Hi there, I have cereal rye growing very nicely this spring in my veggie garden.I will not be growing veggies in this area for 4 more years or so. I would like to minimize tillage, and not use a chemical burn down, so, can i broadcast legumes (alfalfa, red clover) and other cover crop species (radish, oats,) seeds into the young rye as an undersow, then flail mow the rye at flowering to give light to the hopeful young seedlings? I know rye can be allelopathic, but maybe not to all germinating seedlings.
Continuing the discussion from Cereal rye cover crop in spring:
hi Elly. legumes have no problem under the rye. getting pretty late though, but the dampness should sprout them. larger seeds need to be seeded into the soil at least an inch deep. the allelopathy is only a half inch deep, and works on grasses & weeds
Hi Elly - the way the weather forecast is continuing I’d go for it with the red clover and the oil radish - it may not work but the rye is probably getting large enough to shade the ground keeping it moister and the oil radish is quick to germinate. Usually we tried to frost seed red clover into the rye or winter spelt - but this spring wet weather seeding it in may work. Good luck.
Thanks for your inputs. I went ahead and broadcast one sections with single cut red clover until i ran out, and finished the rest of the plot with white clover on May 8th. However, I am worried with all this rain we are getting, any seed i put down will just rot away!!! Wish me luck.
Thanks again,
