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Agriculture
Volume 10
Issue 9
10.3390/agriculture10090394
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Review

Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review

by
Anna Kocira
1,*,
Mariola Staniak
2,
Marzena Tomaszewska
1,
Rafał Kornas
1,
Jacek Cymerman
1,
Katarzyna Panasiewicz
3 and
Halina Lipińska
4
1
Institute of Agricultural Sciences, State School of Higher Education in Chełm, Pocztowa 54, 22-100 Chełm, Poland
2
Department of Forage Crop Production, Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation—State Research Institute, Czartoryskich 8, 24-100 Puławy, Poland
3
Agronomy Department, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Dojazd 11, 60-632 Poznań, Poland
4
Department of Grassland and Landscape Forming, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 13, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agriculture 2020, 10(9), 394; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10090394
Submission received: 19 August 2020 / Revised: 1 September 2020 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 / Published: 5 September 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Weed Ecology and New Approaches for Management)
Versions Notes

Abstract

The benefits of conservation practices increased the interest of farmers in the cultivation of cover crops (CCs). This review aims to present and analyze the state of the art on the cultivation of legume CCs, including their importance in protecting crops against weeds, as well as their effects on organic matter and nitrogen content in the soil, physical and biological properties of the soil, and its erosion. The multi-purpose character of legume CCs is visible in their positive effect on reducing weed infestation, but also on the soil: reducing its compaction and erosion, improving its structural and hydraulic properties, increasing the content of organic matter and activity of soil microorganisms, or increasing its nitrogen content due to symbiotic N2 fixing. This review demonstrates that a wider use of legume CCs in organic farming is needed. The benefits of legume CCs for successive crops in these cultivation conditions, both in terms of inhibiting weed populations and improving fertility and soil properties, also need to be identified. Further research is also needed to determine the potential impact of legume CCs on the improvement of the quality of degraded soils, or those with less favorable physicochemical properties.
Keywords: legume cover crop; weed control; organic matter; nitrogen; soil physical and biological properties; soil erosion legume cover crop; weed control; organic matter; nitrogen; soil physical and biological properties; soil erosion

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Kocira, A.; Staniak, M.; Tomaszewska, M.; Kornas, R.; Cymerman, J.; Panasiewicz, K.; Lipińska, H. Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review. Agriculture 2020, 10, 394. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10090394

AMA Style

Kocira A, Staniak M, Tomaszewska M, Kornas R, Cymerman J, Panasiewicz K, Lipińska H. Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review. Agriculture. 2020; 10(9):394. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10090394

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kocira, Anna, Mariola Staniak, Marzena Tomaszewska, Rafał Kornas, Jacek Cymerman, Katarzyna Panasiewicz, and Halina Lipińska. 2020. "Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review" Agriculture 10, no. 9: 394. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10090394

APA Style

Kocira, A., Staniak, M., Tomaszewska, M., Kornas, R., Cymerman, J., Panasiewicz, K., & Lipińska, H. (2020). Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review. Agriculture, 10(9), 394. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10090394

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