Optimizing Soil Health in Season Extension Environments through Innovative Cover Crop Management

Access to local produce markets in combination with recent cost-share incentives has stimulated a recent and rapid expansion in high-tunnel purchase and utilization. High tunnels, which are unheated plastic-film covered protected field environments with a unique microclimate, allow for crop production in seasons when it would otherwise not be feasible due to low outside temperatures. This is especially valuable in regions such as the upper Midwest, an area challenged by a short growing season and a cold, wet spring. High tunnel growers produce simultaneous crops in the same soil year after year, thus soil quality and fertility can be severely impacted. Management practices that incorporate soil fertility building rotations can increase soil quality in these intensive cropping systems. Legume Cover Crops are extraordinary sources of organic matter and fertility and, if well managed, can completely replace external nitrogen fertilizer additions, increase soil organic matter, and increase biological functioning in high tunnel soils. The winter months provide a window of opportunity for cover crop rotations, and some high tunnel produces in northern climates are already successfully using Cover Crops over the winter in their tunnels. This project will increase adoption of winter annual legume cover crop use in high tunnels by identifying species of interest and transferring evidence-based information to growers, including improvements in both soil quality and cash crop productivity.