Apples and Cover Crops

Apple growers who are removing orchards and/or planning new orchard plantings could benefit from cover crops to improve soil health, while reducing soil erosion, and improving nutrient cycling. Cover crops can have numerous other benefits including improvement of soil quality, pest management, fertility management, water availability, landscape diversification, and wildlife habitat.

A newly launched website by The Midwest Cover Crop Council (MCCC) brings together information from many areas including Ontario. The website features a wealth of cover crop information including:

• links to extension and research reports
• information on individual cover crops
• grower experiences with cover crops
• Cover Crop Survey
• Cover Crop Selector (in development)

If there is more Ontario cover crop information that you would like to see on the site contact Anne Verhallen, OMAFRA Soil Management Specialist (519) 674-1614 or anne.verhallen@ontario.ca or Christine Brown, OMAFRA Nutrient Management Specialist (519) 537-8305 or christine.brown1@ontario.ca .

Midwest Cover Crops Council (MCCC) is a diverse group from all aspects of agriculture from research and extension to producers and crop input suppliers. They have been working together since 2006 to address soil, water, air, and agricultural quality concerns in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins (including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Ontario, and Wisconsin) through increased adoption of cover crops in all production systems. Check out this new cover crop site.

Related Links:

• Midwest Cover Crops Council

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