Date of Award
8-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Plant and Environmental Science
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. Sruthi Narayanan
Committee Member
Dr. Vidya Suseela
Committee Member
Dr. Juan Carlos Melgar
Committee Member
Dr. William C. Bridges
Abstract
The adoption rate of cover cropping among farmers in the Southeast is low due to the lack of knowledge regarding the suitable cover crop species and their management practices and the concerns of resource depletion for the subsequent cash crop. To generate information addressing the above knowledge gap, the present research was conducted with the following objectives: (1) to determine the optimal planting method for winter cover crops in the upstate of SC and whether it is influenced by the seeding rates (Project-1); (2) to determine suitable winter cover crops for the region based on biomass production, water use efficiency (WUE), weed suppression, soil water conservation, soil health, and the performance of the following cash crop (Project-2); and (3) to test the efficacy of cover crop inter-seeding in the region (Project-3). In project-1, we evaluated the drill and broadcast planting methods and found that the advantage of drilling depends upon the cover crops, and broadcasting will just work well for some cover crops even without increasing the seeding rate. In Project-2, we evaluated grasses, legumes, and brassicas as single species or mixtures and found that rye, the mixture of crimson clover and rye, and the mixture of Austrian winter pea, rye, crimson clover, hairy vetch, and oats are suitable cover crops for the region based on biomass production, WUE, weed suppression, soil water conservation, soil health, and the performance of the following cash crop. In project-3, we investigated whether we could enhance complementarity in a corn-cover crop inter-seeded system by adjusting the cover crop planting time. We found that the V10 growth stage of corn is a suitable time for inter-seeding cover crops to conserve soil moisture, improve soil health, and increase silage corn biomass. These results provide information to growers for cover crop selection and management practices in SC.
Recommended Citation
St Aime, Ricardo, "Cover cropping to improve the sustainability of agronomic production systems" (2022). All Dissertations. 3127.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3127
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-0712-9777