IN YOUR ORCHARD
“With this guide, we hope growers and allied industry members gain a greater sense of all that’s involved with planting cover crops and the ways in which it can deliver optimizations to the orchard. And, like most things in life, at the end of the day growers will get out of it what they put in — more intentional management will lead to more prosperous outcomes.” Busting Myths, Spitting Facts Throughout this resource, information is provided to address known, existing grower apprehensions or curiosities around the usefulness of cover crops and their ability to fit well within an orchard system. In terms of concerns that cover crops compete with almond blossoms for honey bees’ attention, industry-funded, ABC-directed research shows that flowering cover crops do not compete with blossoms for bee visitation. In fact, cover crops can enhance bee health by providing pollinators with a supplementary food source during times when pollen is not as ripe for the taking (before and shortly after bloom), giving bees more energy to pollinate during the height of bloom. Further, among all of growers’ concerns, the top perceived operational constraint to cover crop use is difficulty of harvest due to crop debris. However, as detailed in this resource, cover crops can be mowed to decompose fully and disappear
by harvest. While specific timing varies by operation, if growers are intentional about managing their cover crops, they may be able to terminate their cover crop as early as mid-March (depending on their orchard’s needs) to reduce water competition with trees and ensure a clean orchard floor for harvest. If growers are still on the fence, the next best step may be to give cover crops a try on a small section of the orchard and monitor them for an extended period of time. Because cover crops species and mixes are so varied and able to address a series of challenges in orchards across the growing region, the best way to determine cover crops’ success is to try it out. And for an increasing number of growers, that decision has paid off. “I’m a huge believer in cover crops — there are so many positives,” said Chris Rishwain, an almond grower near Manteca who first planted cover
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