Hello Mid-Ohio Valley farmers and gardeners! Finally, rain has returned to the Valley. Many areas received more than an inch of rain to end our dry spell. The combination of moisture and cool, fall like temperatures make working outside a whole lot easier.

Fall is a great time to apply soil amendments to the garden, the lawn and our crop fields. Compost, composted or aged manure, fertilizers and lime can all be spread. This fall and winter will give these nutrients time to incorporate into the soil and available for next year’s growing season. Apply nutrients according to soil test results. If you have applied manure, wood ashes or both for several years you may hold off and take a soil test. Nutrient overload on the garden can be just as detrimental as lack of nutrients.

The growing season for our summer heat loving vegetables will end with the first frost, typically around October 15th for our area. If you have not planted any cold tolerant fall vegetables (kale, broccoli, spinach and other greens), you should consider seeding your entire garden in a cover crop.

Soil health has become a huge topic in gardening and farming. Adding organic matter to the soil through cover crops can increase microbial activity, water holding capacity and nutrient availability.

Cover crops have become an important component to any home garden. They are used for various reasons, including increasing soil fertility by adding organic matter, controlling soil erosion, choking out weeds, scavenging nitrogen and limiting the spread of certain diseases and insects in the soil.

Leaving an unplanted area of your garden as bare soil can easily lead to the germination of unwanted weeds and to damaging soil erosion. Cover crops are intended to cover this bare soil and provide a cheap source of nutrients for your garden plants. When cover crops are turned under and decompose in the soil they increase the organic matter as they break down into humus.

Traditionally, fall cover crops are a combination of a cereal grain with some type of legume. Typically, wheat, oats or rye is planted with a legume, such as clover or winter peas. The grass-type cereal grain is quick to establish and helps hold and protect the soil while the slower germinating legume crop grows.

This week I am discussing the benefits of winter wheat as a great cover crop for both farmers and gardeners. It can also be grown as a cash crop in rotations for many farms, including baling the wheat straw which has become increasingly valuable.

I recommend winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) for a versatile and inexpensive cover crop. It provides most of the cover crop benefits of other cereal crops and is increasingly grown instead of rye because it is cheaper and easier to manage in spring. It’s less likely than barley or rye to become a weed and is easier to kill and incorporate into the soil.

Wheat also is slower to mature than some cereals, so there is no rush to kill it early in spring and risk compacting the soil in wet conditions. Wheat’s fine root system also improves topsoil tilth. Although it generally produces less than rye or barley, the residue can be easier to manage. Winter wheat adds rotation options for underseeding a legume (such as red clover) and works well in no-till or reduced-tillage systems.

When purchasing winter wheat for fall planting, you can buy the variety labeled “cover crop wheat” and it will perform just fine. A research study of 25 wheat varieties showed no major differences in overall biomass production at maturity. This biomass or green manure is what we are looking for to work into the soil. Cash crop wheat variety selection can be much more intense and the seed is more expensive. Some varieties are taller for producers looking for straw production.

Winter wheat can be planted as early as mid-August up until Thanksgiving with good success. Later plantings will have to be planted at higher seeding rate and tend to produce less biomass. In our area, wheat planting should be delayed until after October 2 to prevent attack by the Hessian Fly for cash crop purposes. Winter wheat also works well in mixtures with other small grains or with legumes such as hairy vetch or winter peas.

A typical mix might be 3 to 4 pounds of a cereal grain with † pound of a legume per 1,000 square feet. For a garden as large as an acre, you can go with 50 pounds of cereal grain and 5 pounds of clover per acre. A grain drill can be used to plant 60 to 120 pounds per acre into a firm seedbed at a 1/2- to 11/2-inch depth or broadcast 60 to 160 pounds per acre and disk lightly or cultipack to cover. Use the higher rate if planting late, in low soil moisture conditions or for cash crop purposes. You can use lower rates for cover crop intentions.

In the spring wheat can be killed with a roller crimper at the soft-dough stage or later, or sprayed with a herbicide. Traditional methods of plowing, disking or mowing before seed matures will also work. As with other small grain cover crops, it is safest to kill about two to three weeks before planting the garden or a cash crop. Of course this will depend on spring weather conditions and your killing and tillage system. Contact me at the Wood County WVU Extension Office 304-424-1960 or e-mail me at jj.barrett@mail.wvu.edu with questions. Good Luck and Happy Gardening!