Cover Crop Introduction

2. Cover Crop Introduction • The use of cover crops (CC) is an important component in sustainable agriculture with a wide range of proven benefits in field crops and orchards.

3. Benefits of Cover Crops • Prevention of soil and wind erosion • Enhancement of soil properties (aeration, fertility and moisture retention) • Increasing of beneficial insects and predators for biological control of pests • Non-chemical suppression of weeds

4. Cover Crops suppress weeds by: • Crop competition • Shading • Release of phytotoxic allelopathic substances

5. Oat CC emerging in young citrus orchard

6. Avocado planting into oat CC

7. Weed management on (herbicides), and between (CC) tree rows

8. Mowing of alfalfa CC in avocado

9. Mowed and dry oat CC in young avocado orchard

10. Rhodes grass CC in avocado orchard

11. Introduction • In the previous meeting we presented the use of rain-fed dry land CC in orchards in Israel and reported our research in a mature apple orchard in the Upper Galilee of Israel.

12. Apples 2009

13. Seeding of CC experiment in an apple orchard

14. CC experiment in an apple orchard

15. CC experiment in apple orchard

16. AIM The aim of our present research is to study the role of cover crop management on weed suppression in a newly planted pear orchard in the Upper Galilee of Israel.

17. Pears 2009

18. Materials & MethodsLog 2008 Nov. 19 - Building of ridges Nov. 20 - Disking of ridges Nov. 27 - CC seeding 2009 Jan. 05 - CC and weed estimation Feb. 15 - Pear tree planting Mar. 11 -CC and weed estimation May 03 - CC and weed estimation Hand spray weeds in Standard management treatments Apr. 19 - CC and weed estimation Mowing of all controls Jun. 17 - CC and weed estimation Jul. 29 - CC and weed estimation Aug. 27 - CC and weed estimation

19. Materials & MethodsTreatments • Natural weed cover-Mowing • Standard management-Herbicide spraying and mowing • Oat CC • Oat CC + tree row mulch • Oat+Vetch CC • Oat+Vetch CC + tree row mulch • Triticale • Triticale+ tree row mulch 4 Replications 3 CC strips, 30 m long, 3.5 m wide

20. Results

23. Malva nicaeesis Sinapis arvensis Silybum marianum Ranunculus arvensis Senecio vernalis Lamium amplexicaule Avena sterilis Hordeum glaucum Weed Inventory Winter Weeds

24. Polygonumequisetiforme Convelvelous arvensis Ecballium elaterium Chrozophora tinctoria Amaranthus retroflexus Amaranthus hybridus Amaranthus albus Lactuca serriola Chenopodium vulvaris Solanum nigrum Plantago lagopus Conyza arvensis Tribulus terrestris Portulaca oleracea Weed Inventory Summer Weeds

25. 28 October 2008

26. 27 November 2008

27. 27 Nov. 2008 CC seeding

28. 03 May 2009

29. 03 May 2009

30. 24 May 2009

31. 17 June 2009

32. 3 May 2009

33. 17 June 2009

34. 29 July 2009

35. 27 August 2009

36. March 2009 Oat+Vetch

37. 19 April 2009 Natural cover and standard management

38. 03 May 2009 Oat

39. St. Jonathan (1.80 m) and the oat beard 3 May 2009

40. April 19 2009 Triticale

41. April 19 2009 Oat+vetch

42. April 19 2009 Natural cover and standard management mowing

43. May 24 2009 Oat+Vetch

44. 17 June 2009 Oat+Vetch

45. 17 June 2009 Triticale

46. 17 June 2009 Oat

47. 17 June 2009 Oat+Vetch

48. 29 July 2009 Triticale

49. 29 July 2009 Oat+Vetch

50. 29 July 2009 Triticale