Clover cover crops under-sown in winter wheat increase yield of subsequent spring barley—Effect of N dose and companion grass

Weed Suppression Ability and Yield Impact of Living Mulch in Cereal Crops

“…Living mulch in Norwegian spring cereal production significantly increased grain yield by 16-22% [11]. Clover living mulch in winter wheat increased the yield of subsequent spring barley due to nitrogen fixation in the soil [12]. In conclusion, short growing cultivars of living mulch seem to have a low risk of reducing cereal grain reduction.…”

“…For spring cereals, weed suppressive ability of living mulch might be sufficient to prevent yield losses and no other weed control methods may be applied. In most other crops, it is necessary to combine different weed control methods [12,13]. Perennial ryegrass and white clover are tolerant to a few common herbicides in all major crops.…”

Plant: soil interactions in temperate multi-cropping production systems

“…Increased N availability in the rhizosphere of cereal component crops have been reported in multiple-crop systems, while N pools depleted in the rhizosphere of the leguminous component (Song et al 2007a). In wheat undersown with clover, inorganic soil N content was higher in intercrops compared to single wheat, where N was also found deeper in the soil profile (Bergkvist et al 2011). In absence of fertilisation legume intercrops show great spatial and temporal variation in N availability (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al 2010;Bergkvist et al 2011).…”

“…In wheat undersown with clover, inorganic soil N content was higher in intercrops compared to single wheat, where N was also found deeper in the soil profile (Bergkvist et al 2011). In absence of fertilisation legume intercrops show great spatial and temporal variation in N availability (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al 2010;Bergkvist et al 2011). Although more N may become available in the rhizosphere of intercropped species, plant N uptake also increases, hence intercrops are likely to deplete rather than restore soil N in low or no-input farming systems (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al 2001b).…”

Underutilized Crops and Intercrops in Crop Rotation as Factors for Increasing Biodiversity on Fields

“…Intercropping (sowing two or more crops together) represents a high valued strategy for long term sustainable plant production management, due to its many beneficial effects like effects on increasing diversity of cultivated crops, nitrogen fixations by legumes [21,22,23,24] instead of synthetic N fertilisers, weed control, yield stability, inter-specific complementarity, a more efficient use of environmental sources, soil coverage in under-sown crops, a higher protein 2 The section based on research of Bavec F. presented in the Agrosym 2011 paper, which content is republished with permission.…”