Table 1.

Descriptions of systems in the Salinas Organic Cropping Systems experiment in Salinas, California.

		–––-Cover crop–––-
System ID used in this Data in Brief article	System ID in PLoS One article1	Type2	Frequency3	Seeding rate4	Compost input5
1*	1	Legume-rye	4th Winter	3x	No
2*	2	Legume-rye	4th Winter	3x	Yes
3*		Legume-rye	Every Winter	1x	Yes
4*	3	Legume-rye	Every Winter	3x	Yes
5*	4	Mustard	Every Winter	1x	Yes
6*		Mustard	Every Winter	3x	Yes
7*	5	Rye	Every Winter	1x	Yes
8*		Rye	Every Winter	3x	Yes

¹System ID code used in the related article [1].

²By seed weight, the legume-rye mixture included 10% Rye (‘Merced’ Secale cereale L.), 35% Faba bean, (Vicia faba L.; small-seeded type known as ‘bell bean’), 25% Pea, ‘Magnus’ Pisum sativum L., 15% common vetch, V. sativa L., and 15% purple vetch, V. benghalensis L. By seed weight mustard included 61% white mustard, ‘IdaGold’ Sinapis alba L., and 39% India mustard, ‘Pacific Gold’ Brassica juncea Czern.

³Systems 1 and 2 were fallow all winters except the winter of year 4 and 8. All other systems were cover cropped every winter.

⁴The 1x and 3x rates in kg ha⁻¹ were 11 and 33 for mustard (61% ‘Ida Gold’ white mustard (Sinapis alba L.), 39% ‘Pacific Gold’ Indian mustard (Brassica juncea Czern.) by seed weight), 90 and 270 for rye (‘Merced’ rye (Secale cereale L.), and 140 and 420 for the legume-rye mixture (10% ‘Merced’ rye, 35% faba bean, 25% ‘Magnus’ pea, 15% common vetch and 15% purple vetch by seed weight).

⁵The compost was made from urban yard waste and the application rate (oven dry basis) prior to each vegetable crop was 7.6 Mg ha⁻¹. Two vegetable crops were grown annually in all years except year 8 when only one vegetable was grown.