I have grown cereal rye as a cover crop for five years now. It has been a real benefit in all the areas you speak about. My only issue with cereal rye is that it will keep my heavy silt loams too moist to plant in for 1-2 days after the no-till ground next to it. I would have thought with the aggressive growth of the biomass there would have been a net drying of the ground and I would have been able to get in 1-2 days prior to the no-till ground next to it. Of all the cover crops I use, cereal rye is the only one to create this scenario. I am planting at 40 lbs. and would like your opinion on why the moisture issues.

@rachelvann6498

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Marshall! Thanks for your response. Glad to hear you see many of the same benefits. Do you know what growth stage the cereal rye is in when you are trying to plant you cash crop? My guess is the cereal rye is already starting to senesce and so is is limiting water uptake. Have the biomass out there can limit to sun from driving soil moisture our through evapotranspiration. Usually we hear about the opposite benefits from growers with cereal rye in that they can get their cover crop fields planted more quickly in a wet spring due to the moisture uptake from the cereal rye, but it is all about timing between cover crop senesce and cash crop planting.