Weed Management for Conservation and Agriculture in Hawai'i

• HOME
• TPSS
• NREM
• PEPS
• HNFAS
• CTAHR
• UH

• What's New?
• For Students
• SOFT: Student Organic Farm Training
• For New Farmers
• Farm Income
• Environmental Stewardship
• Sustainable and Organic Production Methods
• Events
• Links
• HānaiʻAi Newsletter
• Videos
• Cover Crops & Green Manures for Hawaii
• CTAHR Contacts
• Organic Agriculture at CTAHR
• WSARE Projects

Cover Crops and Green Manures for Hawai'i

Generally used for orchard crops such as coffee and macadamia, cover crops are planted to protect the soil surface between tree rows. They can improve trafficability between rows, benefit soil structure and microfauna, suppress weeds, promote habitat for beneficial insects, and reduce nutrient leaching.

Green manures are frequently used in vegetable crop production. They are incorporated or plowed into the soil to add organic matter and nutrients for the cash crops. Green manures can be managed to disrupt plant disease cycles or to suppress nematodes. Generally they grow very quickly, are very herbaceous, decompose rapidly, and release nutrients quickly.

Cover Crops

CTAHR researchers investigate how cover crops attract beneficial insects.

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum). Photo: Jackie Smith

Research on perennial peanut as a cover crop for Hawaii orchards.

Strip-till cover cropping followed by clipping provides organic mulch. Photo: K-H Wang.

Sunnhemp or marigold intercropped with cucumber in a strip-till system. Photo: K-H Wang.

Legumes

• Perennial Peanut
• Stylo
• White Clover

Non-Legumes

• Bahia grass
• Bermuda grass
• Broadleaf Carpet Grass
• Narrowleaf Carpet Grass
• Pangola (or Digit) Grass
• Tropic Lalo
• Rhodes Grass
• St. Augustine Grass
• Stargrass

Green Manures

Legumes

• Cowpea
• Lablab
• Pigeonpea
• 'Tropic Sun' sunn hemp
• Woollypod Vetch (Lana Vetch)
• White Sweetclover

Non-Legumes

• Annual Ryegrass
• Azolla
• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Oats, black (new promising plant)
• Oats, common
• Rye Grain (Cereal Rye)
• 'Sudex' sorghum-sudangrass hybrid

Additional information about green manures and cover crops

• Cover Your Asset: Choosing appropriate cover crops for your Production System (Radovich)
• Cover Crops as Insectary Plants to Enhance Above and Below Ground Beneficial Organisms (Wang)
• Cover Crop Handbook:  A Guide to Using Buckwheat, Sunn Hemp, and Oats as Cover Crops in Hawai’i  (O’ahu RC&D)
• Advice on obtaining seeds of green manure and cover crops in Hawaii (Joy & Evans, rev 2012)
• Technical Note 6: Commercial sources of plant materials native to the Pacific island area
• Sunn hemp for Soil Health and Nematode Management (YouTube Video, Wang)
• Improving sunn hemp benefits by integrating with Solarization (Wang)
• Improving Marigold cover cropping for Nematode Management (Wang)
• Improving the Status of Sunn hemp as a Cover Crop for Soil Health and Pest Management (Wang)
• Strip Till Cover Cropping and Row-Switching Technique (Wang)
• Soil solarization and cover cropping as alternatives to soil fumigation for pineapple growers in Hawaii (Wang)
• Sustainable Seed Production and Cover Crops (Goldstein & McHugh)
• Accelerating the Adoption and Implementation of Proven Cover Crop Technologies in Hawaii by Dr. John McHugh, CropCare Hawaii (posted 7/07)
• Green Manure Crops that can help to control Nematodes in Dryland Taro (.wmv video) by Dr. Susan Miyasaka, Alton Arakaki, Dr. Brent Sipes, and Dr. Ray Ming
• UC Davis SARE Program (with searchable cover crop database)
• FAO Grasses & Legumes Index
• Better Pastures for the Tropics and Subtropics

These webpages were originally generated under a grant program from Western SARE entitled "Covering New Ground: Tropical Cover Crops for Improving Soil Quality" EW98-012 (1998-2002).