Cover crops

Summer-quick non-legume; flowers in 30 days, biomass in 60. Mobilises soil phosphorus and competes with weeds — fits the gap between an early-harvested cereal and an autumn cover.

Brassica with deep taproot — bio-drilling for compacted soils, frost-killed in northern winters. Good fit before spring-planted miscanthus on heavier land.

Annual / short-lived grass cover. Dense root mat holds residual N, easy to terminate. Common after early-harvested cereals where a longer cover is wanted.

Non-legume, non-brassica break crop. Fast cover, top pollinator value, releases nutrients quickly into the spring slot — a clean reset between rotations.

Large-rooted radish bred for bio-tillage on compacted arable soil. Frost-kills in northern Europe; the decaying taproot opens drainage channels before a spring miscanthus crop.

Quick brassica cover, suppresses soil-borne pests and lifts 60–100 kg residual N. Frost-killed in most NL/RO winters — leaves a low-residue spring seedbed.

Hardiest small-grain cover, germinates below 5°C. Holds 30–60 kg residual N, suppresses winter weeds, leaves a high-C/N residue for a spring construction-crop planting.