A winter cover crop of cereal rye greatly reduced the flow-weighted mean concentration of soil solution nitrate-N collected 4 feet beneath the soil surface by passive capillary lysimeters.
The 1993 crop was broccoli, fertilized with 280 kg N/ha. The cover crop was sown in early October and turned under the following April. The 1994 crop was sweet corn fertilized with 225 kg N/ha.
Mean nitrate-N concentration of leachate percolating from covered plots averaged below the EPA drinking water standard of 10 ppm. Data presented are monthly means.
Taken from Brandi-Dohrn, Dick, Hess, Kauffman, Hemphill, and Selker. 1997. Nitrate Leaching under a Cereal Rye Cover Crop; J. of Environmental Quality 26:181-188.
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