Living mulch

Other benefits of mulches are slowing the growth of weeds, and protecting soil from water and wind erosion.

Living mulches have also been shown to increase the population of organisms which are natural enemies of some crop pests.

For example, the allelopathic properties of winter rye (Secale cereale), ryegrasses (Lolium spp), and subterrain clover (Trifolium subterraneum) can be used to control weeds in sweet corn (Zea mays var "rugosa") and snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).

For example, Elkins et al. (1983) examined the use of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis), and orchargrass (Dactylis glomerata) as living mulches.

[9] Although leguminous cover crops have large biomass production and turnover, they are not likely to increase soil organic matter.

In the tropics, it is common to seed tree crops with living mulches such as legume covers in oil palm plantations,[11] coconut[12] and rubber.

[14] The mulches included velvetbean (Mucuna pruriens) jackbean (Canavalia ensiformis), jumbiebean (Leucaena leucocephala) and wild tamarindo (Lysiloma latisiliquum).

In addition, Velvetbean suppressed the radical growth of the local weeds Alegria (Amaranthus hypochondriacus) by 66% and Barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) by 26.5%.

Nicholson and Wien (1983) suggested the use of short turfgrasses and clovers as living mulches to improve the resistance soil compaction.

These authors established Smooth Meadow-grass (Poa pratensis) and white clover (Trifolium repens) as living mulches since they did not cause reduction of yield corn (the accompanying main crop).

[8] Because they compete with the main crop, living mulches may eventually need to be mechanically or chemically killed.

For another treatment, rates that were so high that they caused the cover crop to be killed too rapidly, so that broadleaf weeds invaded the corn.

The protection that such vegetation provides against wind is influenced mainly by the amount of biomass that covers the ground (differs with each spp), plant geometry and row orientation.