Hello, I'm trying to plan what to do with my winter rye cover crop. I found a great article on rye grass as a cover crop on the ATTRA website that left me with some questions: https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/rye.html The article says "Rye provides weed control when killed and left as a no-till mulch than when soil-incorporated. Natural plant chemicals that leach out of the rye mulch work to inhibit the germination of small-seeded weeds for about 30 days." Hmm, I was planning to cut the rye and lay it down as a mulch to plant the spring cover crop into! Any experience/advice? Another interesting tidbit from the article was: "Mowing or using a burn-down herbicide is an effective way of killing a rye cover crop so that no-till plantings of corn, soybeans, or another crop can be established. If mowing is the chosen method of killing the rye, do so at the flowering stage. At this stage, the anthers are extended, and pollen falls from the seed heads when shaken. If mowing is done earlier, the rye simply grows back." I was warned after planting that annual rye that it can be more peristant than I hoped, but i'm guessing that it wasn't cut at the right time. thanks, warren
Hi Warren Quick clarification...did you plant cereal rye (the article topic, Secale cereale) or annual rye (Lolium sp)? I've stopped using annual rye altogether in my garden rotations...I just can't seem to get rid of it with my minimum till setup. I do use it extensively in my pasture, though, since it grows back nicely when grazed, as long as the summer moisture holds out. I've used cereal rye in small amounts, usually as part of a cover crop mixture. I planned to start a stand on the garden this past fall, but it just didn't come together in time. Rich
Annual Rye Hey Rich, Ya, I planted in Annual Rye. So cutting the crop at the flowering stage might not actually stop annual rye like it does cereal rye. ikes.. And tilling it in doesn't work? Whats so annual about this stuff?;-)... I'm hoping to get 2 more seasons of cover crop on the site, and then I'll be putting in a thick sheet mulch, so maybe i don't have to worry about it so much. But i'm not finding anything talking about Annual Rye having a germination suppressing chemical, so maybe that's just in the cereal rye.?. thanks, warren
I don't have a tiller, and taking back the garden from the annual rye was one of the reasons why I rented one late last summer, the first time in 5 years of inhabitance. Thus 'minimum till'. There doesn't seem to be any regrowth of seed, so if you're planning on tilling anyway, you should be set. I think it's just cereal rye with the suppressing chemical, so you should be good for another round of covercropping, too. Cheers Rich
warren, I have an almost new mower with a blown engine from trying to mow thick stands of rye. It also brings the deer running, it doesn't fix nitrogen, it doesn't flower. I just haven't found it to help more than it has hurt so far. I love cover crops of clovers, which the deer leave alone, they are easily pulled aside to plant in narrow strips, they have never played havoc with my mower, fix nitrogen and have great flowers for the bees. Now that our bees are in such trouble, I have been planting many flowering trees and flowering cover crops to make their lives easier all year long. The absolute best weed suppressant is a 6" thickness of leaf/straw/mown carbon mulch. It acts like a mini compost pile to improve the soil and saves all the work of turning/hauling compost. And any new weeds that come up anyway are easily pulled out of loose mulch and dropped in place for mulch as well.
Warren, if you planted annual rye, I think you planted a temporary lawn-type grass. If so, the issues that you've been reading about cereal rye don't apply. Rye GRAIN will reseed if you don't mow it before it goes to seed. Sue
If its any help, I use rye cereal as a winter cereal crop in my little gardens. I plant each new garden with potatoes and follow with a cereal. In winter it is rye. I harvest this with a sickle or hedge clippers and dry it out and throw in to the chooks who eat the grain and appreciate the straw. It grow great in winter, chokes out any winter weeds and helps feed the poultry. After cutting down, you can plant other stuff around the stubble. We plant a green manure such as cow pea and then rotahoe the cow pea and stubble in at the same time. Seems to work well and builds soil structure really well.