrate being an anion, is it not retained by the soil complex. If there's no plant roots to catch it up, nitrates slowly sinks deeper into the soil profile until it is lost into the aquifers or lateral water flow. But if you have a live cover crop (anything really), it will stop any leaching of nitrate by sucking it up from the soil solution with its roots.

It's one thing to have rhizobium nodulations, it's another for the rhizobium to be actively fixating atmospheric nitrogen inside the nodules. To really know if the rhizobium is working, you'll have to cut up some nodules and check for coloration. If it's white, the rhizobium is dormant. If it's pink/red, the rhizobium is working.
All things equal, nitrogen fixation by symbiotic rhizobium is time, temperature and strain dependent. When there's a lack of sun, the plant is not pumping enough sugars into the nodules so they stay dormant. The second factor is soil temperature. Nitrogen will not be fixed from the air if the soil temperature is too low. MOST rhizobium strain start fixating nitrogen when the soil reach a temperature of 25°C (77°F), so in temperate region that will not be before dead summer precisely when the plant goes to flower and seed.
So you see there are many subtleties in all that nitrogen fixation story.
There are some cold tolerant strains but then you'll have to know if the plant will accept them, and if there's not much sun hours, even some winter/spring rhizobium activity will not be significant in cool temperate climate.
That's precisely because the plant has access to residual nitrogen, and the soil is too cool, and the sun is too low, that it won't spontaneously nodulate.
I would ponder the necessity to go through with rhizobium inocculation for winter/spring cover cropping, and or even the necessity of using a nitrogen fixating plant at all in spring/winter cover crops especially if the soil is already at its peak fertility. All you need to do is just closing the nitrogen loop, not really add more.
It would be best to use the plant with the deepest root system that is easy to terminate but usually that's antinomic.

As for me, I'd rather keep empty plots empty because covers crops are unecessary work at such a small scale. Unless I want to make a full year fallow or more, then I'll use a BIOMAX seed mix rather than a single monoculture cover crop anyway.
You can also have perennials or shrub borders and/or small trees for each beds that will pump most nitrogen leachates when the plots are empty during winter.

[charliejohnson]

Try speaking a bit slower. Great information.