Hi Everyone,
Great info and discussion on this site. I’m hooked. We started a new plot last year on our property. Started out mowing about a half acre, and spraying a week later. Planted PTT and WR (I love the acronyms you all use, finally got most figured out!) a week later, middle of August. Just broadcast on the surface. We were pleasantly surprised by the growth right away, but the deer wiped out every single turnip by gun season and the rye looked like a golf course.
This year we expanded the plot to 2 acres, But couldn’t get the equipment back there until August again. Same process, but this time we put down the seed and sprayed the same day (08/19) simply because we were running out of time to get it in. This year we did PTT and tillage radish.
Went and checked the plot today, and maybe half the plot is grown back up in grasses and lots of thistle. Basically it looks like we planted thistle thick in parts. Being mowed for the first time in probably 20 years, I’m sure those areas were just too thick with thatch for the seed to get to the soil, and I’m assuming spraying a week after mowing was just too soon to get regrowth and a good kill. The mowed layer is 5” thick in spots.
Personally I want to spray those spots again and put in a pile of WR, but in our area it won’t do much at this point for hunting season. The idea being to get it coming up thick again in the spring to smother things out. However a family member is set on tilling it up next spring and doing RR soybeans, and being our rye got to 5 feet tall this summer thought it would make it harder to till with all the plant matter. Does it make sense to till and go with RR beans for a season to help reduce the thatch layer? Would like to eventually start a no-till rotation, but it seems like the grasses from last year still weren’t decomposed and wondering if we are shooting ourselves in the foot by using the existing thatch starting out. Sorry for the long post, thanks for any insight!
Pictures:
-Rye from this summer
-Mowing the field
-General view of the plot as of today
-Some areas are coming in OK
Great info and discussion on this site. I’m hooked. We started a new plot last year on our property. Started out mowing about a half acre, and spraying a week later. Planted PTT and WR (I love the acronyms you all use, finally got most figured out!) a week later, middle of August. Just broadcast on the surface. We were pleasantly surprised by the growth right away, but the deer wiped out every single turnip by gun season and the rye looked like a golf course.
This year we expanded the plot to 2 acres, But couldn’t get the equipment back there until August again. Same process, but this time we put down the seed and sprayed the same day (08/19) simply because we were running out of time to get it in. This year we did PTT and tillage radish.
Went and checked the plot today, and maybe half the plot is grown back up in grasses and lots of thistle. Basically it looks like we planted thistle thick in parts. Being mowed for the first time in probably 20 years, I’m sure those areas were just too thick with thatch for the seed to get to the soil, and I’m assuming spraying a week after mowing was just too soon to get regrowth and a good kill. The mowed layer is 5” thick in spots.
Personally I want to spray those spots again and put in a pile of WR, but in our area it won’t do much at this point for hunting season. The idea being to get it coming up thick again in the spring to smother things out. However a family member is set on tilling it up next spring and doing RR soybeans, and being our rye got to 5 feet tall this summer thought it would make it harder to till with all the plant matter. Does it make sense to till and go with RR beans for a season to help reduce the thatch layer? Would like to eventually start a no-till rotation, but it seems like the grasses from last year still weren’t decomposed and wondering if we are shooting ourselves in the foot by using the existing thatch starting out. Sorry for the long post, thanks for any insight!
Pictures:
-Rye from this summer
-Mowing the field
-General view of the plot as of today
-Some areas are coming in OK
