Cover Crop Selection

Cover crops have many benefits. They have the potential to increase soil organic matter, protect the soil from erosion, improve soil structure and water infiltration, increase soil fertility, and break pest and disease cycles. Growers can choose annual or perennial cover crops which can be planted as monocultures or in mixtures of multiple species. Cover crops may be leguminous species, like vetches and clovers, which fix nitrogen from the air, or non-leguminous species, like rye and triticale. Thousands of species and varieties are available. However, there is not one crop that can do it all.

Use the links below to learn about the uses of common cover crops in California. These tools will help you select the most appropriate cover crop or mixture of crops to meet your specific goals. 

Additional regional cover crop selection tools