Agronomic aspects of cover crops termination with roller crimper

Cover crops (CCs) are used in conservation systems to deliver a number of ecosystem services, including soil erosion prevention, water infiltration and storage, reduced nutrient losses, increased organic matter content and competition on with weeds. The CCs can be terminated prior to planting the cash crop and residues can remain on the soil surface and act as a dead mulch that suppresses the weeds, also protecting the soil from rapid desiccation and keeping the soil moisture at good levels for cash crop seed germination or plant establishment. A method to terminate CCs in organic no-till systems is to use roller crimpers (RCs). There is a higher termination rate when RCs are used at least from the flowering stage of legume CCs and the anthesis of grass CCs. A delayed termination date of winter grown CCs may result in postponed sowing dates of the spring cash crop, likely resulting in loss of yield. Thus, a wider adoption of RCs would likely pass through identifying solutions to improve their effectiveness even at earlier phenological stages of CCs, e.g. by using heavy roller. The experiment was conducted in the growing season 2018-2019 at “De Angeli” farm in Cenaia, Pisa (43°34’40’’N 10°32’02’’E, 27 m a.s.l.) on two neighbouring fields.