Mini-review of cover crop potential for weed management in agroforestry systems
| Authors: | Brent S. DeBauche, Chung-Ho Lin, Elizabeth Rogers, Ryan Vinhal, Ronald S. Zalesny Jr. |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Type: | Miscellaneous |
| Station: | Northern Research Station |
| Source: | International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) |
Abstract
Weed management is an integral practice for agriculture-, horticulture-, and forestry-related plant production systems. Weeds create similar problems in improved agroforestry cropping systems as in conventional agriculture and horticulture. While traditional chemical and mechanical weed management techniques are effective for these practices, they require a great deal of labor, are very costly, and can be detrimental to soil health and water quality.
An alternative to traditional weed management techniques is the use of ground cover, known as cover crops, to control the spread and suppress the development of weed species. Cover cropping is a sustainable weed management practice that has great potential for weed suppression through competitive inhibition and allelopathic interactions.
Our objective was to evaluate the potential of cover crops as an effective management tool for suppression of weed competition in agroforestry systems. In this context, we review the five major agroforestry practices recognized today. Additionally, we discuss traditional weed management techniques and their limitations to further understand the need for cover crops as an alternative mode of weed suppression. Lastly, we explore cover crop weed management techniques and highlight cover crop species that have the greatest potential for use in agroforestry systems.