Companion to rye

[Bowsnbucks]

What could be planted at the same time with rye that would make good deer chow, and thrive if one wanted to mow the rye several times to keep it tender and green (not go to seed) ??

 

[scott44]

Clover or a clover/alfalfa mix.

 

[chummer]

What could be planted at the same time with rye that would make good deer chow, and thrive if one wanted to mow the rye several times to keep it tender and green (not go to seed) ??

If you spring plant rye it won’t go to seed until the following spring. I spring and summer plant it all the time. No need to mow it. My experience is the deer won’t eat it until late fall anyway. Plant on the light side if doing it early because it will turn into a big clump for each seed.

 

[Someday isle]

My limited experience says fall planted rye with medium red clover is hard to beat. I usually mix in some ladino too as I’m trying to convert a couple trails to straight clover.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I should have said companion to spring-planted rye in the original post. My bad. I was looking for an option for spring planting that would feed deer all summer.

If we planted rye in the spring with red clover, about how many times could the plot be mowed to keep the rye low & lush/green/tender ?? Is that possible ?? ( keeping it lush/green/tender ).

 

[Tree Spud]

I plant red clover with the rye, helps with nitrogen fixing.

I haven't mowed my clover in 20 years, the deer do that for me

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I know rye GRASS gets a bad rap on here but what about ANNUAL rye grass. That would make more sense to me than spring planting cereal rye.

 

[yoderjac]

What could be planted at the same time with rye that would make good deer chow, and thrive if one wanted to mow the rye several times to keep it tender and green (not go to seed) ??

Mowing will set it back a bit, but won't really keep it from getting tough and less palatable over time. If it were me, I'd use an annual clover or short-lived perennial. Crimson, Berseem, and Medium red come to mind.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[chummer]

I should have said companion to spring-planted rye in the original post. My bad. I was looking for an option for spring planting that would feed deer all summer.

If we planted rye in the spring with red clover, about how many times could the plot be mowed to keep the rye low & lush/green/tender ?? Is that possible ?? ( keeping it lush/green/tender ).

My experience says the deer are not going to eat it until November. The only reason I plant it in the spring is I have bare dirt and extra seed. It will get eaten to the ground in November but I think it is way down the list on their preference the rest of the year. It will also get hit when it is the first thing to green up after the snow leaves.

 

[yoderjac]

My experience says the deer are not going to eat it until November. The only reason I plant it in the spring is I have bare dirt and extra seed. It will get eaten to the ground in November but I think it is way down the list on their preference the rest of the year. It will also get hit when it is the first thing to green up after the snow leaves.

I'm south of you guys but I don't see it as much of a summer food here. Deer love it spring or fall when it is very young but it grows fast in warm weather. Mowing can set it back but it doesn't make it much more attractive around here. I'd say seed heads of mature WR planted the previous fall get about as much attention as WR in the summer around here.

Durana only goes dormant for a few weeks here in a dry summer and doesn't go dormant at all during a wet summer. I would think that clover would be a much better summer food as long as it is not dormant than WR. There is no issue mixing them, fall planted for perennial or spring for annual. But I see WR as more of a companion to the clover than vise versa. The WR get attention while it is young and the clover is developing and can help keep weeds at bay, but once the clover gets going, it is a better bet during the summer around here.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I would say that IF you choose to spring plant Rye for a soil builder and a living mulch for a Throw and Mow fall plot that you spray the rye before it goes to seed. I learned early on in my TNM venture that if you broadcast brassica into standing mature Rye and mow it down you are left with a very thick stand of new Rye with little to no Brassica growing.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^ Thanks S.T. for that bit of info !!

We have loads of clover of various types planted around the property. The idea for rye in this instance was to maybe give some early spring & summer food, and to help drown out the foxtail in one area. I think we'll have to spray the foxtail area with cleth or gly, then seed something in there. The foxtail choked out the good seed (buckwheat) we planted there last year. I wouldn't normally think of planting WR in the spring - but I wondered if it may help stifle the foxtail. As a camp - we don't have much experience in farming and using "natural" methods to rid things like foxtail. I was wondering if you guys thought WR would put a damper on the foxtail, instead of spraying.

