Encyclopedia > Nurse crop

  Article Content

Nurse crop

In agriculture, a nurse crop is an annual crop used to assist in establishment of a perennial.

The widest use of nurse crops is in the establishment of legumaceous plants such as alfalfa, clover, and trefoil. Occasionally nurse crops are used for establishment of perennial grasses.

Nurse crops reduce the incidence of weeds, prevent erosion, and prevent excessive sunlight from reaching tender seedlings. Often the nurse crop can be harvested for grain, straw, hay, or pasture.

Oats are the most common nurse crop, though other annual grains are also used.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Dynabee

... Once the gyro is spinning, tipping the device will cause the gyroscope to start precessing, with its axis slipping around in the groove in a circular fashion. The groove ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 21.6 ms