ARS find cuphea beneficial for wheat and corn in rotations

Growing the oilseed plant called cuphea the year before growing wheat results in better wheat seedling survival and grain that is 8% higher in protein, according to an ARS study.

ARS plant physiologist Russ Gesch and colleagues discovered this in a four-year experiment in which they rotated cuphea with corn, soy, and wheat on fields in Morris, Minnesota.

Based on these results, Gesch recommends the following rotation order: soy, cuphea, and then wheat or corn. This planting regimen increases the profitability of both wheat and corn.

Crop rotations are known to be good for soil and reduce the need for pesticides and fertilisers. Insect, disease and weed pests become well adapted to surviving in fields where little to no crop rotation is practiced. Perhaps the best example of this is the emergence of the highly adaptable corn rootworm, which accounts for more pesticide use on US row crops than any other insect.

Cuphea is a new oilseed crop Gesch and other ARS scientists are developing for farmers in the northern Corn Belt. Some 260 undomesticated species of Cuphea are native to Central America, South America and North America.

Gesch found only beneficial effects in cuphea's interactions  when rotated with corn, soy and wheat. Cuphea did not harm yields of the other crops, nor did those crops harm cuphea yields.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency in the USDA.