Standing rye plot ideas

[gunther89]

I have 3 standing rye plots(biggest is 1/2 acre). I'm thinking of broadcasting beans in one, turnips and radishes in another and the last one just brush hog and get volunteer rye. My question is when broadcasting seed into them, do you spray to kill anything before you plant the seeds and should I roll the plot after I seed it or brush hog it?

 

[SD51555]

Some have tried to seed into it and then roll it down. More have reported an impenetrable thatch rather than success. Some have spray killed it before it matured, let it dry down, seed, then mow, and have had pretty good results. Unless you have visible weeds, I wouldn't worry about spraying.

 

[wiscwhip]

As SD said, if you do not have any serious weed issues, you could forgo the spraying. In that case, wait until the rye matures(if you want a combo rye/whatever plot) and produces seed heads, then I would broadcast your seed of choice, mow the rye down and then cultipack after mowing. It seems like a lot of steps, but going over it with the mower and then the roller gives you the best chance of getting the seed through the "thatch layer" that SD was referring to. This method is very similar to what we did most years on our plots. If you have weed issues and feel the need to spray, it gets a little trickier trying to let the rye reseed itself. If you need to spray, you could spray it before the rye matures(or leave it mature and then spray to see if you get any volunteer rye, it may work just fine but I have never personally tried this method), broadcast into the standing rye, and mow/cultipack as before. If you have only had rye in this plot for one year prior to this, I don't see the "thatch layer" as being a real big issue, if you have 2 or 3 years of plant residue laying on the soil, then that is a very different story. If you are going to do beans and you want them to produce pods, you will not be able to let the rye mature, as that will be too late to get the beans in and have them produce pods. The beans should go in sometime in the next 2 to 3 weeks if you want pods this fall, rye will likely not produce mature seed heads until sometime between mid June or early July, much too late for bean pod production. Brassicas will be fine to plant after the rye matures, no issues there.

Or you could do as NoFo suggests and not worry about the free rye seed, because it generally is one of the cheaper seeds, and just terminate the rye through spraying or mowing and then plant your fall plots accordingly.

 

[gunther89]

This past year was the first time planting rye in these areas so I won't worry about the thatch layer. I plan on doing this in late June or early July and I don't plan on having pods on these beans. They were left over beans my father-in-law gave me and we already have 2 acres of beans in the ground as of yesterday. I am looking more for a early season plot that will be next to a small watering hole. It looks like my best option will be just to broadcast the seed, mow and roll the plots which is perfect for me. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[phil@thesidehill]

i'm in a similar boat to gunther in terms of what to do with the rye. I am strip plotting a basic but modified LC cereal/legume mix and LC brassica mix. I am pretty much a "no till" operation as a matter of lack of equipment. The entire plot is just over 1/3 acre. The strips of each component are about 7000 sq ft each. Last fall's cereal/legume mix (rye, oats, med red clover, crimson clover) is now predominately rye and crimson with some MRC as well...not sure how but it appears the crimson did not winter kill. My rye is about 24-26" tall and seed heads are forming and the crimson is blooming. These rye/crimson strips will be planted to the brassica mix (PTT, GHFR, DER) in mid July. I dont have access to a cultipacker, but i have access to a walk behind DR brush mower. I'm kinda thinking i need to terminate the rye sooner than later so that it can begin to break dry out and break down so i can mow/spray the remaining clover at the end of June/beginning of July and then broadcast my brassicas into the thatch. I have had plenty of success previously broadcasting brassicas into pretty thick killed sod/thatch, but i think the rye may form too thick of a thatch. I am also not sure what to expect in terms of the allelopathic tendency of the rye?

 

[dipper]

I let my farmer bale the wr early july to avoid any fawns and replant my fall mix by 7/20. Wr is cheap seed.

this will give you zero soil benefit, it will actually do nothing but deplete your soil. The farmer is walking away with your soil nutrients and fertility.
Remember rye is efficient at sucking nutrients from the soil, when they might not readily available for other plants. I strongly suggest against this management. Unless you are dumping massive amounts of organic material back, do not do this!

 

[SD51555]

i'm in a similar boat to gunther in terms of what to do with the rye. I am strip plotting a basic but modified LC cereal/legume mix and LC brassica mix. I am pretty much a "no till" operation as a matter of lack of equipment. The entire plot is just over 1/3 acre. The strips of each component are about 7000 sq ft each. Last fall's cereal/legume mix (rye, oats, med red clover, crimson clover) is now predominately rye and crimson with some MRC as well...not sure how but it appears the crimson did not winter kill. My rye is about 24-26" tall and seed heads are forming and the crimson is blooming. These rye/crimson strips will be planted to the brassica mix (PTT, GHFR, DER) in mid July. I dont have access to a cultipacker, but i have access to a walk behind DR brush mower. I'm kinda thinking i need to terminate the rye sooner than later so that it can begin to break dry out and break down so i can mow/spray the remaining clover at the end of June/beginning of July and then broadcast my brassicas into the thatch. I have had plenty of success previously broadcasting brassicas into pretty thick killed sod/thatch, but i think the rye may form too thick of a thatch. I am also not sure what to expect in terms of the allelopathic tendency of the rye?

That's about the same size as our plot. I think the sooner you zap it with the mower the lesser the thatch problem. As far as the allelopathy is concerned, book says max is 30 days. The sooner you kill before maturity the lesser that effect.