Crimping/Rolling without a Crimper?

[MickT]

Has anyone tried the rolling baskets on the back of cultivators for crimping? Curious if they would work


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I don’t think it would have enough weight. Most crimpers are filled with water.


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[MNAaron]

Has anyone tried the rolling baskets on the back of cultivators for crimping? Curious if they would work


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I don’t think it would have enough weight. Most crimpers are filled with water.


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Would it work if it was on a three point with down pressure applied


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[yoderjac]

Would it work if it was on a three point with down pressure applied


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I have no experience using one. From the looks of them, they are meant to be towed behind a spring tooth or similar harrow that is heavy. It looks from pictures that they use springs to create down pressure from the weight of the harrow.

I wonder how much down force is needed to crimp. I have a leveling feature on my FEL that puts downward pressure on the bucket to follow the ground. I wonder if that would be enough pressure and one could build a crimper for the FEL that did not have weight?

Thanks,

jack

 

[MickT]

I doubt the baskets would hold up to much of this use.

But you can get decent termination by cutting the field low with a disc mower once the covers are in late bloom/early seedhead stages. I use a brush cutter on my weed eater to lay down the cover on my backyard garden.

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[MNAaron]

Does anyone use sickle mowers for terminating rye rather than crimping?


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[swat1018]

I have no experience using one. From the looks of them, they are meant to be towed behind a spring tooth or similar harrow that is heavy. It looks from pictures that they use springs to create down pressure from the weight of the harrow.

I wonder how much down force is needed to crimp. I have a leveling feature on my FEL that puts downward pressure on the bucket to follow the ground. I wonder if that would be enough pressure and one could build a crimper for the FEL that did not have weight?

Thanks,

jack

It works like a charm, as long as the rye if far enough along to crimp.

 

[Northwoods Whitetails]

One thing you need to keep in mind is the timing for cover crop termination, especially rye. I believe it needs to be fall planted so it will get to the dough stage in spring and crimp/flatten easily. The issue with mowing is the rye may try to grow back and smother the next crop. I believe it can be crushed with a cultipacker at the right time. If your spring planting for a fall rolling /flattening I would use buck wheat, sorghum sudan , sunflowers. Possibly add peas and / or crimson clover for nitrogen fixers. We are using the roller/crimper on some of our plots. But in others we are mowing the rye in early July and one shallow tiller pass in late July for the brassica plantings. The spring planted covers, we mow late July and one pass till for the fall rye/oats/red clover/pea/radishes (dbl tree mix).

 

[yoderjac]

One thing you need to keep in mind is the timing for cover crop termination, especially rye. I believe it needs to be fall planted so it will get to the dough stage in spring and crimp/flatten easily. The issue with mowing is the rye may try to grow back and smother the next crop. I believe it can be crushed with a cultipacker at the right time. If your spring planting for a fall rolling /flattening I would use buck wheat, sorghum sudan , sunflowers. Possibly add peas and / or crimson clover for nitrogen fixers. We are using the roller/crimper on some of our plots. But in others we are mowing the rye in early July and one shallow tiller pass in late July for the brassica plantings. The spring planted covers, we mow late July and one pass till for the fall rye/oats/red clover/pea/radishes (dbl tree mix).

Good point, and that is an issue for me. I plant a cover crop each fall that is typically WR, CC, and PTT. There are a lot of factors regarding when I need to plant in the spring. Soybeans and other attractive crops tend to have a much narrower window. Spraying may be the only option if the WR is too young. However, when I'm planting crops like buckwheat that have a wide planting window, crimping may be a good option.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I am not sure with your climate zone, and what your spring plantings will consist of, but I have spread sunflower, soybeans, and clover in the spring, into a young growing WR plot that was fall planted, with minimal effect of the winter rye shading out the crop. I just let the winter rye fall down on its own in July, and the spring crop was plenty thick by then to canopy in the fallen winter rye. Now I wouldnt do this if I depended on it for income, or if the deer "NEEDED" it to survive, but for the food plots I have, I just basically plant stuff, I dont terminate, spray, if I dont need to, usually just spot spraying for thistle. All I do it run a small disc into the winter rye when it is about 4 inches tall with the gangs straight to open spots for the seed to contact dirt, then let it go all summer, then Labor Day weekend I replant winter rye. By doing this my soil has thanked me!

 

[yoderjac]

I am not sure with your climate zone, and what your spring plantings will consist of, but I have spread sunflower, soybeans, and clover in the spring, into a young growing WR plot that was fall planted, with minimal effect of the winter rye shading out the crop. I just let the winter rye fall down on its own in July, and the spring crop was plenty thick by then to canopy in the fallen winter rye. Now I wouldnt do this if I depended on it for income, or if the deer "NEEDED" it to survive, but for the food plots I have, I just basically plant stuff, I dont terminate, spray, if I dont need to, usually just spot spraying for thistle. All I do it run a small disc into the winter rye when it is about 4 inches tall with the gangs straight to open spots for the seed to contact dirt, then let it go all summer, then Labor Day weekend I replant winter rye. By doing this my soil has thanked me!

I think it depends a lot on seeding rates and soil fertility. I've seen fields where the WR is 5' or more tall and too thick to walk through. I've also seen it only 12" tall and very thin when mature.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Mine matures at 5 foot plus.