Cover crop for potatoes?

[herb girl]

What cover crop can you plant after you put in your taters? I'm tired of spending money on straw to squelch the weeds and would like to green manure my field at the same time I'm growing taters. Then When I harvest plow under the cover crop and replant something else. Ideas?

[Denninmi]

White clover and birdsfoot trefoil come to mind, as both are very low-growing, groundcover type plants that shouldn't out-compete the potatos.

[mjc]

And the clover will provide a good nitrogen boost later..

[Durgan]

And you will be pulling clover through out your garden all the following year, because white clove spreads by roots. White clover is used in grass, but never a vegetable garden.

Red annual clover spreads by seeds, and the roots are usually killed in a cold climate or by disturbing by rototilling. No digs take notice!.This makes an ideal cover crop, since it is worked into the underlying soil before seed production. I plant it every year.

I might add white clover is interspersed with the grass in my lawn, and it is usually cut before seed production, yet it expands every year.

[AdkRBTIgardener]

the clovers support Rhizoctonia solani. might be better off with a grain.

dave rogers

[Routestep]

Yes use small grains or corn.

My extension agency says to avoid planting carrots, beets,turnips, radish (veggies that grow in the ground) and spinach and cabbage in the following years. They are all hosts for diseases that affect potatoes. No mention of sweet potatoes. Use at least a four year rotation. And no red clover either, its a host for some diseases affecting potatoes.