Products

African cabbage, a robust and rapidly growing brassica, thrives in a variety of warm season mixes, which makes it an intriguing option for interseeding into corn mixes. What sets it apart is its unique ability to stand tall and keep its leaves even in the face of cold weather, making it an exceptional choice for a snow-catching cover crop. Its enduring residue and strong root system enable captured snow to seep into the soil, enriching the moisture content in your land.

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Mustard produces significantly more glucosinolates than other brassicas, which biofumigates the soil during decomposition, proving to be toxic to many soil pathogens and pests. To best utilize these glucosinolates, mature green vegetation should be turned into the soil. In no-till operations you will still benefit from having this species for this use. When allowed enough growing season, brown mustard stem residue can remain erect throughout the winter months, aid in capturing snow to help build moisture in the soil profile. Growing mustard in a potato rotation was observed to increase tuber quality and yields similar to that of chemically fumigated fields. Other documented effects of having mustard in your rotation is suppressing potato early dying and reduced root rot in pea rotations. Some customers are concerned that these mustards are difficult to control like their wild cousins but actually they can be easily terminated with many commonly utilized herbicides.

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The cucurbit plant family includes plants like squash, pumpkins, and gourds. These warm season annual broadleaves are known for being viny which can be a very desirable trait to have in a cover crop blend. In the case of a row skip when planting or a troublesome soil spot in the field, nearby cucurbits will vine out to soak up the sun where nothing else is growing. These cucurbit fruits can also add nutrition to winter stockpile forage mixes as the cold weather softens their outsides and cattle learn to eat the seeds and fruit flesh.

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Faba beans are one of the oldest plants under cultivation, having been grown in ancient Greece and Rome. Unlike other beans, they prefer cool weather, allowing them to be planted — and harvested — much earlier. Faba beans have a distinct flavor and creamy texture that make them a fine ingredient for a wide variety of dishes. This legume is a natural, organic fertilizer (called a green manure) that fixes nitrogen in the soil for other plants to use. By planting faba beans in your garden, food plot or field, you can improve soil fertility at the same time without needing to add other fertilizers and amendments.

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Do you want your plots producing high-quality forage during the first of spring green up? If so, then the Frost Seed Release blend is for you. This blend consists of cold-hardy clover seed that doesn’t require much moisture to germinate. The result? A great clover plot for the spring. This product is pre-inoculated with the Green Boost Biology Package, so you can reduce your fertilizer usage. Green Boost includes: GreenMerge is a seed applied inoculant derived from natural products designed to stimulate seed germination, increase root biological biomass in the soil, and improve soil structure.  MycoGreen NPK, a dual inoculant containing ten functionally diverse mycorrhizal fungi and eight bacterial species. Rhizo-Fixer Plus Inoculant contains multiple families of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria plus Azospirillum Brasiliense (free living N fixer) and two phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria, Pantoea Eucalypti and Pseudomonas Baetica. Healthier and more vigorous plants will lead to healthier animals and bigger antlers!

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Grain sorghum provides an excellent opportunity for feeding wildlife. The grain heads, which mature in late summer to early fall will attract the wildlife species and provide superior nutrition. Grain sorghum is an excellent option for upland birds in particular.

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Hubam White Sweet Clover can produce up to 9,000 lbs dry matter per acre over a summer after being oversown into a grain crop or direct seeded with a spring grain nurse crop. While its taproot is shorter and more slender than that of its biennial cousins, it still loosens subsoil compaction. Annual sweetclovers work best in the Deep South, from Texas to Georgia as they are not frost tolerant. There, they establish more quickly than the biennial types and produce more biomass in the seeding year in southern regions.

