Integrating Living Mulch Into Sweet Corn Production to Improve Soil Health, and Farmers’ Profitability

Presenter: Camille Anderson

Faculty Sponsor: Masoud Hashemi

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Agriculture and Agronomy / Food Science

Session: Poster Session 6, 4:15 PM - 5:00 PM, 165, D14

ABSTRACT

Sweet corn is a key agricultural crop in Massachusetts. Farms across the US have been struggling to make ends meet. As the prices of seeds and fertilizers rise, alternative farming strategies are important to investigate. Synthetic fertilizers are a high cost to farmers, especially when growing high-nitrogen-demanding crops such as sweet corn. Along with the cost of fertilizers, they have been proven to harm soil health and the environment. This project uses an alternative cover cropping method known as living mulch (LM). LM is a growing system where the cover crop is not terminated; rather, rows are tilled in, and the cover crop is allowed to grow back under the cash crop. In this experiment, the LM utilizes a perennial legume, white clover, and winter rye as the cover crops. There were two plots run: a white clover-only plot and a plot with a mix of white clover and winter rye. There were three dates of planting (DOP) in the study. Each DOP had four replications of the four nitrogen application rates: 0%, 33%, 66%, and 100% the recommended amount of urea addition. Analysis of the first and second ear yield between the plots was done. Preliminary data showed that the first ear yield had no response to nitrogen treatment rates in both plots.