Feeding the Soil

Facts from Tim Wilson Greenhouse/Farm Manager

Cover Crops are crops that are grown in rotation with Cash Crops and provide a host of benefits.  

Cash Crops can be viewed as “takers” that draw from the soil. These types of crops are grown to provide a product to consumers and income to farmers.  

On the other hand, Cover Crops can be viewed as “givers” that improve soil health.

A Cover Crop’s primary job is to improve the soil in one way or another.  This is done in a myriad of ways.  Some cover crops known as legumes “fix” nitrogen.  These legumes pull nitrogen from the atmosphere and return it to the soil.  Examples of cover crops that are legumes includes clover, hairy vetch, and field peas.  

Other cover crops excel at providing organic matter.  Examples of these such crops would include rye and oats.  

Cover crops can benefit the soil in still other ways such as improving the soil “tilth”- loosening, and aerating the soil.  Cover crops can also prevent erosion, suppress weeds, and even be helpful to bees and other beneficial insects.

While many think some farms go dormant when snowy winter weather arrives, Pocono Organics’ massive 40,000 sq ft greenhouse dedicated a significant amount of space to growing cover crops.  In simple terms we are “feeding the soil” by resting and nourishing the soil naturally. In fact, some describe turning cover crops back into the soil as using “green manure”.   Cover crops that we have growing during the winter of 2021/2022 include mixtures of legumes/grasses.  This gives us the benefit of bringing nutrients back to the soil and adding organic matter simultaneously.