2016 Butternut Squash Cereal Rye Cover Crop Tillage and Fertility Trial

A cover crop management trial in butternut squash was planted at the Forgotten Harvest Ore Creek Farm (9153 Major Rd, Fenton, MI 438430) in a Miami loam soil with a 02% grade. The objectives were to determine how yields following a cereal rye cover crop were affected by three tillage systems and three at-plant fertilizer treatments in a split-plot Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The main plot factor was tillage: including bareground disked rye, no-tilled rye mulch, and strip-tilled rye mulch. Main plots were 600 ft long x 30.5 ft wide. Each main plot was then split into three randomized 200 ft long fertilizer treatment subplots. The fertilizer treatments included a high rate controlledrelease fertilizer CRF (67.76 lb per acre actual N as 14-5-25-10S-2Ca), low rate controlledrelease fertilizer CRF (47.16 lb per acre actual N as 14-5-25-10S-2Ca), and a grower standard fertilizer GSF (59.69 lb per acre actual N as 24-3-18-6S urea-diammonium phosphate-potassium sulfate). There were a total of 36 plots. High and low rate controlledrelease fertilizers were a proprietary polymer-coated blend, provided by ICL Fertilizers (622 Emerson Rd. Suite 500, St. Louis, MO 63141). No plots in the study were irrigated.