Rye Talk

[SD51555]

So the brother and I were discussing our plot for this year and what we should do. It was rye/radish last fall. One idea he suggested was to mow it throughout the summer before it hit soft dough stage to keep it growing and palatable. Could that work to keep it going into next fall? If that worked, would there be room to overseed some brassicas into it?

Or do we let it go to maturity and mow it to redistribute the seed along with some big leafy brassica? I suppose that could negate the need to spray this year.

 

[sandbur]

My gut feeling is that it would take lots of mowing to keep it short and palatable, especially if your deer numbers are still low.

Are you talking about the Boy river area? Those woods deer reach a point where all of the new growing vegetation in the woods is attractive.

Have you considered a spring planting of rye? It would stay short and green for a longer period.

 

[bueller]

If you want brassicas in there this fall I think you should spray and terminate your rye when it's 12-18" tall if it's coming in thick. If it's a thinner stand you could wait even longer and then roll it after broadcasting brassica seed. I've had pretty good success spraying gly over the rye and weeds/grass, broadcasting brassica seed, and then rolling the rye and weeds/grass over the brassicas. This way you get the benefit of a pretty darn clean seed bed and the rye protects the soil moisture and young brassica plants.

 

[wiscwhip]

Once it starts to produce a floral stem and the seeds start to form(even to soft dough stage), if you mow it, it will slowly become more and more unpalatable, just as if you would have let it go to seed, albeit more slowly. As sandbur said, it would take early and frequent mowing to keep in in a palatable growth stage. Once it does start to go into seed production stage, the plant pushes all carbs(sugars) to the newly forming stem to feed the seedheads, and slowly begins to senesce, turn rank, and die. I think a better option would be to let it seed out, broadcast your brassica into the standing rye(maybe broadcast a bit more with the brassica if you don't think it will come back thick enough), and then mow it to reseed the plot with free rye and cover the brassica seed. You could even roll it down with a packer instead or in addition after mowing it to ensure the seed gets soil contact. This was our standard practice on our place the last few years we owned it. It worked great to keep something in the sandy plots during the dry months of July and August. Turkeys and does with fawns love tall standing rye and I have seen both eating the seedheads.

 

[sandbur]

Whip says it in a much better way than I do!

 

[SD51555]

Appreciate the input guys.

 

[wiscwhip]

Whip says it in a much better way than I do!

I'm just a long-winded SOB, that's all!;)

 

[SD51555]

That's probably what we'll end up doing. It was pretty thick last fall, and i imagine we'd have an immense amount of duff and far too much seed. Now I just have to figure out what to plant after that.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

If one was to do as the above - broadcast brassica seed, mow, then roll the rye - what would you guys do for fertilizer for the brassica ?? Doesn't rye - like other grains - deplete the N from the soil ?? I'm no farmer, but I'm trying to learn the smart ways to plant plots at camp without spending lots of $$$ on fertilizer.

 

[bueller]

If one was to do as the above - broadcast brassica seed, mow, then roll the rye - what would you guys do for fertilizer for the brassica ?? Doesn't rye - like other grains - deplete the N from the soil ?? I'm no farmer, but I'm trying to learn the smart ways to plant plots at camp without spending lots of $$$ on fertilizer.

I have poor sandy soil so I add nitrogen and potash at seeding (phosphorus levels already high) and then top dress more nitrogen (urea) once the brassicas are 4-6" tall.

 

[wiscwhip]

It is taken up into the plant tissues, so when the rye residue breaks down, it returns the nutrients to the soil via OM. Due to it's relatively deep root system, it is very efficient at "mining" other nutrients from deeper in the soil profile than some other plants as well.

 

[SD51555]

I'll take a stab at this one...

It ties it up longer than other forms of organic materials like clover or peas. It's higher in carbon so it breaks down more slowly. Also depends if it lays on top of the soil in large pieces or gets chopped up and tilled under.

(Did I get close?)

 

[wiscwhip]

Very!!! But as you said, it is still returned to the soil eventually, as long as the crop is not removed from the field.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We won't remove the rye from the plots. If we do anything to it after mowing, it would be chopping it up with discing. We want to add as much O.M. as possible for nutrients and improving soil tilth.

Our soil is a heavier clay-ish loam, but it drains well - no pooling, standing water. If we broadcast brassica into the rye, mow it, then roll w/ cultipacker - should that work for establishing the brassica for the fall/winter ?? ( allowing the rye to form seed heads ) We have some rye we planted last fall - thus this question. It's greening up now, deer feeding on it.

 

[SD51555]

Ack! I've been feeling like I should have my plot cam out too to capture green-up plot activity.

 

[SD51555]

Very!!! But as you said, it is still returned to the soil eventually, as long as the crop is not removed from the field.

I went back to my rye book and it said the roots alone can hold 25-50lbs of residual N per acre

 

[wiscwhip]

We won't remove the rye from the plots. If we do anything to it after mowing, it would be chopping it up with discing. We want to add as much O.M. as possible for nutrients and improving soil tilth.

Our soil is a heavier clay-ish loam, but it drains well - no pooling, standing water. If we broadcast brassica into the rye, mow it, then roll w/ cultipacker - should that work for establishing the brassica for the fall/winter ?? ( allowing the rye to form seed heads ) We have some rye we planted last fall - thus this question. It's greening up now, deer feeding on it.

This is what we did for many years on our plots, we had good luck using ppt and gfr for the brassica component when we did this.

 

[wiscwhip]

I went back to my rye book and it said the roots alone can hold 25-50lbs of residual N per acre

;)

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Many thanks gentlemen, for the good info.

 

[SD51555]

It's been a while since we had a good talk about rye.