cover crop


noun
  1. a crop, usually a legume, planted to keep nutrients from leaching, soil from eroding, and land from weeding over, as during the winter.

Origin of cover crop

1
First recorded in 1905–10

Words Nearby cover crop

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cover crop in a sentence

  • Rye, which they once grew only as a cover crop to add nutrients when tilled into the soil, is now used to make their bottled-in-bond rye whiskey, generating favorable notice and revenue.

  • Once the spring comes along, Stein crimps the cover crop down with flattening boards, then covers it with more compost to start decomposing—facilitating the best possible environment in which to plant the cannabis.

  • I felt that I had made a mistake in not sowing a cover crop in my orchard the previous year.

    The Fat of the Land | John Williams Streeter
  • When possible a cover crop should be put on fall plowed land where there is likely to be loss of plant food by leaching.

    The First Book of Farming | Charles L. Goodrich
  • cover crop, a crop to cover the soil during the interval between regular corps.

    The First Book of Farming | Charles L. Goodrich
  • Thorough cultivation is practiced and the fall cover crop of oats, barley or clover is coming into favor.

    The Grapes of New York | U. P. Hedrick
  • The legumes fulfil the three requisites of the cover crop: protection, humus, and the storing of nitrogen.

    The Fat of the Land | John Williams Streeter

British Dictionary definitions for cover crop

cover crop

noun
  1. a crop planted between main crops to prevent leaching or soil erosion or to provide green manure

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012