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Our Milpa Garden Warm Season mix is a great way to get fresh produce with minimal amounts of labor. The milpa technique originated in Central America where the Mayans used a mixture of corn, squash, and beans to improve the soil and grow food. At Green Cover Seed, we went beyond the three sisters and compiled a mix of over 40 different seeds. This is an excellent way to utilize a small portion of land to produce food without going through the hassle of tillage, weeding, and hours of planning. If you want a fun mix to grow food for your family, community or even local food pantry, this is the perfect mix for you!

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Mung beans are a warm-season legume known for their remarkable heat tolerance and drought resistance. They exhibit rapid growth, maturing in just 65 days. One advantage of mung beans over cowpeas is that their seed pods remain intact, unlike cowpeas, making them an excellent source of late-fall protein for grazing livestock or wildlife. However, it's important to note that mung beans are highly susceptible to cold weather and require a minimum of 60 frost-free days to ensure successful growth. They can be used for both hay production and grazing and are compatible with peanut inoculant. Mung beans typically reach a height of around 3 feet and have a low to medium water usage. Their strengths lie in nitrogen fixation, forage production, and hay production.

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Rapid fall growth in short windows, allows radishes to fit perfectly into a traditional corn and soybean rotation. Radish residue breaks down very quickly in the spring, leaving a clean seed bed until early April. The residue has been proven to inhibit small seeded annuals from germinating. Nutrients that were scavenged are readily released back into the soil for the subsequent crop. A field planted in radishes, will allow the soil to dry and warm faster in the spring. The large root channel left behind is rich in nutrients, allows tremendous water infiltration, reduces water erosion, and a path for crops roots to follow through compacted soil layers. During decomposition, radish biofumigates the soil which can reduce pest and nematode populations.

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Okra is a great way to add diversity to almost any mix. With a deep taproot and good grazing characteristics, above and belowground livestock will benefit from this plant. Okra also has excellent drought tolerance. It can be used in both warm and cool season mixes. Add okra to help break up compaction, build soil, and provide feed for animals.

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Phacelia enhances soil N uptake, boosts soil organic matter with C, suits low to medium N soils for feed/hay. While forage yield is modest, it's palatable to livestock even at maturity. Best planting times: early spring or late summer (like alfalfa), but it blooms in spring planting and aids potassium availability.

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Sainfoin produces most of its growth in the spring, with little production in summer or fall. It has beautiful pink clusters of flowers and is an excellent honey plant. In areas where alfalfa makes two cuttings or fewer, sainfoin will exceed alfalfa in production. In warmer areas its yield is much less than alfalfa. Newer varieties such as Shoshone are much better than older ones at yield, regrowth and persistence. Can be used as bloat prevention in alfalfa fields. Used extensively in the Northern Plains in place of alfalfa. It does not tolerate heavy grazing very well.

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Many cover crop species will have colorful blooms which add good aesthetic value and pollinator habitat, however, some situations call for a little extra flare. This mix combines true, showy flowers that you would traditionally find in the flower seed aisle as well as popular cover crop species. Planted at the beginning of summer, the Showy Flower Mix will provide beautiful blooms all the way into fall. With zinnias, poppies, cosmos and more, this will be a bouquet maker.

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Surprise! Egyptian wheat is a… sorghum. As one of the tallest growing cover crop species, this is a good biomass builder that can also be used as a view blocker. Eventually what goes up must come down so when freezing or wind damage occurs, the seed heads which may be 12 feet high lodge over to the ground to make great feed and habitat for game birds.

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Spring oats are an excellent choice for quick ground cover in the spring or fall. Rapid growth aids in stabilizing disturbed or bare soil from environmental conditions. Spring oats make a great addition to any spring grazing or forage mix providing ample tonnage for your livestock. Oats can be easily chemically terminated and fall plantings commonly winterkill. Residue from oats suppress winter annuals and protect the soil throughout the winter and will decompose rapidly in the spring. Allelopathic chemicals released by the decomposing residue suppress weed germination for a few weeks. The high quality oat forage is more palatable than rye or wheat. Also, oat is less prone to insect problems than either wheat or barley. 

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