nurse crop

noun

1. a crop planted in the same field with another crop, especially to minimize the growth of weeds.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nurse crop¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

When medium red clover is sown for being plowed under as green manure, it is always sown with a nurse crop.

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In Western areas, from Canada to Kentucky and Missouri, it is important that the stubbles of the grain shall be cut high, amid which alfalfa grows when it is sown with a nurse crop.

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It consists in disking those parts so thoroughly as to destroy all vegetation that may have become rooted on them, and sowing seed in the usual way without a nurse crop.

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When the seed is sown in the early spring, it should usually be sown quite early, as early, in fact, as the ground is in condition to receive the seed when the nurse crop has been sown the previous autumn.

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If not thus clipped, they would frequently injure the crop more by shade and crowding than would a nurse crop.

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