There is increasing interest in using different cover crop species and mixes of cover crops to improve soil health and productivity in the Australian vegetable industry.

Watch these short videos from the Soil Wealth ICP project, which focus on buckwheat and sunn hemp and provide guidance on sowing, management, and how to best terminate the cover crop.

Buckwheat Cover Crop:

There is increasing interest in using different cover crop species and mixes of cover crops to improve soil health and productivity in the Australian vegetable industry.

One option is buckwheat, which is the focus of a new video that provides guidance on sowing, management, and how to best terminate the cover crop.

Some of the advantages of buckwheat include rapid growth, strong weed suppression and quick breakdown of residues, allowing it to fit into tight rotations and certain crops like baby leaf.

Sunn Hemp Cover Crop:

There is increasing interest in the use of different cover crop species and mixes of cover crops to improve soil health and productivity in the Australian vegetable industry.

In this video, Dr Kelvin Montagu will provide some guidance on sowing, management, and how best to terminate the cover crop.

Some of the advantages of Sunn hemp include nitrogen fixation, strong weed suppression and a tolerance of hot summers. However, it does need plenty of water to thrive in hot summer conditions, so, without access to this, sorghum will be the better option.