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Green Cover's Overwintering Mix is a multi-species cover crop mix designed to be planted in the fall and overwinter, providing ground cover and a living root throughout the cold winter months.

Hairy Vetch, Fixation Balansa Clover and Wyoming Winter Peas are some of the most cold-hearty legumes that will provide organic nitrogen in the spring. Elbon Cereal Rye and Winter Barley provide a carbon source and massive root growth.  Rapeseed is a great forage if you want to graze this mix, but it also provides a great taproot for breaking compacted soils.

Crimping or mowing this mix will give you a mulch perfect for transplanting into in the spring. This mix can also be tilled into the soil as a green manure.

Not sure where to start? Check out our Quick Start Guide on Cover Crops in the Garden.

Ingredients

Balansa Clover, Winter Peas, Cereal Rye, Winter Barley, Rapeseed, Hairy Vetch, Elevate'd Fungi Inoculant, and Bolster L Inoculant

Though these seeds are not sourced from organic production, our seeds are non-GMO and not treated with pesticides. All inoculants are manufactured to organic standard.

Planting 

Broadcast and lightly incorporate 4-6 weeks before first frost.

Minimum Germination Temperature: 40 °F
Broadcast Seeding Rate: 2 lbs/1000 square feet (90 lbs per acre)

Timing

For best results, plant 4-6 weeks before the first average frost date during the fall. Planting can continue even through the first few frosts but the mix will likely not grow much in the fall and spring growth will be only from the most winter hardy species in the mix, likely rye, barley, and vetch.

Termination

For no-till applications, we recommend terminating Overwintering mix by crimping or mowing with a flail mower followed by a tarp for 2 weeks before your desired planting date.

The cereal grains will crimp better when they are mature. When rye is shedding its pollen, it is ready for crimping. However, if you can't wait to plant, crimping can still be successful even when the plant is not yet mature if it is followed with a tarp to ensure that it is effectively terminated.

Overwintering mix can also be terminated by tilling and incorporating as a green manure.

Where the context allows, grazing can be effective at terminating overwintering mix if it is followed by a silage tarp.

On a very small scale, cutting with a hand sickle or turning the soil over with a shovel and following with a tarp can also be effective.

Inoculants

This product is pre-inoculated with Elevate'd Fungi and Bolster L Inoculant to increase the biological activity in your soil. 

• Elevate'd Fungi is a seed applied inoculant derived from natural products designed to stimulate seed germination, increase root and biological biomass in the soil, and improve soil structure. OMRI status has been applied for and is pending. 
• Bolster L Inoculant contains multiple families of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria plus Azospirillum Brasiliense (free living N fixer) and two phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria, Pantoea Eucalypti and Pseudomonas Baetica. 

Note these inoculants are NOT currently OMRI approved, however many of our certified organic customers have received approval to use these products. Please contact your certifier and refer to these documents before using this product on organic certified land. 

The Six Principles of Soil Health

Cover crops are most effective at building your soil when you follow the principles of soil health:

• Keep the Soil Covered
• Maximize Biodiversity
• Integrate Livestock
• Maintain Living Roots
• Minimize Disturbance
• Know Your Context

About Green Cover

Not all seed is created equal

• Clean seed? Check.
• Excellent germination? Check.
• Evenly mixed ratios? Check.
• Pre-added biology with helpful microbes? Check.

When you’re ready to amp up the diversity in your cover crops look no further than Green Cover.

We believe that the same soil health principles that work in large-scale farming apply to the home garden. Our expertly designed pre-made mixes are some of the most common mixes we create, designed to improve soil health, no matter the size of your field (or garden bed!).

Regenerative Resources

Drawing upon our team’s expertise and experience, we collaborate with farmers, ranchers and soil health researchers to produce a bounty of free, educational resources. Each year, we release the Soil Health Resource Guide, webinar series, conferences, field days and more in order to help you to make informed decisions about your soils.

Faith Based, Farmer Built, Family Owned

Like many farmers, faith and family go hand in hand with the day to day operations. We built our company to help people regenerate God’s creation to be enjoyed for many generations after us. Together with our family and employees, we’ve built this dream, and we’re all here to serve you and watch your soil health dreams become a reality.