It does well on loams, sandy loams, or gravelly soils, as well as on fine-textured clay soils as long as there is good drainage. Although common vetch tolerates short periods of saturated soils, it does not tolerate extended flooding. Common vetch tolerates pH of 5.5-8.2, but optimum pH is 6.5. Its high dry matter and nitrogen accumulation, and the absence of hard seeds, make it an excellent winter leguminous cover crop in annual vegetable rotations. When planted alone, it can provide substantial amounts of N to the following crop.
Common vetch offers excellent spring weed suppression.
It also grows well in mixtures with cereal grains that can provide both cool-weather weed suppression and fall N scavenging. Common vetch has been used successfully as a cover crop in vineyards and orchards. In vineyards, common vetch is less likely to climb trellises than hairy vetch. Dry matter and N accumulation Fall planting date, weather, and choice of companion cereal crop, if any, can influence the quantity of vetch dry matter and N accumulation by spring. Since much of vetch's growth occurs in April and May, the longer the crop is allowed to grow before killing it in the spring, the more N is accumulated in plant tissues.