In life there are certain ingredients that can lead a person or principle into success. These are constant elements that when mixed with a proper system brings forth positive results wherein a variety of benefits can be reaped. A good example is how biodynamic gardening and farming view the soil as a self-contained organism that needs constant careful manipulation to produce crops that are both good in quantity and quality. Let’s take a look at one of the extensive methods used in this technique.

Cover crop is a common character in the biodynamic scene of agriculture. It can be technically defined as any annual, biennial, or perennial plant that is grown as a monoculture or a polyculture. Monoculture means a single crop type grown together while polyculture involves multiple crop types that are cultivated together. Either way the goal for establishing a cover crop is to improve and enhance any conditions pertaining to sustainable agriculture. Moreover, cover crops offer an essential way of managing soil fertility, moisture and quality as well as battling weeds, pests, and diseases that may inhibit ideal plant growth and crop production.

Cover crops are also fondly called as green manure. They are used in order to manipulate the levels of soil macro and micronutrients. One very good example can be seen in the country of Nigeria wherein a certain crop identified as velvet bean is commonly utilized in order to increase phosphorus soil contents upon placement of rock phosphate. In terms of looking into nutrient contents of the soil nitrogen management has gain a lot of research attention over the years. This is because nitrogen has been noted to be the most limiting form of nutrient involved in crop production.

The green manures of the biodynamic gardening and farming commonly belong to the family known as Fabaceae or the pea group. These are the usual leguminous variations. They are incorporated into the soil via the process of tillage before even reaching their age of maturity in order to ensure that there will be improved levels of soil quality and fertility. They are the typical cover crops because they can lay out ample amounts of nitrogen which can easily compete with chemical fertilizers available in the market.

An important trait that is unique to leguminous cover crops is their ability to communicate with rhizobial bacteria and forge a symbiotic relationship. This happens because these bacteria find homage within the root nodules of legume. These bacteria play an important role of converting biologically unavailable nitrogen gas to a version called the mineral nitrogen which is considered to be biologically available. Such occurrence is made possible via the process of biological nitrogen fixation.  

Field experts believe that biological nitrogen fixation brought about by the presence of cover crops it the sole alternative for industrial nitrogen fixation so as to boost efforts of maintaining or even increasing food production levels in the future. The latter method of nitrogen fixation has faced considerable amounts of blows from critics because of its association with fossil fuel sources thus resulting into numerous environmental infractions. Some examples of these infractions include nitrogen fertilizer elimination into waterways leading to eutrophication and hypoxia of water areas.

Cover crops are not only important aspects of biodynamic gardening and farming. In general, they serve as means of treating the environment fairly.