As noted in previous articles, adding cover crops to a no-till system exponentially increase soil health. However, adding diversity to the cover crop planting takes the soil health to a whole other level.

Diversity isn’t just adding two or three species together; diversity is five, seven, 10 or more different plants ranging from broadleaves to grasses, legumes to pollinators. The benefits of these combos are the vast array of biological activity they bring to the site.

Basically, with a diverse mix what you see above ground is a mirror image or what’s occurring below ground. Deep and shallow rooted plants, fibrous and tap root style plants scavenging and fixating nitrogen, feeding and being fed to the microorganisms in the soil ecosystem.

By planting a diverse mix, you can broaden the availability of food and cover for the soil ecosystem and provide a better balance of prey and predators which can lead to a more productive soil.

When cover crops are limited to grasses or broadleaves, you are in essence overfeeding one group of microorganisms and starving another; whereas planting a diverse mix allows for multiple organisms to thrive, driving an exponential growth in the soil ecosystem.

Studies have shown pounds of production can double when switching from a monoculture to diverse cover crop and soil temperature can be nearly 20 degrees cooler in a diverse stand.

Diversity also promotes better pest management and weed control. By having a variety of species growing at one time, more beneficial insects and predators can forage and live in proximity to each other, which helps keep pest population in check.

With the addition of long-season diverse covers, weed cycles are disrupted. Coupling that with heavy shading, post plant cleanup is greatly diminished.

Cover crop cocktails target using species across several categories: warm season broadleaves, cool season broadleaves, warm season grasses and cool season grasses.

There are several companies and farmers listing mixes online and a simple Google search of “cover crop cocktail” yields several pages of good reading from university studies to seed companies selling different products.

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE) has an excellent book on cover crops: “Managing Cover Crops Profitably” can be purchased or downloaded via PDF and is an invaluable resource for researching and selecting different cover crop varieties.

This book gives planting and growth season, nitrogen production and much, much more. If you are interested in cover crops in general, or expanding to a cocktail, this book is a good start.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.