Help with fall planting.

[omicron1792]

Most of my summer plantings have done well, and look something like this.




My original plan was to plant my fall planting first of October into this standing, but I just don’t think that is possible.

Should I cut this a couple of weeks before then plant into what’s left? I’m thinking of leaving some standing around edges, deer are bedding all in the fields. I am using a drill.

Suggestions?

 

[Rit]

You have a similar situation to what I had albeit my summer plots didn’t look as good as yours. Some of my sorghums were pushing 9’ tall. I thought I was going to have issues with drilling into them but I didn’t. It was a little tougher to locate my seed though. I had a fair amount of weed pressure so I wanted to spray one last time hopefully forever because I started having issues with Johnson grass, foxtail, and thistle. I didn’t have any issues drilling into the thick mess. My tractor and the drill knocked down quite a bit of the plot. Most of the summer forages (all but cowpeas) are starting to fizzle out. I had 4 days of rain coming that I didn’t want to miss. A little early to plant grains but I did anyway. My entire goal for all plots was to have an amazing stand of winter rye in the spring. I was broadcasting 100 lbs of WR on each plot regardless.

One concern I have is that my tractor tires pushed some of the summer crop flat and I’m not sure the new seeds will be able to push through it.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted to proceed. Because I live on my property when I planted it and how much at one time I planted doesn’t matter that much. So what I did was try a few things to see what will work best going forward. I plant 3 different plots. I planted half of each one a different way and I’ll go back in 10 days and plant the other half of each plot.

The first plot I broadcast WR then I drilled into the thick mess on half and walked away.

The second plot I broadcast WR then drilled into half, mowed down half of the standing forage on top of everything and walked away.

The third plot I broadcast winter rye into the standing vegetation. Mowed down 3/4 of the standing vegetation, and then sprayed right after.

Depending on how the plots look in 10 days or so will determine what I do with the other half of all the plots. I know I’d like to spray one half of one of the plots about 5 days before I drill into to see what happens.

 

[yoderjac]

Sunn hemp stems are hollow. If you have a heavy drill that will break the stems, that will kill it. If your drill won't handle that much trash well (like my little kasco) I'd mow about 2 weeks ahead. That would still be too much trash for my drill. With my fall plant of WR/CC/PTT, I mow, broadcast, and cultipack instead of using my drill.

It is kind of funny. When I got the drill, I tried to use it for everything. After a while, I learned that I was trying to apply a good solution to the wrong problem quite often. I now use the little drill for specific tasks: Drilling into clover, Planting Large seeds like soybeans and corn (which is now rare). I find that surface broadcasting and cultipacking is faster with most of the other seeds I plant. This is largely because of constantly needing to stop and clear trash from my drill. Again, with a higher end drill that handles trash well, it would be a different story.

Thanks,

Jack