The Throw n’ Mow Method

[Ben.MN/WI]

Just don't plant multiple squash varieties too close together if they flower at the same time. The squash you grow this year will be fine, but if you keep the seeds you might end up with a cross bred frankensquash next year when you plant those saved seeds.

These are pretty common in my compost pile where I dump seeds from squash that we ate. I've tried eating some of these squash and they generally keep the crappy traits of both parent plants. The wildlife will readily eat these hybrids though.

 

[matinc]

Foggy you misunderstood. I am happy you have your equipment and you use it. More power to you. I know you have worked your ass of for the habit improvements you have made. You have done way more than most demo rats ever have. I'm Maga through and through. 18 days and counting. Turning 61 and doing this for the past 30 years I was faced with the choice buy a tractor n drill or find a new path forward. When I found out my OM was now .9 the disc was thrown out. SD showed me the way forward and the crimper was that way and throwing of seed. Spending less time in my fields with a 2.5 hour drive now works for me.

 

[SD51555]

Just don't plant multiple squash varieties too close together if they flower at the same time. The squash you grow this year will be fine, but if you keep the seeds you might end up with a cross bred frankensquash next year when you plant those saved seeds.

These are pretty common in my compost pile where I dump seeds from squash that we ate. I've tried eating some of these squash and they generally keep the crappy traits of both parent plants. The wildlife will readily eat these hybrids though.

You bring up a really good point. I’m gonna have 1 new plot, and 1 plot expansion next year. I can certainly grow 1 kind in each plot. 2 of my current 4 are already mostly set up with the right species to manage as throw and roll plots now. The third will be set up that way.

I’m pondering a reset on the other 2. They are getting long in the tooth and will need some intervention to straighten them out. I don’t know if that means a full reset with gly, or a selective cleanse with Imox.

The fun part is, where I have new dirt, I can plant a lot of pumpkins.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigboreblr]

SD,

You think medium red clover is a agressive clover far as planting it in rye?

Anybody play with the green cover Milpa blend? I got a 3 year old bag with about 15-20lbs of the stuff left in it.

Anyone have some sorghum or sorghum/milo mix pictures. When did you plant? I might need some extra time with spring flooding in that spot and might do a post tillage seed bank spray mid may. Till / harrow / cultipack. then spray what comes up in 3 weeks, then lightlly harrow to mix seed in / cultipack. lots of crabgrass seed in there. did rye n clovers this past year, before that it was lawn.

Seed drills are great, expecially with drought issues. Its a tough sell for some. Some folks need to upgrade their tractor ontop of the drill. Also, some folks have to truck in their tractors.

 

[SD51555]

SD,

You think medium red clover is a agressive clover far as planting it in rye?

Anybody play with the green cover Milpa blend? I got a 3 year old bag with about 15-20lbs of the stuff left in it.

Anyone have some sorghum or sorghum/milo mix pictures. When did you plant? I might need some extra time with spring flooding in that spot and might do a post tillage seed bank spray mid may. Till / harrow / cultipack. then spray what comes up in 3 weeks, then lightlly harrow to mix seed in / cultipack. lots of crabgrass seed in there. did rye n clovers this past year, before that it was lawn.

Seed drills are great, expecially with drought issues. Its a tough sell for some. Some folks need to upgrade their tractor ontop of the drill. Also, some folks have to truck in their tractors.

I don't. I've had one full cycle with a big stand of medium red. I've found it syncs up perfectly with rye in terms of planting time, and self termination the following year. I think they are both stronger together, but be sure to get your seeding rates correct.

The one challenge I see with my throw and roll is seed heads that do not shatter. I was fully expecting a bumper crop of volunteer clovers from all the seed I laid down, and here's what I think really happened:

Red clover - seeds got stuck in the dried flower heads and never hit the soil.
Balansa - same
Yellow sweet - too much hard seed. YSC is not autotoxic like alfalfa and thistle, so that's about the only other conclusion I can come up with.

 

[matinc]

SD by roll do you mean crimp

 

[matinc]

SD albert lea cc9 have you ever planted that combination

 

[SD51555]

SD by roll do you mean crimp

Yes.

 

[SD51555]

SD albert lea cc9 have you ever planted that combination

I have not, but it looks eerily close to what I've been using. Swap out mammoth red for medium red, and alsike for balansa, and add chicory, and you're right over the target. If a guy didn't want to make his own like what I'm blending, I would try this. The price is really good too, vs blending 1 lb bags from green cover. Green cover has gotten a little crazy on their 1lb bag prices.

 

[Foggy47]

Foggy you misunderstood. I am happy you have your equipment and you use it. More power to you. I know you have worked your ass of for the habit improvements you have made. You have done way more than most demo rats ever have. I'm Maga through and through. 18 days and counting. Turning 61 and doing this for the past 30 years I was faced with the choice buy a tractor n drill or find a new path forward. When I found out my OM was now .9 the disc was thrown out. SD showed me the way forward and the crimper was that way and throwing of seed. Spending less time in my fields with a 2.5 hour drive now works for me.

OK....maybe I did misunderstand what you were saying. Either way...no problem. We're good. Some days catch me a little grouchy. lol

 

[omicron1792]

SD,

You think medium red clover is a agressive clover far as planting it in rye?

