I was so excited about the summer plot mix I had designed as well as irrigation on some plots. Unfortunately, the plots were hammered and/or eaten up with some weeds (the bad kind!). So here I am approaching fall with plots that are still basically hard, dry red clay with nothing to mow. I desperately want to do no/minimal till, but I have no organic cover. Gonna plant every plot I have with a mix of red, crimson, and arrowleaf clover mixed with oats. Has always worked well for me and should give me organic mass for my spring plantings. Gonna run some brassicas as a pure strip down the center where I can. If it weren't for oats needing some depth at planting. I would just break the surface crust with the cultipacker for the clover and brassicas. Dare I do that anyway and see what the oats do? I was thinking about keeping the disc angle at 0 and cutting for the oats as an alternative. It's still so darn hot and dry down here, I may be planting too early, but since I can get water to a lot of the area, I'm gonna try a couple of weeks early this year.
Planting into bare dirt
- Thread starter WeedyJ
- Start date
That's my plan. I'll see what the heavy packer does first
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I've been dealing with the exact situation for years. I have heavy clay soil. When I first started I was using a 2-bottom plow and really put a hurting on my soils which were low in OM to start with. It has been a long road back to get to no-till. I've been doing something I call min-till. Bare clay with low OM will crust after a rain. Surface broadcast see has a hard time putting roots down through that crust. Even when I used a no-till drill at first for soybeans in the spring, the seed germinated below ground but had a hard time pushing through the crust.
Min till has worked well for me. In the spring, I would do it before I would use the no-till drill and in the fall I would use it before surface broadcasting seed.
I would use a 3-pt tiller for this. But instead of resting it on the skids, I use the 3-pt hitch to hold it so high the tines only hit the top inch or so of soil. It disrupts weeds to some extent and breaks the crust but is not deep enough to introduce oxygen deeper into the soil. It is the oxygen that speeds microbial action consuming OM. This allows water to infiltrate the soil as well. I then surface broadcast in the fall (or no-till drill in the spring) and then spray with gly if needed. If there is something growing in the field when I till, the field still looks green from a distance; not brown like deeper tillage or disking.
A cultipacker alone doesn't really break up the crust enough for me, but it is great to use after broadcasting. As for timing, I'm in 7a and I may broadcast PTT in the last half of Aug if I have time, but I wait until after labor day for fall planting. I start watching the weather about labor day looking for rain in the forecast. Then I plant.
Thanks,
jack
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I've heard that clay down there isn't like normal clay we'd think of anywhere else. You by any chance have a soil sample from it? I've never heard the rest of the story on that stuff.
I would skip the oats for this year, leave that soil intact, and plant rye instead. Throw in clover and chicory so you have something after the rye is gone, and some brassicas. Then come back with oats next year. If the rye doesn't take, and it gets eaten by birds or something, I'd keep spreading it until it does. Come spring, I'd also fertilize that rye when it's about 5" tall and really get that stuff to push roots.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
I'd make sure I had rye and radishes in the mix. Both will send down deep roots to loosen the soil. Oh, and a few bags of gypsum won't hurt a thing either.
Of all the things I have planted in a variety of soil conditions from deep tilled to minimal till, the oats and clover combos have always been stellar performers. I'll look at rye as ya'll suggest as well. I have never fertilized at green up in the spring, so I'll get that on the calendar as well!
Was gonna put a strip of radishes down the middle. and a light scattering in the clover. I had forgotten about gypsum. Used to put that in my yard. In the few areas that I HAVE been able to build matter, the soil changes remarkably fast! This is where the loggers cleaned house last year.
chucker66
5 year old buck +
I have not had good luck with oats on bare ground. The birds get to it too fast. Rye is a smaller seed and it germinated on pine stumps and truck beds so it works great. Plus you have something green right away in the spring. If I could only plant one thing it would be rye, if only 2 then rye and radishes. My 2 cents.
Chuck
Chuck
