Leaving WR and Clover?

[SD51555]

It is prevalent in my neck of the woods! Deer absolutely love it too! Do you think the ragweed will come back after each mowing?

If I were a betting man (and I am) I would expect your ragweed to start losing ground to something else after another year if you keep doing what you're doing. It seems to boom in the right conditions, then it does it's job, and other things then come along. I don't have it on my place, but a friend of mine gets it thicker than sh*t where he's got lots of compaction and grazing pressure. It's about the only thing that will grow in that spot.

Once you have a crop or two of it, and you leave the residues on the surface, you're going to get a good beetle population that's gonna come in and devour your ragweed volunteer seeds in a few days. That may be why the patch peters out after it's best year. But there needs to be a home for the critters that wanna eat the seed.

Promoting Weed Seed Predation and Decay | eOrganic

eorganic.org

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I appreciate it fellas......

Anyone who goes back to read that thread take it all with a little grain of salt and keep in mind that most of that was documenting experiments that were being done in real time......so thinking changed and evolved over time.

 

[omicron1792]

I appreciate it fellas......

Anyone who goes back to read that thread take it all with a little grain of salt and keep in mind that most of that was documenting experiments that were being done in real time......so thinking changed and evolved over time.

What are your thoughts on the whole process now?

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I dont guess I have any real deep thoughts on it right now........Just keep it simple and dont over complicate things is the best advice I have.

 

[bigboreblr]

You can leave the rye for this summer and have some weed control with 2,4D. Too much can kill it, it will beat up the clover. If the rye is too tall, you may not get enough 2,4D down to shorter weed growth.

I put rye in my little food plot in my backyard this past fall. There's weeds in it, but i'm ok with it. Over the winter there wasa thread about plantain. I have a ton of it now, tried to get a pic of it back then. The deer ate it to the ground.

Was going to post a thread about palatability if kept mowed, but I'm going to try to leave it all summer. This is no man's land though. Live next door to the in-laws, the parcel between us is vacant, but full of opinions and devoid of help. I'll see if the peanut gallery can tolerate it.

 

[williams111]

I would let it go until you are ready to plant again....or let it go and just mow it in August (or whenever the rye seed becomes viable in your area) to get another free crop of rye.

Here is my experience with that method in Upper Michigan...

I am in the same boat with SD and Foggy - This is one of my cover crops yesterday - May 11th. Of course our snow has only been gone for about 3 weeks...I will let this grow until July when I will terminate it and plant brassicas. Of course those brassicas will include some clovers and a month later I will broadcast rye over it so it will become a cover crop next year...
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Here is a cover crop from a previous year on May 26th
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June 11th...
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August 7th - Some of the rye seed is viable enough to germinate so I mowed it with my brush hog to scatter the seed. Had I let this go another week or so - probably all of the rye seed would have germinated and I would have had a very thick stand of rye.
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August 16th - 9 days after mowing
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You can see the rye seed has germinated and is growing well right along with the clovers...
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August 30th - 23 days after mowing I've got another beautiful cover crop which will continue to feed my wildlife for another year if I choose. This - with no additional inputs - no fertilizer, no additional seed - no herbicides - no nothing. All I did was mow this approximately 1 year after planting the original cover crop. I could almost do this indefinitely - although adding some chicory would probably sweeten it up if I wanted it to be perennial.
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When and how would you add the chicory at this point? I am debating doing this. I have a stand of rye/clover leftover from last year. I was thinking broadcasting chicory in August/september then mowing everything overtop of the seed

 

[Wild Thing]

When and how would you add the chicory at this point? I am debating doing this. I have a stand of rye/clover leftover from last year. I was thinking broadcasting chicory in August/september then mowing everything overtop of the seed

I have never added chicory after the initial planting but I suppose if I wanted to I would either try frost seeding it in late winter-early spring, or drilling it into the cover crop before it got too tall. Broadcasting may work to some degree but I don't think you would get maximum germination like you would by drilling it. Your suggestion of broadcasting the chicory seed and then mowing over it would probably have some success, but that would probably be my third choice after drilling it or frost seeding it.

Best of luck.

 

[Diesel5610]

I did the same rye/clover cover crop method Wild Thing documented last year on 2 plots. Mowed them in August and the whole process repeated. The deer and turkey loved that standing rye all summer, they had beds and trails all through it. I jumped bedded deer out of it every time I checked them. Easy and low maintenance and it builds a great layer of mulch on the soil.
The plots look the same this year and will be getting another mowing in August for the free rye seed. I will probably roatate them to something else next spring.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I am keeping one half acre plot of various kinds of clover and rye as a cover plot until late July/August when I will mow it low when I plant my fall brassicas. The does and fawns love it and it is adjacent to a lower-cut plot that will be more for food than cover. Already scared a couple fawns out of it (not on purpose) and had a well developing buck cross the food plot the other day…just gotta keep them in the area for the fall.

 

[Snoop]

Based on the above responses I‘m going to let this go until August & replant the same for another go around.
Less work plus building OM that this rocky soil needs & I see no downside.

 

[Foggy47]

Kinda where my 8 acres of plots are at. Mostly Winter Rye and Clover. Rye was drilled in late August.....and I added some red and white clover to the existing clover at that time. Took this pic the other day. Rye is about knee high now. A little behind last year. It is weak in a few places due to wet conditions this spring.