cover crop

American  

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.

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cover crop British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of cover crop

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

There’s the crawling vines of the beans, the cover crop of the squash grown below, and the shade being produced by the cornstalks.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 18, 2024

He began growing the grain as cover crop seed in 1994, partially because his property is considered “highly erodible land.”

From Salon • Jan. 18, 2024

Swiss-headquartered agrichemicals and seeds group Syngenta began offering a cover crop seed mixture in Spain this year.

From Reuters • Sep. 14, 2023

Brandt also touted cover crops and other sustainable farming practices, and ran a cover crop seed company and a seed-cleaning business on his 736-acre farm in Carroll, Ohio.

From Seattle Times • May 23, 2023

A cover crop is then desirable, and nothing is better for this purpose than barley at the rate of 4 pecks of seed per acre.

From Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Agee, Alva