Orchard floor plant communities: Multispecies cover crops in commercial almond orchards

Cover crops are an important tool for adding biodiversity to agricultural systems that are increasingly pressured by climate change and continued intensfication. In California, orchard cropping systems are widespread and uniquely impacted by drought and uncertain economic conditions. While the cash crop is growing in trees, there are significant amounts of land on the orchard floor beneath the trees that could be used to support orchard sustainability goals. Cover crops could be planted on the orchard floor with specific goals such as increasing soil health, increasing soil water holding capacity, providing floral resources for pollinators, or many other factors. Understanding how planted cover crops interact with resident vegetation on the orchard floor is essential for cover crop planning and vegetation management. The data here were collected in a two-year, three-site experiment in commercial almond orchards in the Central Valley of California. Two different five-species cover crop mixes were compared to standard orchard floor management practices. Plants were surveyed with point-intercept transect surveys seasonally, both within and outside of the winter cover crop growing season.