Radish cover crop?

[ruskbuckss]

Has anyone used radish as a spring cover crop? I have been using oats/peas and it has worked good so far, but last year I had to spray and in spots it was hard to disc the weeds/clover/oats up good. I always love planting after a bean or brassica plot. Once with the disc and its done. I would think the radish would grow good early in the cool weather. Also following beans it should scavenge nitrogen and make it ready for the fall brassica. It would be cheaper than the oats/peas, and clover,cost only about $20 a acre. Thoughts?

 

[bueller]

^^^x2

I've tossed some radishes in my spring plantings and they bolted very quick. Also didn't produce much of a root for me when spring planted.

 

[Tap]

Won't work, they bolt. http://notillveggies.org/2014/06/19/what-happens-when-you-plant-forage-radish-in-spring/

There is one type of radish that you can spring plant, but I can't recall the name right now

Found it, Graza - https://smartstore.greencoverseed.com/productdisplay/graza-radish

I spoke with the folks at Green Cover Seed the other day. They told me that the Graza radish is a fodder radish and doesn't bolt. I ordered a few pounds to experiment with. I'll plant them in May, most likely.

SW Pa

 

[Tap]

I spoke with the folks at Green Cover Seed the other day. They told me that the Graza radish is a fodder radish and doesn't bolt. I ordered a few pounds to experiment with. I'll plant them in May, most likely.

SW Pa

Taken from the Green Cover Seed website...
Graza radish is specifically utilized for grazing purposes throughout the growing season. A traditionally utilized radish would flower if planted before the summer solstice but not Graza Radish. Graza can be planted any time of the growing season and provide a plant that will stay vegetative and avoid going reproductive. Allowing for amply grazing biomass through out your desire growing window. Even if you not grazing is not a goal, this radish could help provide an additional tap root to any spring mixture.

 

[Tap]

The Green Cover seed website also has something called SmartMix calculator. You enter zip code (sorry they ask for your location Mo:p), planting dates, and your priorities of 3 goals (high, medium and lowest priority). Then it offers countless combinations of seed mixtures, rates per acre, and calculates the effects of the mix on several factors (nitrogen fixation, weed control, grazing tolerance, etc, etc). It also gives bagging, mixing and shipping costs.
You can design mixes of as many or as few species as you want and as you enter different species, it shows how each addition changes the effects on goals by showing it on scales. This gizmo is pretty cool.
Here's the link directly to the SmartMix calculator. Have fun...
https://smartmix.greencoverseed.com

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

There was an outfitter in Minnesota that planted radishes every 28 days.