Tried out the Mini-Crimper/Roller on some Oats today

[don]

Finally a little moisture overnight and that inspired me to broadcast my Brassicas today, about 3/4 acres in a figure 8 shaped plot planted with Oats in the Spring. The laid down thatch should help retain moisture and some what shade the young plants when they emerge.
Once the seed was down it was time to give the Mini-Crimper/Roller its first test. All in all it did what I expected, the stems were about 14 to 18 inches in length mostly yellow but some were still in various shades of green. Each stem looked to be crimped about midway thru and about 4 inches apart, before next year I will probably replace the water with sand for added weight, it may do even better then.
http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?t...p-over-mini-crimper-roller.11968/#post-220903
Click on the word vimeo for increased screen size.

 

[Bill]

That did a fine job!

 

[35-acre]

Don - is the weight in the UTV? Does that really apply any down-force on the crimper?

It looks great. I just wondered if there was a way to get some weight over the crimper itself if you are trying to get a more defined crimp.

 

[Rit]

Valiant effort. In true terms a roller crimper is designed to terminate a cover crop. Your crops seems to be already terminated so we really won’t know how effective it was. If your goal was to lay down the vegetation by all means it was a success.

Did you happen to spray after? All that green in the videos is probably going to remain alive. Keep us posted.

I have been half-heartedly working on a roller crimper myself.

 

[don]

Don - is the weight in the UTV? Does that really apply any down-force on the crimper?

It looks great. I just wondered if there was a way to get some weight over the crimper itself if you are trying to get a more defined crimp.

The weight of thr Ranger has no effect. I have a way to add more weight to the crisper, actually two ways. We have been in drought conditions for three weeks and finally received a shot of rain with more in the forecast so the timing was right to get the brassica seed on the ground and covered.

 

[don]

Valiant effort. In true terms a roller crimper is designed to terminate a cover crop. Your crops seems to be already terminated so we really won’t know how effective it was. If your goal was to lay down the vegetation by all means it was a success.

Did you happen to spray after? All that green in the videos is probably going to remain alive. Keep us posted.

I have been half-heartedly working on a roller crimper myself.

This will never be a a true crimper/roller by definition as we know it but it sure did put a hurt on what was still green where I made my turn to the other end of the figure 8, more shaded part you can’t see in the vid, I should have moved the trail camera. Some of the green you see were actually ferns and they won’t come back this year, they are very easy to kill.

I really think a staggered design and a way to add much more weight would increase effectiveness but not wanting to put too much strain on the mid-sized Ranger it seemed to fiill a niche.

I did not spray the plot either before or after, but intended to depending on what the results showed me. I did not feel any gly was needed but I will monitor the plot to see how things ultimately develope.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Mine is also a work in progress. I added a bunch of weight to it this year but I was just crimping weeds. If I get a good stand of cereals to plant into next spring I will forego the spraying and see how it does.


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