What Is Stubble Planting?

Mycorrhizae

• Plants rely on a fungus called mycorrhizae to help them break down nutrients in the soil. However, these fungi sometimes take time to establish themselves. By leaving behind the root systems, the soil already contains a community of mycorrhizae.

Tilling

• Some gardeners break up the soil and till so that they can increase aeration and reduce soil compaction, helping plants grow in the soil. Other gardeners use no-till methods that rely on leaving behind stubble, which protects the soil from erosion, keeping the nutrients in the soil. Many beneficial organisms that prey on pathogens live in the soil, but tilling the soil removes the beneficial organisms. Also, stubble helps maintain the temperature in the soil so that plants and soil organisms can survive even during the winter. No-tilling also helps reduce the labor needed to maintain the soil. Stubble helps water penetrate more deeply into the soil, which allows gardeners to avoid drowning their plants. The stubble keeps nitrogen from leaching out of the soil.

Cover Crops

• Some species of crops, known as cover crops, work well as stubble. These include turnips, radishes and canola. Gardeners should use a range of cover crops to provide various benefits to the crops. Legume cover crops provide nitrogen. Crops with excellent taproots help prevent soil compaction. Canola, rape and mustards help increase residual recycling. By increasing residual cycling, gardeners can increase the microbial activity, which has a side effect of increasing the temperature of the soil. Doing so allows gardeners to plant many crops sooner if they require certain temperatures to thrive. Crop canopies help prevent harmful weed growth. The best cover crops are those that are opposite to the plant species you are trying to protect.

Carbon Content

• The best times to use stubble planting are when the garden has a lot of pests, when nitrogen gets tied up in the soil or when gardeners have a difficult time preparing the soil. The stubble process can negatively impact the soil structure, but not as much as with tilling. Microorganisms should break down 70 percent of the soil stubble. Over time, the microorganisms might break down more of the soil stubble. The carbon rate affects how strong the soil structure becomes by increasing the fungi and bacteria.