How can I use cover crops to quickly build soil organic matter and fertility in order to grow a cash crop?
Answer: I would recommend growing cover crops on the plot for at least a full year before planting your cash crops. Alternatively, you could plant half the plot in cover crops and half the plot in cash crops. If you plow down strips of the cover crop for your crop rows right after it comes up, you’re not going to get much benefit from the cover crop at all. Most of the benefit comes from returning the cover crop biomass (above-ground growth) to the soil to add back organic matter and nutrients. I recommend the Kerr Center publication Market Farming with...