agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

, a catch crop is a fast-growing

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, Fiber, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same spe ...

that is grown between successive plantings of a main crop. It is a specific type of

cover crop In agriculture, cover crops are plants that are planted to ground cover, cover the soil rather than for the purpose of being harvested. Cover crops manage soil erosion, soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, Pest (organism), pests, diseases ...

that is grown between two main crops. This crop is utilized as a way to reduce nitrogen leaching but it also promotes environmental benefits such as fortifying soil structure, retention of water and enhancement of soil biological activity. Catch crops revolve around plant species that have short growing seasons, rapid growth, low soil and nutrients requirements to be considered a catch crop. Catch cropping is a type of succession planting. It makes more efficient use of growing space. For example,

radish The radish (''Raphanus sativus'') is a flowering plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. Its large taproot is commonly used as a root vegetable, although the entire plant is edible and its leaves are sometimes used as a leaf vegetable. Origina ...

es that mature from

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

in 25–30 days can be grown between rows of most

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

s, and

harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

ed long before the main crop matures. Or, a catch crop can be planted between the spring harvest and fall planting of some crops.

Leach reduction

Growing catch crops is to improve and help maintain soil organic matter. This is achieved by promoting an increase of activity of soil microbes. Cultivation of this type of crop helps retain nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus from leaching from the soil. To be able to get these benefits in a field there are multiple factors that have to be taken into account to obtain the most out of the catch crops. Those factors include harvesting date, soil tillage, and sow timing being the most crucial. When timing of sowing is postponed from the date that was recommended a decrease of catch crop efficiency, growth and over performance occurs where studies have shown a decrease uptake of N.

Soil-water management

Catch crops help protect soil against water erosion through its residue which increases soil roughness. The residue serves as a soil surface protection from splash effects as well contributes to lowering the

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other ...

. Certain catch crop species are also able to create biopores by decaying roots which create flow paths in the soil causing an increase of water infiltration. Although during the crop growth they come to deplete soil water some species of catch crops help preserve water once they are killed.

References

Crops {{Agri-stub