Nurse crop

[yoderjac]

What would improve soil health more with a spring cover planting? Buckwheat or annual clover/ oats.

It is not that simple of which is best. Soil health requires a long term strategy. I want to preface this by saying that I'm not a soil scientist, and it is one of my weak areas.

What a particular soil needs will vary with the soil, but the following principals generally hold true.

First, do no harm. Deep and/or frequent tillage destroys soil tilth and introduces oxygen into the soil. This oxygen causes the microbes to consume OM much faster. Organic Matter (OM) in your soil provides an environment for the microbiome that promotes nutrient cycling. It also helps with water infiltration. Some highly fertile farming soils can tolerate tillage for quite some time before the impact are evidenced. This is especially true when high amounts of commercial fertilizer are added to make up for the last of nutrient cycling. Low OM has a larger impact on marginal soils like high clay or sand content soils. Read up on no-till/min-till methods on this forum. Next, never let your soil go naked. It should always have a vegetation cover. Bare soil is subject to wind and water erosion.

Soil health is not a one shot deal. It is a process that involves mixing and/or rotating a variety of crops that complement each other. Every plant makes a different contribution. I'll use Buckwheat and annual clover as an example since you listed them. Clover is a legume and it fixes nitrogen from the air into the soil and it become available for other plants as the clover dies. Buckwheat is a very fast germinating crop that smothers most weed competition that is starting from seed. (Note that is why we use herbicides with no-till so the weed competition does not have the advantage of an established root system). Buckwheat is sometimes called "Organic Manure". It scavenges nutrients from the soil. It like warm soil for germination. It only has 60 to 90 days of food value for deer. When it des, it breaks down very quickly releasing those nutrients for the next crop. Each plant has its own characteristics from a soil health perspective.

In order to improve levels of OM, it is best done top-down. This does not mean you just dump high OM material on top of the soil or rely on the part of the plant growing above ground. It means rather than adding OM on tip and then trying to disk it in (may burn more OM than you add depending on conditions), you grow your OM. This is essentially composting. Just like you mix high carbon and high nitrogen material in a compost pile (Browns and Greens), you mix or rotate crops that are high in carbon with those that are high in nitrogen. Some of the OM is produced on top when the plants die and desiccate, much is produced under the surface from the dying root systems. Mixing or rotating grasses (high Carbon) and legumes (high Nitrogen) will accomplish this but it takes many years. The good news is that there are great soil building crops that are also great deer food.

Other crops like Daikon Radish (GHR) have special properties. These for large deep roots and are often called "Organic Tillage".

Hope this provides some perspective.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Mnydir1]

Thanks that's some great insight. I want to do annual plantings. When do I add tillage radish/ daikon radish into the equation?

 

[yoderjac]

Thanks that's some great insight. I want to do annual plantings. When do I add tillage radish/ daikon radish into the equation?

Typically that is part of a mix for fall. This may or may not be appropriate for your area, but I'lll give you an example of what I've been doing lately. I have heavy clay soils and am located in Zone 7a.

Except for the last few years, I was using my Kasco no-till versa drill to plant RR soybeans with a light mix of corn (7 parts beans to 1 part corn). The corn was less for food than for some vertical cover. As soon as the beans started to yellow, I would broadcast a fall cover crop into the standing beans. I only fertilized for P and K needs and ignored N. Since the ground was clean under the beans, the seed would fall through the leaves to the ground. The leaves would then drop as they yellowed and form a mulch over the seed. It would germinate and grow in the standing beans.

The covercrop mix that worked well for my area was Winter Rye (100 lbs/ac), Crimson Clover (10-12 lbs/ac), and Purple Top Turnips and Groundhog Radish (total of 2-3 lbs/ac of these brassica). This mix is soil building and great for deer. WR and GHR provide the early attractant. The Crimson Clover acts as a reseeding annual in my area. Once we get a frost the turnip tops and in late season, they hit the turnip bulbs hard.


We ended up with a weed issue, Marestai. It is naturally resistant to glyphosate, so repeated use of gly favored it over other weeds. So, We had to adapt. In the last few years, I've been planting a mix of buckwheat and sun hemp in the spring. I've been using a generic form of Liberty for burn down now as it controls marestail. Because buckwheat like warm soil temps, I wait until late to plant. However, the WR and Crimson Clover bounces back strong in the spring. The Winter Rye is too old at this point to get much deer use, but they are in it daily for the Crimson clover. The WR keeps most weeds at bay until I'm ready to plant. The 50/50 mix of Buckwheat and WR is very quick to germinate and grow and smothers most weeds.

