Can green crops capture enough nitrogen for vegetable growing?

Nitrogen fertiliser use is becoming increasingly restricted and expensive, so vegetable growers are looking for new methods to manage the high nitrogen demands of their crops. Despite the extensive use of clover grasses to capture nitrogen in pastoral farms, this approach isn’t widely used for intensive vegetable production. There is a lack of New Zealand-specific data for suitable green crops that can capture and supply nitrogen for vegetable production. This study will undertake field trials to quantify the nitrogen captured by legume/grain cover crops, and will investigate how quickly it is then released into the soil, longer-term nitrogen losses, and profitability.