Designing cover crop mixtures to enhance potential weed suppression in organic no-till vegetable systems

Summary in the original language of the document

Cover crops play a key role in weed management strategy in no-till organic and low input vegetable systems. The ability of cover crops to reduce weed pressure can be linked to the amount of biomass produced at the time of cover crop devitalisation. Cover crop mixtures, in particular functional diversity in cover crop mixtures, can be managed to improve biomass production and weed suppressive ability of cover crops. We tested eight cover crop species pure stands and designed nine cover crop mixtures at increasing levels of functional diversity. The aim of this study was to highlight the effect of cover crops' functional diversity in controlling weeds before aubergine (Solanum melongena L.) transplanting. We showed that the functional composition (i.e. the presence of complementary cover crop species functional traits in mixtures) of cover crop mixtures is key to provide high biomass productivity and weed suppression.