rye/clover rates
- Thread starter Nova
- Start date
Smallplot
5 year old buck +
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
That sure sounds right to me.
Nova
5 year old buck +
This is how they looked after the last planting which is why I was hoping to find my notes on what I planted. This is the plot at 3 years old. Last year it was a little thin so I just added some rye and clover to it in the fall. It did thicken it up some, but this year again it's weak, which is why I am replanting all together. I think 2016(3 years old) it was at it's peak.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
Nice! Great pic! Love the green plot in the fall woods AND the buck is a beast! If it turned out like that before, you probably nailed the seeding rate, but again if it was thin in spots, maybe up the rate slightly as I said. It wouldn't cost that much more to add another bag or 2 of rye and a few more pounds of clover just to boost your seed rate a bit.
eclipseman
5 year old buck +
I literally just posted a thread like this and hope I do not get flack for doing a repeat thread. Sorry everyone. Anyways, from what I have read so far, it seems like 100lbs per acre rye is if you want a stand alone rye crop and may be too much for a nurse/cover crop to establish a new clover plot and could choke the young clover out BUT I honestly have no idea and is why I am asking as well in my own thread. I planted a plot last year of clover and oats and went heavy on the oats, needless to say the clover never came in this spring so I do believe going heavy can be a mistake.
Nova
5 year old buck +
Did you fall plant the clover and oats? Did the oats come back in the spring? If you didn't have a cover crop for the clover come spring it's very possible the clover got over browsed which is why it didn't take. You need the cover crop there to protect the young clover until it can get established.
I know I seeded the rye pretty thick last time and when I went to cut the rye down the following summer the rye was 5' tall and you couldn't see clover in it. once I cut the rye the clover took about 2 weeks to come back really strong.
eclipseman
5 year old buck +
I fall planted the oats with clover. Oats do not survive winter here in NY and they did not come back in the spring. The snow laid the dead oats over and created a thatch layer. I checked the oats/clover all fall and I did see clover growing early on but as soon as the oats were like 2 feet tall it was like it shaded the clover to much and they did not survive is my best guess. We do not have high browsing pressure here so I do not believe the clover was browsed early spring and that was the cause but I can admit I'm not certain of that. Anyways, all my info comes from the net and not from a lot of experience but from what I have read for nurse crops is to cut back by like 25-50% of typical monoculture plantings when trying to establish a clover field so if 100lbs cereal rye is the normal recommended amount then shouldn't you plant like 50-75lbs per acre with clover?
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
I told you that rate wouldn't do you wrong!
Glad to see them as lush and green as they are and I bet your deer will be glad as well!
bbcoach
5 year old buck +
Fall planted clover with WR is the ticket. Clover planted in the fall will build a good root system and not much top growth but will explode as soon as the weather warms in the spring. When you add a nurse crop of WR, it feeds the deer and turkeys through the fall and winter, hold the soil in place and pull nutrients to the surface to help the clover thrive. Come spring time most of the rye will be eaten to the ground and the clover will explode with top growth. If the deer don't keep the rye trimmed it can easily be terminated by mowing. Any rate of up to 100 lbs of WR per acre should be OK with clover for a nurse crop. The winter rye looks Good but I'm not seeing those 2 leaf clover seedlings though. The ladino should have germinated by now.
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yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Interesting. I use PTT as part of my fall cover crop mix along with WR and CC. In poor mast crop years, the deer will wipe out the turnips in the winter, but in good mast crop years I'll have plenty of turnips left over. I find I have to terminate them in the spring before they bolt and go to seed. I can see how they may get heavier use the further north you go where spring termination may not be necessary.
Another alternative to PTT is GHR for folks in my zone or further south. If deer don't eat them all, they rot by spring in my area and don't require termination. Deer will start on the tops of GHR as soon as they begin growing in my area. They generally don't touch turnip tops until after a hard frost and don't hit the tubers until Jan most years.
I keep my brassica component in the mix low, no more than 2 to 3 lbs/ac. I typically use GHR when I plant perennial clover because they don't need terminated in the spring.
Thanks,
Jack
