Cover Crops ... Food & Soil Improvement

Been doing some more research.....and I find the termination of cereals (like my Rye) to be of considerable interest. It's important to time the termination in order to get the optimum mulch for my crops, and to prevent weeds, to preserve moisture and more. I think this paper may have most of the data on "when" to terminate the rye. Figure I should share.



EDIT: It appears that Penn State, Iowa University, and University of Wisconsin have the most trusted data on this topic. Some of this is relatively new.....so it pays to stay tuned to these studies. We are all learning.

OK.....not to beat a horse to death....but there is one more paper worth reading. (this stuff is hard to understand if you are not a farmer....grin).


Based on the links, they don't seem that confident in getting a near 100% rye kill with crimping. I can see how for food plotters a perfect kill may be not be that important.
 
If you are wondering about cover crop seed selection, very good session here.

 
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