Cover crops planted at Misty Morning Farm were overcome with intense weed pressure from
pigweed and were not able to compete. Data was not collected from Misty Morning Farm for this reason,
though we were able to proceed with the field day (see below) as Kenny Haines had several other areas we
could demonstrate summer cover crop species and benefits. Plots in Plymouth were lost in 1996 due to
severe wet weather, including a rare early summer hurricane (Bertha) on July 12 which devastated the area.
We conducted the study in Plymouth an additional year, and those results are included in this evaluation.
Hurricane Fran completely destroyed plots in Goldsboro on September 5 (luckily, we had collected
aboveground biomass samples early that same day). For this reason, evaluating the method of kill could
not be conducted on the plots in Goldsboro. Figure 1 is an aerial photograph of the remains of the cover
crop plots surrounded by flood waters caused by Hurricane Fran.
Though 1996 was a particularly bad research year for everyone in the state of North Carolina, we
believe that by including the additional year of data from Plymouth in this report, we have still been able to
accomplish most of our goals. Data collected in Plymouth and Goldsboro included above-ground cover
crop biomass, weed biomass, carbon:nitrogen ratios; total nitrogen in the above-ground biomass, and
percent kill by mechanical methods (in Plymouth only).
Related Grant:
Outcome PDF:
