In our view, cover cropping is unique among potential IWM tactics in that current interest and adoption is primarily driven by long-term sustainable agroecosystem management goals. Notably, there is increasing grower interest in ‘planting green’ practices, where cover crop termination is delayed until at or after cash crop planting in order to produce continuous living roots, increase cover crop biomass production, and improve planting conditions. This emerging agronomic practice presents a significant opportunity for advancing IWM adoption by optimizing and normalizing use of high-residue cover cropping tactics for weed control.
A significant knowledge gap is our understanding of how high-residue cover crops mediate the efficacy of post-emergence herbicides (figure below) and soil-applied residual herbicides. Our previous research has used a population-level and field-based approach to understand potential interactions with post-emergence herbicides. A summary of this work can be found in two recent Weed Science journal articles (Wallace et al., 2019; Bunchek et al., 2020). Our current research is focusing on cover cropping interactions with soil-applied residual herbicides.
