Plants grown to protect soil between main crops describes which term?

Plants grown to protect soil between main crops describes which term?

• A. Rain garden
• B. Cover crop
• C. Riparian buffer
• D. Detention basin

Answer: (B)

Keeping soil protected between main crops by using living plants is about cover crops. The idea is to blanket the soil during times when a cash crop isn’t growing, which reduces erosion from wind and water, helps hold nutrients in place so they don’t wash away, and improves soil structure and organic matter. Plants like winter rye, oats, clover, or mixes are grown specifically for this purpose and are usually incorporated or terminated before the next main crop is planted. A rain garden, by contrast, is a planted depression that captures and infiltrates runoff from impervious surfaces; a riparian buffer is vegetation along a stream or river that filters runoff and stabilizes banks; a detention basin is a designed pond that stores stormwater to slow and release it gradually. None of these describe growing crops solely to cover soil between harvests, so the best term is cover crop.

Keeping soil protected between main crops by using living plants is about cover crops. The idea is to blanket the soil during times when a cash crop isn’t growing, which reduces erosion from wind and water, helps hold nutrients in place so they don’t wash away, and improves soil structure and organic matter. Plants like winter rye, oats, clover, or mixes are grown specifically for this purpose and are usually incorporated or terminated before the next main crop is planted.

A rain garden, by contrast, is a planted depression that captures and infiltrates runoff from impervious surfaces; a riparian buffer is vegetation along a stream or river that filters runoff and stabilizes banks; a detention basin is a designed pond that stores stormwater to slow and release it gradually. None of these describe growing crops solely to cover soil between harvests, so the best term is cover crop.