In the fall, I mow and surface broadcast and cultipack. Fall weeds are not problematic in my area. I get weeds in my fall plant but just tolerate them. Many of the broadleaf weeds are just as good as my crop as far as deer food goes. In the spring, I do use a herbicide to burn down, but that is largely because the Marestail problem I created. Ove the years, I've become much more weed tolerant. Some weeds can be really problematic and do need to be controlled, but in general I'm tolerant of weeds. For a farmer anything growing in the field other than his crop is a weed. It detracts from his yeild. For deer, we don't care about yield. Food plots are a tiny fraction of a deer's diet. The idea is to either attract them during hunting season or to provide supplemental food to smooth out the ups and downs of native foods during stress periods.

I'm to the point now where I'm not using any commercial fertilizer. While soil tests are a good starting place for the guy starting out, You will learn they are aimed at farmers not food plotters. We don't extract nutrients through harvest like farmers do. What deer eat is pooped back into the field. With healthy soil and good nutrient cycling, with a wise choice of crops that don't require high fertility and promote soil health, I get great deer food without the cost of commercial fertilizer. Keep in mind that I did get my P and K levels in the right ballpark to start and nutrients move quite slowly through my heavy clay. Folks with sandy soil may have to build OM for more years than I did as nutrients move quickly through sand.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I went fert free this year and so far it looks outstanding....probably should have done it several years ago

 

[Mnydir1]

I have very low levels of potassium. So I'm going to deal with that next spring right away.

 

[SD51555]

Barley, flax, annual clover. Broadcast it all when the lows stay above 20 in April or late March and walk away. Buckwheat needs warm soil. If you go that route, you're gonna have to let a lot of unintended plants get a head start on ya.

 

[yoderjac]

I went fert free this year and so far it looks outstanding....probably should have done it several years ago

I stopped a few years ago and I see no difference in crops or deer use. Who knows if this will be perpetual or not. If I begin to see issues, I'm not at all opposed to adding commercial fertilizer. The benefits have been great so far. Fertilizer was one of the largest costs to planting. I also needed to drive to the coop, get the buggy filled with fertilizer, drive back to the farm, hook up to the tractor go spread the fertilizer, and then return the buggy. All that time and money can now be applied to other QDM practices.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Barley, flax, annual clover. Broadcast it all when the lows stay above 20 in April or late March and walk away. Buckwheat needs warm soil. If you go that route, you're gonna have to let a lot of unintended plants get a head start on ya.

I'm far enough south that I'm on the ratty edge of being able to double crop buckwheat. I'd have to plant the first crop fairly early to squeeze in two crops. I always found that first crop was lethargic compared to the first. Buckwheat is frost sensitive once germinated, but it will germinate at quite low temps. But as I said, when planted in cold soils, the crop was lethargic compared to the second crop planted in warm soils. I think it will germinate with soil temps as low as 45 degrees or so, but I would not plant it with soil temps less than 65 degrees. The optimal soil temp for Buckwehat is 80 degrees.

I agree that a burn down is needed before planting it because weeds have a jump start. However, after a burn down, buckwheat will out compete most weeds with an even start. The OP is in MN. That is why I only gave my rotation as an example with the logic behind it. He should take specific crop advice from guys like you who are up north.

Thanks,

jack

 

[SD51555]

I'm far enough south that I'm on the ratty edge of being able to double crop buckwheat. I'd have to plant the first crop fairly early to squeeze in two crops. I always found that first crop was lethargic compared to the first. Buckwheat is frost sensitive once germinated, but it will germinate at quite low temps. But as I said, when planted in cold soils, the crop was lethargic compared to the second crop planted in warm soils. I think it will germinate with soil temps as low as 45 degrees or so, but I would not plant it with soil temps less than 65 degrees. The optimal soil temp for Buckwehat is 80 degrees.

I agree that a burn down is needed before planting it because weeds have a jump start. However, after a burn down, buckwheat will out compete most weeds with an even start. The OP is in MN. That is why I only gave my rotation as an example with the logic behind it. He should take specific crop advice from guys like you who are up north.

Thanks,

jack

You’da man Y2J!

He may not have anything to burn down if he had canopy.


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[Mnydir1]

 

[Mnydir1]

This is what it looks like after the clear cut

 

[Bassattackr]

By mowing the annual clover oat combo after you plant your perennial clover/chicory mix (don't leave out the chicory!!) you will get free annual clover and oat seed.

Do you do this TnM style? Curious how well this works if the stand is decently thick..

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Do you do this TnM style? Curious how well this works if the stand is decently thick..

Yes and all depends on rain. I wouldn’t plan on it working in and of itself. I’d make sure to plant a perennial when TNM in the fall.


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[Crimson n' Camo]

View attachment 32838

That soil look rich with OM.......