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cover crop

Winter Rye Cover Crops and Why I Love Them

October 2, 2020

Cover Crops: Try Winter Rye!
Have you considered fall cover crops and been overwhelmed by the possibilities? Does it seem just too complicated, too many choices? My choice is winter rye—the grain, not annual rye grass—which has been my fall/winter cover crop for 40 years in different types of gardens and soils.

Why Winter Rye?
Here are my top reasons:

  • I can plant it any time after I clear my summer garden beds through mid-November.
  • It grows all winter—it may not show much top growth, but any time the ground isn’t frozen, roots are growing.
  • It has a deep, fibrous root system to pull up nutrients from the lower soil profile, preserve nitrogen in the topsoil layer, and improve tilth of heavy clay soils.
  • It’s a beautiful green carpet during the browns of winter, but it is an annual that dies after setting seed in spring, facilitating management in no-till gardens.
  • Rye is somewhat allelopathic—it produces chemicals that interfere with other plant seeds  germinating and growing—which helps with early spring weed control.

Planting Rye
How do you plant a good stand of winter rye? Buy rye seed at local garden centers or order on-line. Use 8 to 10 ounces of rye per 100 square feet of garden space. If you till or turn your beds over in the fall, you can broadcast and rake in the rye. If you don’t till, you can rake off the coarse mulch and leave fine mulch—such as compost—then broadcast the rye and rake it in. Either way, plant 1 to 2 inches deep.

Winter Rye seedlings

You should see shoots emerge in 7 to 14 days depending on temperature. The top growth will increase as temperatures warm and day length increases.

How do you deal with rye come planting season?
If you plan to till or turn over your beds before spring planting, cut the rye when it’s about 12 inches tall using a hedge trimmer, string trimmer, or even a lawn mower if your beds allow. You can turn the cut rye into the soil immediately if it’s not too wet. If you don’t turn the rye under, it will regrow, and you can keep cutting until the soil is dry enough to work.

Young cut rye

If you do let the rye get tall and even set seed, you can still cut the stalks and either turn them under or keep them for mulch.

Mature standing rye

If you don’t till or turn your soil, let the rye start to flower, then cut it as low as possible with a hedge shear or string trimmer. Save the cut stalks for mulch.

 

Planting Spring or Summer crops
You can plant directly into the turned, tilled, or rye-stubbled bed, among the cut rye plants. This works especially well with summer transplants, such as tomatoes and peppers. It’s probably best to wait 2-3 weeks before planting seeds to let any allelopathy subside.

Rye is a great addition to your winter garden. It will improve your soil and provide a vibrant green antidote to the browns of winter.
Give it a try this year!

Article by John Bowen Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

For more information:

NCSU – Winter Annual Cover Crops
UVM Fact Sheet – Winter Rye: A Reliable Cover Crop
MSU – Use Rye This Fall to Put Your Garden to Bed for Winter
UMass – Cover Crop Growing Tips
UFL – Allelopathy: How Plants Suppress Other Plants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories General Gardening Tags cover crop, winter rye

U.S. Drought Monitor: Asheville Now in Moderate Drought*

July 9, 2015

But first, recognize that in our mountains all weather is local! Native Americans referred to the Weaverville area as the “Dry Ridge” and it is indeed one of the driest points in the eastern US. Yet only some 30 miles away but several thousand feet higher in altitude, Alta Pass is among the wettest, continually dampened as rising air from the west is forced to drop its load of moisture.

Then you have anomalies like the fact that Asheville’s “official” rainfall is not actually measured at Asheville. The official weather station for Asheville, North Carolina is located at the Asheville-Hendersonville Airport, ten miles south of, and not even in the same county as Asheville.

imageSo that’s why your own journal notes and observations are important. Gathering data from your own rain gauge and thermometer readings can be helpful in comparing one year to the next and identifying needs or trends in your garden. Even better than judging rainfall by the condition of your neighbor’s lawn!

Back to the Drought Monitor. By their definition in a “moderate drought” we can expect “Some damage to crops, pastures; streams, reservoirs, or low wells; some water shortages developing or imminent; voluntary water-use restrictions requested.”

So, fellow gardeners, it’s time to start setting priorities on which plants get first dibs for irrigation. Get outside before breakfast and water early in the morning. Mulch to help conserve what soil moisture you do have. Maybe change some priorities for your plantings in the fall garden. Perhaps let some space stand fallow or with a cover crop.

imageAnd a self-serving reminder: Buncombe County Cooperative Extension has rain barrels for sale! Even occasional brief rain can fill a rain barrel.

*U.S. Drought Monitor of North Carolina, June 23, 2015 http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

For more information about coping with drought: http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/coping-with-drought-a-guide-to-understanding-plant-response-to-drought.pdf

Article written by Glenn Palmer, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

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Categories Water Management Tags Alta Pass, cover crop, drought, mulch, rain barrels, U.S. drought monitor

A cover crop can fill a gap in your garden.

June 30, 2015

July2010-005-2Are you going to have a gap in your vegetable garden this summer? Maybe the spring peas are gone and the beans soon will be too. It’s too early for the fall crop to be planted so now there’s an empty space that’s just sitting there. And growing weeds! Think about getting in a quick cover crop that can mature and be turned under before you need that space for the fall garden.

NCSU Extension Horticultural Information Leaflet Summer Cover Crops points out that the use of short season annual legumes or grasses as cover crops can provide nitrogen for subsequent crops, reduce soil erosion and suppress those weeds.

Choose carefully or your cover crop may become a dreaded weed. Don’t be like the gentleman who purchased a pound of “grass seed” from the local hardware store, strewed it over the open area and then, in mid-October, asked when he’d be able to plant his peas because “that grass keeps growing.”

better_flowering_buckwheat_with_bee-2One option is buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) a very rapidly-growing, broadleaf summer annual which can flower in 4 to 6 weeks. The optimal time for incorporation is a week after flowering but before seed is set.
There are other options so check the garden centers to see what they have. It wouldn’t hurt to plan your winter cover crops too.

 

Article written by Glenn Palmer, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

For more information:

Cover Crops for Organic Farms     http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/cover-crops-for-organic-farms.pdf

Summer Cover Crops    http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/summer-cover-crops/

Winter Cover Crops     http://growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/growingsmallfarms-wintercrops/

 

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Categories Vegetables & Fruits Tags buckwheat, cover crop

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