Abstract

While cover crops can provide a variety of services to farmers, there is debate about the benefit of cover crop mixtures compared to monocultures. A barley monoculture, a pea monoculture, and varying ratios of a barley-pea cover crop mixture were planted in spring before broccoli and under-fertilized with nitrogen. Though both broccoli yield and head weight had a positive relationship with the percent peas in a mixture, a fallow control was similar to all treatments but the barley monoculture, which resulted in the lowest yield and head size.

Keywords

field pea, barley, cover crops, cover crop mixtures, cover crop monocultures, broccoli, Brassica oleracea var. italica, Hordeum vulgare, Pisum sativum

DOI

10.5703/1288284318580

Date of this Version

3-25-2026

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