Abstract
AbstractLiving mulches are cover crops grown simultaneously with and in close proximity to cash crops. Advantages of living mulches over dead cover crops may include increased weed suppression, reduced erosion and leaching, better soil health, and greater resource-use efficiency. Advantages of living mulches over synthetic mulches may include enhanced agroecosystem biodiversity and suitability for a wider range of cropping systems. A major disadvantage of this practice is the potential for competition between living mulches and cash crops. The intensity and outcome of mulch-crop competition depend on agroecosystem management as well as climate and other factors. In this review, we consider the management of living mulches for weed control in field and vegetable cropping systems of temperate environments. More than 50 yr of research have demonstrated that mechanical or chemical suppression of a living mulch can limit mulch-crop competition without killing the mulch and thereby losing its benefits. Such tactics can also contribute to weed suppression. Mechanical and chemical regulation should be combined with cultural practices that give the main crop a competitive advantage over the living mulch, which, in turn, outcompetes the weeds. Promising approaches include crop and mulch cultivar selection; changes to planting time, density, and planting pattern; and changes to fertilization or irrigation regimes. A systems approach to living mulch management, including an increased emphasis on the interactions between management methods, may increase the benefits and lower the risks associated with this practice.
Highlights
Living mulches are annual or perennial cover crops grown during the growing season of the main crop
This review focuses on the management of living mulches grown alongside field or vegetable crops in temperate environments for the primary purpose of weed suppression
Because weed control improves with cropping system diversity (Liebman and Dyck 1993), some research has tested mixtures of living mulch species (Echtenkamp and Moomaw 1989; Hartwig and Hoffman 1975)
Summary
Living mulches are annual or perennial cover crops grown during the growing season of the main (cash) crop. Herbicide-suppressed living mulches of white clover or ladino clover (both Trifolium repens L.) increased marketable sweet corn yield by 75% (Vrabel et al 1981). These divergent outcomes are partially explained by differences in living mulch species and management practices. The purpose of this review is to characterize management practices that can increase the likelihood of positive outcomes (good weed suppression and main crop yield) in living mulch systems. Few generalizations apply to every living mulch system, we seek to identify emerging trends in the management literature and draw attention to remaining knowledge gaps
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