Anybody play with the green cover Milpa blend? I got a 3 year old bag with about 15-20lbs of the stuff left in it.

Anyone have some sorghum or sorghum/milo mix pictures. When did you plant? I might need some extra time with spring flooding in that spot and might do a post tillage seed bank spray mid may. Till / harrow / cultipack. then spray what comes up in 3 weeks, then lightlly harrow to mix seed in / cultipack. lots of crabgrass seed in there. did rye n clovers this past year, before that it was lawn.

Seed drills are great, expecially with drought issues. It’s a tough sell for some. Some folks need to upgrade their tractor ontop of the drill. Also, some folks have to truck in their tractors.

I do a ton of sorghum but my plots in Alabama might not be very helpful for you. It’s the main grass I use in the summer

 

[Mortenson]

We saved back seeds from 15 different types this year. Some of them will grow those odd squash cross breeds, but some always seem to grow something near the parent, or at least something kinda interesting. Most of these will be backups since the kids get new seeds for Christmas gifts. Anything leftover will get hand planted in our bigger brassica plots.

We must be lucky here. Turnips and rye are still getting the job done. Stumbled across our first shed before the new year while reloading cams for the winter push.

 

[matinc]

SD is that how your making your mixtures by the pound with green cover?

 

[matinc]

SD I'm gonna call albert lea and see if I can get a mixture of balsana medium red ysc Alfalfa and chickory made. Would you add or change this menu.

 

[matinc]

SD what would the percentage of each seed mixture be.

 

[TreeDaddy]

We saved back seeds from 15 different types this year. Some of them will grow those odd squash cross breeds, but some always seem to grow something near the parent, or at least something kinda interesting. Most of these will be backups since the kids get new seeds for Christmas gifts. Anything leftover will get hand planted in our bigger brassica plots.

We must be lucky here. Turnips and rye are still getting the job done. Stumbled across our first shed before the new year while reloading cams for the winter push.

View attachment 72677View attachment 72678

Looks like ya got some good help there,Mort

bill

 

[SD51555]

SD is that how your making your mixtures by the pound with green cover?

Yes. I was anyway. The current prices are crazy looking. To make that blend with GC, it'd cost close to $90 for 5 lbs. That Albert Lea mix is $25 for 5 pounds.

SD I'm gonna call albert lea and see if I can get a mixture of balsana medium red ysc Alfalfa and chickory made. Would you add or change this menu.

If I could custom make it, here's how I'd structure the establishment blend:

20% balansa
20% yellow sweet clover
20% red clover
20% alfalfa
20% chicory
1 bushel/ac winter trit

 

[bigboreblr]

SD, seed, then mow, them cultipack/crimp? crimping of course is negated by mowing.

Kinda hate mowing clover. There's a million bees in that clover. On a good note when I mow it looks like a miniature stampede with the 100's of voles running for their lives. Thinking the screen n stone mats around the apples are doing their job at my house.

Spent way too much on ra reloading setup and went overboard on apple trees again. I gonna run down my berseem, ladino, medium red mix 25ish lbs. I prefer to do straight medium red at camp anyways. Got a bunch of crimson clover too, maybe 20lbs.

I forgot if you had a drill or not SD? I'm still on the homemade drill wagon. Got a double row 2.5ft wide disc setup. Front lined up with read. one cuts a trough, th other closes it up, and has depth wheels. Just got to mount the seed boxes. Large and small ones. Might replace the depth wheel with concrete filled tires to press down the 8 inch spaced rows.

Next order I will try alberta lea eed, there's a seed distributor along my ride to work. Really not sure if by brother in law uses medium red clover or not. He might have a few pallets of it. I can get free rye from him, but I like to help out one of his friends seed n feed store in town.

 

[SD51555]

SD, seed, then mow, them cultipack/crimp? crimping of course is negated by mowing.

Kinda hate mowing clover. There's a million bees in that clover.

However you have to get it in to get it going, do what works for you. All my chatter on methods is what to do one year later once you have that blend at the end of it's life cycle. That's where my eyes opened wide this past season.

I had forever thought rolling a heavy residue crop was a non-starter because of those that have tried it before, and it didn't work. It just dawned on me, the only time I ever gave it consideration was brassicas following rolled rye, and the brassicas seemed to come in patchy for those that posted result photos. Never considered how other crops would do in the same situation. That's when my eyes got big because I learned a whole bunch of other things when I tried it:

Oats sailed right through that heavy residue
My cultipacker did not kill the chicory or the alfalfa
The alfalfa, which never saw a mower, produced nice regrowth for the fall
The roll is the way to ensure perfect distribution of residue because it never gets severed and risks being windrowed.

One trip with the packer showed me all of those lessons. Far as bees are concerned, I had the same concerns. Once it's go time to roll my blend, nearly all of the flowers are shot for the season and the bee load out there is almost zero at that moment. The one excepion would be the chicory, but even by then, those chicory flowers were in pretty bad shape having been beaten to death by bees for a month or better. Here's what mine looked like the day I rolled it. It's pretty brown out there. Only flowers left are chicory.



Contrast that with what it looked like a month earlier:



One month earlier it was a mad house with every damn thing in full bloom out there.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I could never bring myself to roll,mow,or in anyway terminate the plot in that last pic

Effin gorgeous

bill