Organic No-Till Cover Cropping 3: Weed Em and Reap

[eOrganic]

More info from eOrganic members:

Vining legume is good companion, preferably a heat-loving / warm season species like lablab bean, velvet bean or a climbing cowpea. For more northern locations, perhaps forage soybean (does not require quite as much heat to thrive) - be sure to choose a forage type for your region or (best) a couple of "maturity groups" further south - these will give the most vegetative growth.

[eOrganic]

More: Vetch or field pea was suggested before- but these are cool season crops and will thrive only at temperatures too low for sudex. But perhaps (given enough soil moisture) with a mid-late summer planting, the sudex will grow first, then slow down and die while vetch/peas come to life in the fall and climb up the sudex stalks.

[eOrganic]

Thanks for the comment! One of our eOrganic members from Oregon State University has some ideas for you:

I've wondered the same thing. I've never mixed sudex with a legume, but when planted on its own I've seen very good control of pigweed. I think I've heard that the prussic acid in sudex is allelopathic. Regardless of that, it is very competitive. A vining legume like vetch or perhaps field peas would be the best bet, and to reduce the seed rate of the sudex by half or more.

[italia4356]

I wonder would it work if you mixed sudan grass seed with a legum seed in a Vican Spreader and spread the seed that way?