Effect of Rhizobium inoculation of cover crop mixtures on soil fertility and cover crop productivity

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the 2019-2020 growing season. The experiment was designed after the randomized complete block design and was split in three parts. The main part examined different cover crop mixtures. The treatments examined were a grass monoculture including only triticale (T), two multi-species leguminous and non-leguminous crops mixture one of which included cover crop species, hairy vetch (MS2) and oats, and one including seven species, hairy vetch, forage pea, faba bean, crimson clover, oats, triticale, italian ryegrass (MS7). This part examined the effects of those mixtures on biomass production and N and C content, C/N ratio as well as soil N and C. The second sub-experiment discussed here examined the interactions between legumes and rhizobia and how they affect N fixation. The results show that the MS2 outperformed the MS7 and triticale treatments, as is had higher plant biomass and soil N, lower C/N ration and a good enough C content in the soil. The results of the sub-experiment, showed that the inoculation with rhizobia increased N fixation but the difference to the non-inoculated crops was very slight.