Fall plan after spring failure

[H80Hunter]

So, not a big deal but I had my first failure. Have a small plot in the woods that I sprayed a couple times this year with a good kill. I broadcast buckwheat and packed with the utv tires but I didn’t get good germination despite plenty of rains my best guess is that the soil was a little too crusted or compacted on the top. It’s not ridiculously crusted but the buckwheat failure had to be caused by something and that’s the only thing that makes sense.

I was planning to throw and roll the LC rye mix into the buckwheat but now that’s out. This is a small (1/5 acre kill plot in the woods). Given my equipment my best options are:

— bring in the hand tiller and till, seed, pack with UTV tires (it’s too narrow in spots to effectively maneuver the utv drag harrow). This wouldn’t be fun but I could knock it out in a day. Could also rake by hand?
—nuke it with gly early August, leave the peas and oats out of the mix, seed rye very heavy (and clover) and walk away. Then follow up with over seeding throughout the early fall before rains. I live here so it would be easy. The only reason this choice isn’t a no brainer is because the buckwheat failed. I fertilized and limed when planting so that shouldn’t be it either.

What do you think my odds are of just brute force seeding rye repeatedly as a means to get something green and start improving the soil?

 

[H80Hunter]

One more thing: I'm leaning towards dragging the walk behind tiller out there but I'm not sure if I should till and plant same day, or till and let it sit for a couple weeks, then spray, seed and pack with the tires. I won't till the soil into oblivion but just break up the top layer a little bit to get better seed to soil contact. Thoughts on any of this?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Timing will depend on your location. Brassica, clover, and cereal rye wont require any tillage. You may however want to plant a week earlier than normal and up your rate by 25-50% I would spray, seed, and roll/pack all in the same day. By waiting to spray the same time you seed it will allow maximum growth of the plants you will be rolling down. And as always try to time with a good rain in the forecast.

 

[H80Hunter]

I would have thought buckwheat wouldn’t require tillage though?

That said I think rye is failure proof so maybe I will just seed rye and clover and pack with the tires. I’ll follow up with periodic overseeding. Sure would be easier than the walk behind tiller.

 

[H80Hunter]

I would think if I seeded 100 lbs of rye and 12 lbs of clover, packed with tires before a rain, and then came with with 100 lbs per acre in front of a couple more rains I'd have a thick stand of rye (maybe too thick in the spring). If I choke out the clover with too much rye, I'm not super worried about it because it's a small kill plot, I can spray and re-evaluate next year.

 

[BobinCt]

I would till up now, wait for weeds to germinate in a few weeks , spray , seed and pack in the same day right before a rain. It sounds like you have compaction issueS with the Buckwheat and when that doesn’t grow good, there is definitely compaction issues cuz it’s the easiest to grow. I’ve seen my friends plot do the same thing and it was due to compaction. Therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to throw a little Radish in there too to help with the compaction. There is more than one way to do plots as we all know. Not saying my choice is right, but it’s how I would approach it. Good luck

 

[SWIFFY]

You sure dont need 200 pounds of Rye on 1/5 acre!!

Id try your brassicas too, why not? Seed them around august 1st and see what happens. Put down about 20 pounds of rye with your clover on the 1st of Sept. I dont see why youde need more seed than that. None of it should need tillage. You could just scratch it with a drag section if you have that? I often do that with small seed if theres not a good thatch bed.

FWIW ive never had good luck with Buckwheat either unless i have good thatch and wet. Its always best if slightly buried from my experience.

 

[H80Hunter]

I didn't mean 200 lbs total I meant on a per acre basis. Sorry there haha.

Thanks guys.