Soil wind erosion is a serious issue in upland fields, because winter fallow treatments produce awful erosions in Kato area, Japan. This research evaluated the abilities of cover crops that planted at inter row spaces in Chinese cabbage (
Brassica rapa var.
glabra) production on their growths, crop yields, and reduction of wind speeds. Main results were followings.
There was little crop yields differences between uni-culture of Chinese cabbage and bi- culture of that with grass cover crops. Dry matter accumulations of cover crops were significantly different depending on their species and planting time. Cereal rye (
Secale cereale L.) showed high dry matter accumulation compare with oat (
Avena sativa L.). planting time of cover crops also showed significant difference, October and early November planting time showed high dry matter accumulation although late November and December planting time showed low dry mater accumulations due to delay of germination in the fields.
The significant difference was observed between cover crop biomass and the reduction of wind speed at the soil surface, 50g/m
2 oat dry matter showed significant reduction of wind speed although rye needs over the 100g/m
2 to reduce the wind speeds. Because of the difference of their growth type between standing type for oat and spreading type for rye.
Adopting cover crops in Chinese cabbage production may contribute to cope with both maintaining crop production and mitigation of wind erosion. In addition cover crops also recommend in the view points of sustainable agro ecosystem because their abilities that add organic matter to the soil is significant.
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