Planting Winter Cover Crops in Western PA

So, it's apparently about that time.  Once a bed is finished for the growing season the least ideal thing for you to do is to put it to bed for the winter with bare un-rejuvenated soil.  That's why you hear growers talk about cover crops.  Cover cropping is basically where you take a bed that is resting and grow something on it that serves a purpose whether it is erosion control, weed suppression or adding nutrients to the soil.  We chosen to use a "Hairy Vetch/Rye" combo this year on the farm with our beds that are coming out of summer production.  Technically we're in the last few days that this mix can be planted as it needs a certain amount of time to establish vegetative growth in the fall before it goes dormant during the winter and explodes back into growth in the early spring while the fields are still too wet and cold to be worked for other crops.  It's then that you till that vegetative growth into the soil as green manure or just roll it down as a weed suppressing mulch.  Here's a link to the guys at Rodale who did a really great write up on it.  (Almost) never too late to plant hairy vetch.

Photo from Rodale Institute