What about a mix of cereal rye and buckwheat this spring ?? What do you gents think ?? Both weed supressors. Or just wait until foxtail pops and then spray it ??

 

[yoderjac]

I've got weed issues too. Right now I'm trying to deal with Marestaiil which is naturally resistant to glyphosate. If I catch it young, 24D Ester or Amine will manage it pretty well. The problem is that the soil residual effect requires me to wait before planting soybeans. We have a fairly narrow soybean planting window. If we plant too early, cold soils are a real issue. If I wait too long, once fawns drop, my does and fawns won't let them get established.

So, last year, I sprayed 24D at the optimal time and then waited and planted buckwheat pretty thick. If the competition is killed and it gets a fair start, it will out-compete most weeds including foxtail. It does best with warm soil temps which is great for my case since I need to wait for the soil residual to resolve. My guess is that if you kill foxtail right before planting with glyphosate and plant a thick buckwheat crop, it will suppress the foxtail. It has to be thick enough to crowd out foxtail.

This year, I plan to mix buckwheat with sunn hemp and then drill a few rows of sunflower through it Sunn hemp is a legume like clover and should complement buckwheat well. I haven't tried this mix yet but it is one to consider. You would not need the sunflowers for your application. Sunn hemp is supposed to be both attractive and nutritious to deer and provide a lot of N and biomass for the soil.

Just one for consideration. I would always wait and plant buckwheat later. Your perennial clover should cover the early spring. I know I get too itchy to plant too early.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^ Jack - Not sure what you meant by planting foxtail later. We don't want ANY foxtail !!! That stuff happens on it's own, and it's a weed to us.

No experience with sun hemp. I never even heard of it planted around the camp's location.

Does 2-4-D have a residual soil effect ?? How long ?? We've never used that chem. at camp.

 

[yoderjac]

^^^^ Jack - Not sure what you meant by planting foxtail later. We don't want ANY foxtail !!! That stuff happens on it's own, and it's a weed to us.

No experience with sun hemp. I never even heard of it planted around the camp's location.

Does 2-4-D have a residual soil effect ?? How long ?? We've never used that chem. at camp.

I had foxtail on the brain. I meant to type buckwheat. Waiting until other weeds like foxtail have germinated and then killing them. 24D Ester and Amine both kill broadleaf weeds. I only use it if I have a particular weed that is problematic and not killed by gly like Marestail. Yes both have a soil residual effect. I think Amine is longer. If you look at the label, it say how many weeks you need to wait to plant soybeans. I don't know how much the soil residual affects other crops like buckwheat, but I used the soybean planting delay last year and had no ill effects on the buckwheat.

I'm not recommending 24D in your specific situation. I was using it as an example of how even with a problematic weed like Marestail that requires a chemical with a soil residual effect that delays planting, if you kill the weeds and plant a fast growing crop like buckwheat thick enough, it will usually outcompete the weed. Foxtail is easily killed by gly. Buckwheat will germinate at soil temps as low as 45 degrees, but 80 degrees is the optimal soil temp for buckwheat Here, we can plant buckwheat a late as the 4th of July. I've even double cropped it in the past, but to double crop it, I have to plant the first crop when the soil is pretty cold. That first crop is lethargic and slow compared to the second crop. The difference is the soil temp. I've stopped double cropping buckwheat. I now shoot for mid-June to plant buckwheat. Foxtail can go to seed by then here and I don't want that. So, if I had a foxtail problem, I would spray the field after the foxtail germinated with 1 qt/ac of gly. That is enough to kill the foxtail. Then, as soon as I broadcast the gly, I would spray the field again with 2 quarts/ac to kill everything else. This means the buckwheat is not competing with foxtail that has already germinated and forming roots. It will be competing only with foxtail seed and if planted in warm soils, will out-compete it and if you plant it thick, it will smother it.

Thanks,

Jack