I think my rye is finally ready to drill beans

Bill

Administrator
Last year I drilled early. This year I wanted to drill in mature rye. Lots of mulch right there.

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Wow, you are planning for another drought?

Do you spray them when you drill? Seems like the drill would struggle to get through all that green stuff?

-John
 
I thought it would be impossible until last year. DGallow convinced me to try it. The drill runs right through it. Drill, spray, cultipack.

Lots of retained moisture and happy worms. Soil is never bare.

If we get torrential rain the dead rye holds the soil. If we get a drought the thatch holds the moisture.

One of these days I'm going to try Doug's multiple variety plantings. Tough for a weekend warrior. But I'll get the timing right at some point.
 
Actually I think i'd like to try a few cuttings this way.

Rye chokes out the weeds. Kill the rye and roll it. Poke in some cuttings and see what happens.
 
Bill, how are you planting your rye after you have grown your annual crop. You have allot of thatch on the ground plus your annual crop are you broadcasting? How do you ensure seed to soil contact with your rye?
 
Bill, how are you planting your rye after you have grown your annual crop. You have allot of thatch on the ground plus your annual crop are you broadcasting? How do you ensure seed to soil contact with your rye?

The rye actually rots pretty quickly. It should last until the beans able to shade themselves. By mid sept when the beans start yellowing it will be gone and I can broadcast rye again.

I just run the 4 wheeler with broadcaster right through the standing beans. It knocks some over but there are always plenty left standing.
 
Thanks Bill, I did not realize rye would decompose that quickly. Last year I drove over my soybeans when I broadcast and it worked well and plan to do the same thing this year. I'm thinking about adding coulters to my two row planter and trying the notill planting. If the rye decomposes so the cover crop will germinate it should work for me also.
 
wow, your rye looks amazing. i planted 4 acres of it this past year. planted way way too thin though and now the deer keep it mowed almost to the ground. it's no more than 4 inches tall.
 
Thanks Jason, I broadcast about 75 lbs/ acre in the beans.

Mo, yikes I didn't know what an army worm was til I looked them up. All I could find on them in MO is in the south east coming from Arkansas.
 
John, how tall was your rye when you planted in Minnesota this year. Mine was not more then 8" tall at best last weekend when I planted corn. I'll be planting my beans this weekend and it might be a little taller but not by much. I'm not certain if I could have even rolled mine this year. What do you typically see for height in when you plant?
 
Freeborn
Don't want to cut John off but if
I was there I'd drill your beans and spray the rye. No rolling. Just let it stand.

The deer won't find the beans until they are way above browse killing them.

It's a good spot to be in.
 
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