Technical Abstract: Continuous crop rotations with a diversity of species are essential for improving soil health and decreasing the impact of disease, weeds and insects. Soil water content and soil surface coverage by crop residues were studied in a crop sequence study carried out using no-till management. The experiment was set up in replicated matrices so that all combinations of ten crop species (sunflower, safflower, spring wheat, barley, flax, crambe, canola, soybean, dry pea, and dry bean) grown in strips one year were created by planting the same ten crops in strips perpendicular to the first year¿s crops the following year. We found that sunflower depleted the most soil water, dry pea depleted the least, and barley and crambe were the next lowest depleters of water on average. During a year of higher than average seasonal precipitation, the depth distribution of soil water depletion did not vary greatly among four crops. But in a year of average and a year of below average precipitation, both sunflower and canola depleted proportionally less water from above 60 cm depth, and proportionally more water from greater than 60 cm depth compared to spring wheat and canola. Root growth measurements made in a prior study indicated that the most deeply rooted crops (sunflower, safflower) depleted the most soil water. As a result of no-till management, soil coverage by residues was above 50% for most sequences of crops. However, dry pea-sunflower and sunflower-sunflower sequences yielded somewhat marginal levels of soil coverage in the range of 30% to 40%. Drought conditions coupled with sequences of lower residue-producing crops (sunflower and all three pulse legumes) have the potential for generating unacceptably low levels of soil protection.