Green manures & cover crops: Advantages & disadvantages

In general, cover crops have positive effects on soil struc-ture, soil erosion, reducing nutrient leaching, weed sup-pression and feeding the soil microbiome. Some species used as cover crops can also fix nutrients (nitrogen by legumes) or make nutrient more available (phosphorus by buckwheat). Used as green manures, they also help to sequester carbon. As cover crops belong to different plant groups (families) their impact as promotors or in-hibitors for soilborne diseases and nematodes has to be specifically chosen. Water availability and climatic condi-tions are also criteria that determine the use of specific plants.