Reduced Input
How it pays: It's the Reduced Chemical & (N) Fertilizer Expenses!
In most areas, our Tillage Radish® cover crop will decompose in time for spring planting, greatly reducing the need for chemical burndown treatments. Cutting back on herbicide use is also possible as this cover crop radish effectively suppresses winter annual weed growth. In addition, fertilizer input needs are significantly reduced because the Tillage Radish tuber stores and releases available nitrogen for spring planting.
Less input of chemicals in your field equals healthier, more fertile soil season after season!
Tillage Radish Captures Most Available (N)
University of Maryland research supports up to 150 lbs of (N) per acre are taken up in the fall, stored over winter and released in the spring (April-June). This particularly applies in a situation where a fall application of manure is spread.
Regardless of the amount of residual N in the soil, our Tillage Radish cover crop will find it. Most fields have sufficient (N) to allow the Tillage Radish seed to fully express its genetic potential but in some cases (low organic matter or low fertility soils) a shortage of (N) could hinder growth. In these cases it is advised to add up to 60lbs of (N). Tillage Radish has the unique ability to release that (N) the following spring allowing it to be used by cash crops.
Taproot Scavenges High Levels Of Nutrients
The Tillage Radish taproot will scavenge significant levels of nutrients (N), (P), (Ca), (S) and many other yield-advancing nutrients with a wicking effect up to 5 feet deep, making it available for the next crop!
(N) Is Available Just When Crops Need It
Research shows the greatest amount of available (N) is in April-May, which coincides with when the early crops need it!
Contact us today about our cover crop radish seed!
Residue Decomposes Quickly, Releases (N) Early
Tillage Radish residue decomposes rapidly and releases its (N) early, unlike cereal rye and other cereal cover crops whose residues decompose slowly and immobilize (N) in the spring.[1]
[1] Multiple Benefits from Brassicaceous Cover Crops & Cover Crop Mixtures: Making Cover Crops Pay in the Chesapeake Bay Region. Submitted to the Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, August 2007. Performance period: 7/01/03 - 4/30/07. FRS#s 01-5-25031 & 01-5-25036. Principal Investigator: Ray Weil, Professor. Dept of Environmental Science & Technology. University of Maryland. Co-Investigator: Sandra Sardanelli
