Anybody plant winter rye without roundup or feet?

[timberland]

Going to roto til a half acre plot that is a couple years old. Going to try rye without roundup or fertilizer. Is this safe or should I expect failure. Seed rate about 100#/acre

 

[slatebuilder]

We do lots of rye for various things on our farm. We plant fall rye in tilled soiled all the time without spraying or fertilizing it. Follow it with clover, beans, peas, or some other legume next year.

Edit: In fact for whatever it’s worth my son and I just planted sunflowers, buck wheat, and rye all together as a cover crop in our early sweet corn patch. The deer are going to like it I suspect.

 

[tt_johnsclist]

What slatebuilder said. I’ll add that you can expect your results to be better in subsequent years as your weed control gets better from continued tilling. Might be a little weedy this year considering you are starting fresh, but the heavy seeding rate will help. Cultipacking it in to that tilled soil after seeding will also help a lot with good germination.

 

[Eagle]

We've been using why as a winter cover crop for years with our no till program, I even drilled a mix of buckwheat, milo, sunflower and soybean into a 5 acre stand of winter rye this year for food plots and then rolled the rye afterwards and the results are pretty fantastic, virtually weed free with no need for chemicals of any kind.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I’ve had good luck top sowing it on unbroken ground.

 

[timberland]

Awesome, thanks for the thoughts everyone.

 

[go_deep]

My dad does 1,200 acres of rye cover crop on untilled soybean ground, he just surface spreads the rye seed with a fertilizer spreader. Rye and winter wheat seed will grow in the bed of a truck if it gets a little moisture, it'll grow just fine for you.

 

[Scrappy]

We do lots of rye for various things on our farm. We plant fall rye in tilled soiled all the time without spraying or fertilizing it. Follow it with clover, beans, peas, or some other legume next year.

Edit: In fact for whatever it’s worth my son and I just planted sunflowers, buck wheat, and rye all together as a cover crop in our early sweet corn patch. The deer are going to like it I suspect.

I love putting those three together and yes the deer loves it.

 

[SnapT]

I've planted it in poor soil and it came up pretty good . Micro plot's , no roundup and no lime . Jeff Sturgis recommends layering it ie dropping some seeds and then in another few weeks dropping more and so on . I'm trying buckwheat this year and then a brassica/clover mix once its knocked down around august .

 

[slatebuilder]

Some of the farmers here have really good info.......listen to what they have to say. The cover crop mixes that are being used in many operations are pretty darn cool for wildlife too

 

[aaronmill13]

I've had luck without roundup or fertilizer. With one small plot when I was younger, I only flattened the existing vegetation with 4 wheeler tires and I had it grow in really well in that spot for a few years.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I roto till, cultipack, broadcast, and cultipack my winter rye plots and they turn out excellent on mediocre to poor ground. They provide good "green" plots in the fall and the deer continue to use them all winter. The plots usually look like putting greens until deep snow covers them up. In the spring they blow up green really early and the deer and turkeys love them. I've even had good luck with them self-seeding for a couple years without having to do anything. The best part about rye plots is they squelch out competing weeds in my experience.

I had some extra last season and use winter rye as cover crop for my garden. This spring I tilled it up to bare dirt and we planted potatoes, onions, and green beans. The potatoes and onions have done well, but the green beans of all things didn't do $hit this year. I didn't kill the rye with round up, and I wonder if the roots excrete something that beans don't like.

 

[jazz3ring]

I have had good luck planting rye and wheat both with minimal tilling and/or spraying.

 

[DCT1983]

I did winter rye for the first time last fall, and it didn’t do much last fall but this spring it looked really good when I disced it under to plant my food plot. I’m going to try it again in a different spot this fall and leave it for the spring and see if I can’t shoot some doves over it next September.

 

[Adkhunter3]

Winter rye is pretty easy. If it doesn’t catch not much else will. You can literally throw it down by hand not cover it and it’ll grow.

 

[cusecat04]

as others have said it will do well.
I fall plant it in my garden as a way to turn in something green early the next year, it usually takes off once the ground warms up in the spring.

 

[Whisky]

When is a good time to plant rye this year, for this Fall use?
I just hit some black dirt with chem last night to clean it up. I had tried planting beets twice in it, but with the drought they didn't germinate. Trying to do something semi productive with the ground yet, as it's my most hunted spot for S winds......I'm gonna broadcast and harrow in rye this weekend I think. Beans and corn are also dogshit, so I may try and toss some over top of that and let it sit on top. Either way, no rain = screwed! I also have an acres worth of brassica mix I will probably just throw out somewhere.

 

[LostArra]

Either way, no rain = screwed! .

Amen. Just a little rain at the right time and everything grows. No rain and only the weeds grow. But I always remember what the county extension expert told me: "a broadleaf weed can be a tasty forb to a deer"

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

As far as planting goes it depends on where you're located and weather. I'm in Western, IA, and I don't plant turnips/radishes or rye until late August at the earliest. The first couple weeks of Sep. the weather is typically a little more predictable up here. I have planted first or second week of August too many times after a good rain just to have them burn up post-emergence. Waiting until Sep. promises cooler temps. and "typically" more consistent moisture.

I read a good article about fall plots the other day, and the author said in the Midwest/Upper Midwest (Missouri to Minnesota) he has had the best luck sowing fall plots when the first soybeans start to yellow- usually late August to early Sep. He said this has been a far more successful strategy than gambling with August rains.