Type: cool season annual cereal grain 

Roles: prevent erosion, suppress weeds, scavenge excess nutrients, add organic matter 

Mix with: Annual legumes, Ryegrass or other small grains 

See charts, pp. 66 to 72, for ranking and management summary. 

            Inexpensive and easy to grow, barley provides exceptional erosion control and weed suppression in semi-arid regions and in light soils. It also can fill short rotation niches or serve as a topsoil- protecting crop during droughty conditions in any region. It is more salt tolerant than other small grains and can sop up excess subsoil moisture to help prevent saline seep formation.

It’s a fine choice for reclaiming overworked, weedy or eroded fields, or as part of a cover crop mix for improving soil tilth and nutrient cycling in perennial cropping systems in Hardiness Zone 8 or warmer.

Barley prefers cool, dry growing areas. As a spring cover crop, it can be grown farther north than any other cereal grain, largely because of its short growing period. It also can produce more biomass in a shorter time than any other cereal crop.

BENEFITS

Erosion control. Use barley as an overwintering cover crop for erosion control in Zone 8 and warmer, including much of California, western Oregon and western Washington. It’s well-suited for vineyards and orchards, or as part of a mixed seeding.

As a winter annual, barley develops a deep, fibrous root system. The roots can reach as deep as 6.5 feet. As a spring crop, barley has a comparatively shallow root system but holds soil strongly to minimize erosion during droughty conditions.

Nutrient recycler. Barley can scavenge significant amounts of nitrogen. It captured 32 lb. N/A as a winter cover crop following a stand of fava beans (Vicia faba) in a California study, compared with 20 lb./A for annual ryegrass. A barley cover crop reduced soil N an average of 64 percent at eight sites throughout North America that had received an average of 107 lb. N/A (265). Intercropping barley with field peas (Pisum sativum) can increase the amount of N absorbed by barley and returned to the soil in barley residue, other studies show. Barley improves P and K cycling if the residue isn’t removed.

Weed suppressor. Quick to establish, barley outcompetes weeds largely by absorbing soil moisture during its early growing stages. It also shades out weeds and releases allelopathic chemicals that help suppress them.

Tilth-improving organic matter. Barley is a quick source of abundant biomass that, along with its thick root system, can improve soil structure and water infiltration. In California cropping systems, cultivars such as UC476 or COSINA can produce as much as 12,900 lb. biomass/A.

Nurse crop. Barley has an upright posture and relatively open canopy that makes it a fine nurse crop for establishing a forage or legume stand. Less competitive than other small grains, barley also uses less water than other covers crops. In weedy fields, wait to broadcast the forage or legume until after you’ve mechanically weeded barley at the four or five-leaf stage to reduce weed competition.

As an inexpensive, easy-to-kill companion crop, barley can protect sugarbeet seedlings during their first two months while also serving as a soil protectant during droughty periods (details below).

Pest suppression. Barley can reduce incidence of leafhoppers, aphids, armyworms, root-knot nematodes and other pests, a number of studies suggest.