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Post by Dutch on Sept 12, 2012 20:51:53 GMT -5
Couple months ago, a buddy of mine was telling me the good points of planting rye. I knew about rye, but when I planted it before, it just got too tall in spring. So, I planted winter wheat this year.
My problem is, as we were emailing, he said he planted his in early August in Lehigh County. I questioned that early date, and he again said thats when he planted it.
Well, I planted mine in early August in Potter. The other week, it was about 8 inches tall. I'm heading up this weekend to check trail cams and see what the wheat looks like.
I did not fertilize it, thankfully. I am hoping that due to the lack of food in the woods, that they begin to hit it early. I am also hoping there will be some to last them into the winter. Sort of stockpiling the wheat.
One thing I like about cereal grains is that it greens up fast in the spring. Is high in protein at that point, which is what does need to finish off their unborn fawns.
So, while many people that plant plots, do it for the hunting value, we should also do it for the critters, and providing 3 seasons of food here in PA, fall, winter and spring, does our deer a lot of good.
As it turns out, when he and I were emailing, he had a brain freeze, and meant that he plants his September 1. Oh well, we'll see how it turns out. LOL
Will take pics this weekend.
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Post by archeryman32 on Sept 12, 2012 21:16:56 GMT -5
I'm interested in hearing the report, as I may be doing this next year.
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Post by Dutch on Sept 12, 2012 21:29:55 GMT -5
I planted oats this spring, to follow up some brassicas. I think we planted in April and had a nice crop of oats. We ran them down with a disc in August, before they were ripe, and then seeded the wheat into it. I think we now have a crop of wheat and oats, which wouldn't be bad.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2012 11:22:20 GMT -5
I was told winter wheat is good to plant in gardens is this true?
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Post by Dutch on Sept 13, 2012 12:02:27 GMT -5
Yes, either wheat or rye. You can also use annual rye for the garden, as it winter kills, but does protect the soil. I used to use annual rye, seeded in late September for a garden.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2012 12:40:34 GMT -5
will have to do that this year garden has too much clay
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Post by Dutch on Sept 15, 2012 21:03:25 GMT -5
I'm interested in hearing the report, as I may be doing this next year. As you can see from this pic, it's pretty high right now. Up to my knees in spots. It went in to early, but will be interesting to see if they use it. There were a couple beds in it, and I am now thinking the bears migh just hit it.
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Post by Dutch on Oct 22, 2012 5:21:12 GMT -5
Well, last week my oats/wheat was probably thigh high, and had been hit by a hard frost. Some of the volunteer oats had gone to seed. Last weekend you could see beds in it and trails, but there was little sign of feeding. It was pretty "stalky".
This week, the plot is brown, like the wheat/oats had been killed by the frost, but heavy feeding had occurred. Even the very stemy stalks were being eaten. I was sorta hoping that would happen.
Altho I never heard of wheat being killed by frost, I suspect that due to it being so mature, it is open to being killed by frost?
Not sure what to expect when I head back up. Will be interesting to see.
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Post by archeryman32 on Oct 22, 2012 8:32:02 GMT -5
Thanks for the update. I'm really thinking about planting it next year
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Post by bake545 on Oct 22, 2012 8:48:55 GMT -5
I'm surprised they ate it when it was that tall. I've never planted winter wheat mainly b/c I've never found anyone who carried it, always use winter rye. They are pretty similar from what I've read though.
I like to plant rye, it's pretty cheap and doesn't require fertilizer unless you want to. I think we planted about 2.5 acre of rye this fall, some as a cover crop for clover. When planted as a cover crop I let it go to seed and mow it off in July and it protects the clover for a while in the summer. Works great.
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Post by Dutch on Oct 22, 2012 13:38:44 GMT -5
I'm not sure what I'll plant next year. Using rye as a nurse crop for clover is an excellent idea. I just have no way to mow it off unless I ask the neighbor to do it with his bush hog.
I do like the idea of having that cover crop there over winter to protect the soil and also to provide nutrition for the deer early in the spring.
I was able to get the bag of wheat cheap last spring, so, thats why I got it, otherwise, it would have been rye, as that was my plan.
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Post by bake545 on Oct 22, 2012 14:01:58 GMT -5
I'm not sure I'd plant it as much if I didn't have a tractor to mow it. You can spray it with a grass herbicide but if you don't get it done at the right time that stuff will be waist high very quickly once it warms up. You need to buy one of those pull behind brush hogs for the quad. You'd probably have to dig up one of those jars buried in your back yard to pay for it though
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Post by bake545 on Oct 22, 2012 20:14:54 GMT -5
This thread reminded me of a picture I took while mowing a stand of rye in the summer that was planted the year before as a cover crop for clover. If you look close you can see the nice lush, green clover under the rye. Good stuff.
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Post by Dutch on Oct 22, 2012 22:07:26 GMT -5
Thats real nice Bake! The rye is not so thick that it smothered the clover.
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Post by bake545 on Oct 23, 2012 12:28:01 GMT -5
The rye is not so thick that it smothered the clover. You are right about that. I think I may have seeded my new clover/rye fields too heavy with rye this fall. It's been a few years since I planted clover and rye together and forgot to lay off the rye some until I was done. I think it will only be a problem in 1 field, time will tell. The deer are pounding the rye, they are like goats! Need to kill a few more though.
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