Page 136 - PC2019 Program & Proceedings

PLANT CANADA 2019

S57. Responses of various cover crop species to agro-mineral soil amendment over time
1*
2
VanVolkenburg, H. ; F. Guinel ; L. Vasseur 1
1 Brock University
2 Wilfrid Laurier University

Cover cropping is a common technique used by farm managers to help improve or maintain the ecological
integrity of an agroecosystem, particularly of the soil. Rock fertilizers or often called agrominerals, are
rich in micronutrients and in some cases phosphorus and potassium. Combining cover crops with
agromineral soil amendments may have further ecological benefits to a system including the potential to
reduce reliance on synthetic soil amendments. This study aimed to determine, under greenhouse
conditions, whether various cover crop species undergo similar growth patterns when planted in soil
amended with agromineral Spanish River Carbonatite (SRC) as compared to synthetic fertilizer or water
as a control, and with two continuous cropping periods. SRC was found to be especially effective for
growth of Medicago sativa and Trifolium pratense while forb species, Raphanus sativus and Cichorium
intybus, tended to grow better in synthetic fertilizer. Raphanus sativus grown for a second period of
cropping in same soil without amendment addition showed greater growth in SRC, suggesting a long-
term effect of SRC. The synergistic benefits incurred by some cover crop plants grown in agromineral
demonstrate the potential for SRC in agroecosystem soil management.

Heather VanVolkenburg (hvanvolkenburg@brocku.ca)

S58. New long-term platforms to investigate agro-ecological services of cover crops across various
grain cropping systems in Ontario
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1
1
1
Chapagain, T. ; M. Stewart ; G. Chu ; M. Raizada ; L. Van Eerd ; B. Deen ; D. Hooker 1
1
2
1 University of Guelph
2 University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus
It is well-documented that cover crops have the potential to provide many services to growers and the
environment, but the benefits are sometimes difficult to quantify across diverse cropping systems,
especially in short-term studies. Thus in 2017, we established >1000 research plots of various cover crop
intensities in two crop rotations (corn-soybean vs. corn-soybean-winter wheat) across two tillage systems
(plowed vs. no-till) in two environments at Elora and Ridgetown, ON. These sites were designed to
become a 20-30 year platform to investigate short- and long-term agronomic services (i.e., grain yield,
yield stability, drought resilience, nutrient requirements, incidence of weeds/diseases/pests, and net
economic returns), soil health services (i.e., organic matter, aggregate stability, rhizosphere and
endophytic microbial diversity, soil water holding capacity, soil salinity), and environmental services (i.e.,
carbon sequestration through organic matter increases, reduced nitrogen losses, reduced susceptibility to
soil erosion, reduced susceptibility to phosphorus losses, pollinator habitat). The most current objective at
the outset of the study investigates the performance of sole vs. multiple cover crop species and whether
the application of fertilizer nitrogen on cover crops is beneficial. We invite collaborators wishing to use
this platform to address fundamental and applied agro-ecological research questions.

Tejendra Chapagain (tejendra@uoguelph.ca)

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