ABSTRACT
Cover crops (CCs) are defined as ‘close-growing crop that provide soil protection, seeding protection and soil improvement between periods of normal crop production, or between trees in orchards and vines in vineyards. When plowed under and incorporated into the soil, CCs may be referred to as green manure crops’ (SSSA 2008). As the definition suggests, the main functions of CCs lie in areas such as soil protection and improvement as well as weed, disease and pest control. CCs are rotated between two main or cash crops and are not primarily grown for harvest, although they can be used as fodder for livestock in mixed farming systems when other fodder sources are limited (Franzluebbers and Stuedemann 2015). CCs can also function as companion plants to other crops, serving as undersown or understorey crops, or as a living mulch. This practice can be seen in cultivation of perennial crops such as fruit trees and vines, cereals and other tall growing crops, and even in lower growing vegetables (Kaspar et al. 2008; Kołota and Adamczewska-Sowińska 2013; Pfeiffer et al. 2016; Xie et al. 2016). CC biomass is also used in biogas production (Blanco-Canqui et al. 2015).
