Legume cover crop as a primary nitrogen source in an organic crop rotation in Ontario, Canada: impacts on corn, soybean and winter wheat yields

Abstract

This study presents results from the first 5 years of an organic cropping trial in Ontario, Canada, where legume cover crops were the primary nitrogen source in a soybean-winter wheat/cover crop-corn rotation. Treatments included cover crop termination using moldboard plow (MP) or chisel plow (CP), a no-cover crop control under conventional production (CK-C), and four cover crops including summer-seeded crimson clover (CC, Trifolium incarnatum L.), summer-seeded hairy vetch (HV, Vicia villosa L. Roth), summer-seeded red clover (RCss, Trifolium pratense L.), and frost-seeded red clover (RCfs). Summer-seeding occurred after wheat harvest (July–August), and frost-seeding occurred in early spring (March–April). At cover crop termination, average aboveground cover crop biomass ranged from 5.9 to 8.1 Mg ha−1, while accumulated biomass nitrogen ranged from 155 to 193 kg ha−1. Corn grain yields were 11.6 Mg ha−1 for MP and 10.2 Mg ha−1 for CP tillage-termination method; and 13.3 Mg ha−1 for CK-C, 10.9 Mg ha−1 for RCfs, 10.6 Mg ha−1 for HV, 10.2 Mg ha−1 for CC, and 9.5 Mg ha−1 for RCss. Organic winter wheat yields were nitrogen-limited, averaging 27% lower than CK-C. Winter wheat yields were 10–15% lower in the RCfs than in other summer-seeded cover crop treatments. Soybean yields were largely unaffected by the treatments. It was concluded that summer-seeded legume cover crops are an effective primary nitrogen source for corn, but not as effective for the winter wheat phase of the soybean-winter wheat-corn rotation.