Buckwheat vs. Winter Rye vs. Nothing??

[pointer]

I have a couple of areas where I'd like to expand a couple of plots. Not sure I want to bother with turning any dirt, so I plan on doing some version of a spray/throw/pray. I got the plots sprayed this past weekend with gly to hopefully nip the spring flush. I plan on getting at least one more spraying in before planting (or not) the end of May. Last year I had very good luck doing this with buckwheat. It did what I wanted and allowed me to overseed later in the year. The hangup I'm having is that the seed is kind of a pain in the butt to find and runs about $50-60/50# bag. I can get winter rye for under $20/bag.

So, my question is, if you were planning on seeding an area with winter rye/oats/clover in September, would you go with buckwheat, winter rye, or nothing this spring?

PS- Checking that your sprayer screens are clean makes things work better and faster... ;)

 

[IkemanTx]

In for the answers...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Personally Buckwheat would be ideal, being you already sprayed, if you dont plant anything, either you will have bare dirt, and that is never good, or you will have a field full of weeds again come fall. But just to get something down, will be better then nothing. Winter rye, oats, or what I usually do is a combination of a bag or winter rye, and a bag of black oil sunflower seeds. They are both cheap, and the deer will eat the sunflowers, and the winter rye will continue to grow.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

BW around here is $38 for a 56 lb. sack. And given it's ability to keep weeds down plus build soil with OM after it's rolled / mowed / sprayed - I'd plant the BW. You get deer food, OM builder, weed suppression, money saved on more spray, turkey food ( if you have turkeys - they love BW seed heads ).

 

[Diesel5610]

BW around here is $38 for a 56 lb. sack. And given it's ability to keep weeds down plus build soil with OM after it's rolled / mowed / sprayed - I'd plant the BW. You get deer food, OM builder, weed suppression, money saved on more spray, turkey food ( if you have turkeys - they love BW seed heads ).

I would vote for the Buckwheat also.

 

[dsinwi]

Plant the BW

 

[Corbin.clay]

I planted buckwheat followed by the mix you mentioned and it did great. My deer actually browsed the buckwheat heavily and forced me to plant fall mix a little early. Be sure to check on it late season, I was on the verge of developing weeds and bare dirt.

 

[Tree Spud]

I would allow the early weeds to green up and spray twice with Gly over a 2-3 week period in late April early May. I would then broadcast red clover & brassica (rape) that you can buy from your local feed mill. The clover will regenerate after mowing if you want to to do more weed growth control.

I tried buckwheat once and most plants were browsed before maturity. Planted in May and the food source was gone by end of June.

You can do an acre with red clover & brassicas for about $6-7/acre.

.

 

[rocksnstumps]

I planted buckwheat followed by the mix you mentioned and it did great. My deer actually browsed the buckwheat heavily and forced me to plant fall mix a little early. Be sure to check on it late season, I was on the verge of developing weeds and bare dirt.

Buckwheat is good but as noted would plant your fall mix sooner than sept or weeds may get a foothold after bw is done fairly early. Winter rye is tough to find in the spring until later in the summer at local co-ops here. I'd vote for bin run oats for under 10 bucks for 50 lbs instead.

 

[MojoRisin]

I would allow the early weeds to green up and spray twice with Gly over a 2-3 week period in late April early May. I would then broadcast red clover & brassica (rape) that you can buy from your local feed mill. The clover will regenerate after mowing if you want to to do more weed growth control.

Does the ground need to get to a certain temp to plant the rape?

 

[yoderjac]

I have a couple of areas where I'd like to expand a couple of plots. Not sure I want to bother with turning any dirt, so I plan on doing some version of a spray/throw/pray. I got the plots sprayed this past weekend with gly to hopefully nip the spring flush. I plan on getting at least one more spraying in before planting (or not) the end of May. Last year I had very good luck doing this with buckwheat. It did what I wanted and allowed me to overseed later in the year. The hangup I'm having is that the seed is kind of a pain in the butt to find and runs about $50-60/50# bag. I can get winter rye for under $20/bag.

So, my question is, if you were planning on seeding an area with winter rye/oats/clover in September, would you go with buckwheat, winter rye, or nothing this spring?

PS- Checking that your sprayer screens are clean makes things work better and faster... ;)

Where are you located?

 

[Tree Spud]

Does the ground need to get to a certain temp to plant the rape?

Mojo ... you are in a very cold zone. This time of year you may get germination on Brassicas, I think they may germinate when the ground reaches 55-60. unfortunatley this time of year ground surface temp daytime can be very warm, then night time temps drop and they would be exposed to a potential to late frost.

Winter rye in the late fall and clover would fare better. WR germinates as low at 32 deg F.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Like Rocksnstumps said at post #9 - Oats are good too. Nothing wrong with oats. And his point about planting your fall crop into BW before Sept is accurate as well. We plant ( over-seed ) our fall crop into BW the first week of August. You don't want to get back to bare dirt and no BW left. We roll the BW down and it gives some moisture retention to the newly seeded fall crop. Then it just decays down and into the soil as the fall crop grows through it.

Our locations and zones are all different, so planting times and seasons vary somewhat. A good plot/crop choice for Virginia or Kentucky may not be the best choice for Michigan or Wisconsin given the seasonal time frames. Also timing of the mowing/rolling and over-seeding of another crop may vary.

 

[pointer]

Thanks for the ideas/advice. I've added my location information, but the plots are in So. Indiana, zone 6a. The comments on not letting the buckwheat go to long are interesting. I planted them on Memorial Day last year and over seeded on Labor day. Yes, they were spent, but nothing had really taken off underneath them. I did get quite a flush of volunteer BW after overseeding with WR. This is what it looked like the end of Sept.


I really like what it did, just can't decide if it's worth the money... It does grow well. The best price/lb I've found locally gets close to $50/bag once it's shipped in as it's not a common local crop.