Forage Radish (Raphanus sativus) is a new winter cover crop in the Mid Atlantic region with potential to provide weed control in early seeded spring crops. The objective of this project was to characterize weed suppression during and after forage radish cover crops to better understand how they may be used in grain or vegetable cropping systems of the Mid-Atlantic region. Forage radish cover crops were grown and compared to a no cover crop treatment on two soils near Beltsville, MD in 2005 and 2006. In these experiments comparisons were also made to spring oat cover crops in 2005 and fall rye cover crops in 2006. Cover crop and weed growth was assessed using percent ground cover ratings, plant counts, and plant biomass during and after the cover crop growing season. Corn test crops were grown following the cover crops planted in 2006. When planted in August, forage radish cover crops emerged at the same time as the weeds but grew rapidly forming a closed canopy by the beginning of October, a month before spring oat and fall rye cover crops. Forage radish was killed by frost between November and February. During the winter, forage radish residues decomposed rapidly leaving a thin film of residue on the soil. Forage radish cover crops suppressed all weeds from the time they were planted in late August until April. Horseweed (Conyza canadensis) was suppressed following forage radish in April during the planting window for early seeded crops. When planted in early August, forage radish cover crops can be used to control weeds in the fall, winter, and early spring. They show potential to replace the use of a pre plant herbicide application and be incorporated into management strategies for the control of herbicide resistant horseweed.