The effect of the winter cover crops rye, oat, ryegrass, vetch and fodder radish (and their mixtures) in no-tillage systems was investigated on soil cover, cover crop biomass and summer weed biomass during the critical competition stage with common bean. Bean yield was also evaluated. The experimental design was randomized complete blocks and four repetitions. The highest soil cover during winter was observed in the treatments rye + vetch, rye + vetch + fodder radish and oat + vetch. The highest values of cover crops biomass production were observed in the treatments rye + vetch + fodder radish. Weed suppression was higher in the ryegrass monoculture and in the rye + vetch + fodder radish association, and there was no correlation between cover crop biomass and summer weed suppression; the best bean yields were achieved with the following treatments: ryegrass in monoculture, oat in monoculture and rye + vetch, producing 1,950, 1,730 e 1,790 kg ha-1 respectively. The monocultures of ryegrass and oat showed the lowest costs with seeds and the highest economic returns.
no-tillage; spontaneous plants; yield; soil conservation
