July 1, 2024

VIDEO: Winter Rye Cover Crop Test Trial for No Till Organic gardening 101. Part 2


This is the Winter Rye Cover Crop Test Trial Part 2 for No Till Organic gardening 101. Just a update on the 4 Test spots areas 12 days later.

27 thoughts on “VIDEO: Winter Rye Cover Crop Test Trial for No Till Organic gardening 101. Part 2

  1. So if you weed wack it and cover it with leaves or compost its dead but still have all the benifits of the roots and fungi oh I do not use plasitic very anty to plastick and am very suprized that you are aloud to use it as bio farmer
    I love all these experements that you do one doesn't nomaly have the time but I will do some my self this year with my Brasika plants as I said in preveus comments I always find fungi (musilium ) growing around the roots from the brasika family
    but don't realy have the meens to find out what it is and if benefishal
    but keep up the good work and the very interesting vids

  2. Been watching all this series and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around planting among the roots and low cover crop.
    How would you plant something like carrots from seed in something like this???

  3. I find that interesting, that the plastic did not kill the grass. It may be a difference in temperatures there. Here smothering would have kill the grass. And as long as a pile of grass is on top of the soil, no regrowth. I have to count this year. But I think it is 1 or 2 times a month I add more grass clipping around the tomatoes. There are other factors like rain or lack of. With high heat an lack of rain last summer. I did not add many clipping.
    Thanks for sharing your results.

  4. Did I miss the part where (if) you said how many of the 12 days were sunny? And what were the temperatures?
    I've had best success when the sun heats the black plastic to the point of baking the vegetation underneath. Sun on naked soil also aided Me by parching the top layer of soil.

  5. Thanks for the update Mark. Very interesting & useful results. I'll be switching from plastic to weed wacking. I was most concerned with terminating my covers when I direct sow. Abandoning the plastic should also help with slugs.

    With my transplants next month (peppers, tomatoes, eggplants), I was just going to plug-in my plants and let the crops and covers grow together without terminating covers at all. Would you agree??? Or should I terminate before the covers flower and go to seed?? I'm using a mix of winter rye, winter peas, hairy vetch, and crimson clover. Thanks buddy!

  6. Like all your videos this one was informational. I'm trying an experiment in a 12'X5' raised bed by weedeating my winter rye down and planting Jeruselum artichokes and Yacon in this bed. This will keep living roots in the soil and hopefully won't interfere with the artichokes or yacon.

  7. I'm confused you have clay I have sand and most of your blogs deal with clay. I am wondering, I have been adding wood chips for 3 years now and now have 12-14 inches, wondering must I remove in order to plant winter rye and other nitrogen fixers or can it be planted an inch or two down?

  8. G'day Mark a question, do you say mow the whole bed really short then plant out or do you mow say a strip down the middle plant out and let the cover crop on the sides continue to grow?

  9. If you are growing and keeping cover crops all year round, do you then not need a non-living cover, such as wood chips or leaf mulch? Also, I live in northern Minnesota (3b) – are there cover crops that will stay green/alive through our cold winters? Thanks so much for all your videos. You are a wonderful teacher. I've learned a ton.

  10. Hello, converting from traditional gardening. I planted winter rye in my garden 6 weeks ago. Planning on crimping it this spring and planting through it. I suspect I planted it too thick. At what rate (ounces / 1000 sq ft, or lbs / acre ) do you use for your winter rye? thanks ahead

  11. Hello, just thinking ahead, transitioning from plowing to no till. I planted winter rye in my vegetable garden (disk and broadcast) for a cover crop for the first time in my life this fall. Hopefully this will be the last time I ever disk / plow. Will bend /break it over with tractor blade and plant through it spring 2018. How will I plant winter rye again fall 2018 if the existing rye hasn't rottened down to soil level? I don't have a seed drill and the cardinal sin is to disk to expose fresh ground because it destroys microb. activity. Thanks ahead

  12. Hello, do you use cereal rye or annual rye for the cover crop? I might have messed up. Not knowing there are different ryes, and being my first time, I went to Lowes and got annual rye to plant in my vegetable garden for a cover crop. It is about 12 inches tall, real thick and just laying over. I planted it at the same rate you would cereal rye, which I realize now is way way too thick. Seems I can't win no matter how hard I try.

  13. Hi, this is excellent info!  I'm considering trying something similar to this with spring-planted rye (so it won't vernalize and will die off on its own eventually).  I do have one question:  Did test plot #3 (the one with the rye cut and covered) go anaerobic also, the way plot #4 did?  Thanks!

  14. Hello,
    First thank you very much for all your videos. Definitely one of the best channels I have found. Do you or have you ever used annual rye? I am in NH and will be starting my farm this year and hope to get certified in the next few years. I am completely new to no till and have learned so much for you. Again thank you.

  15. Over the years I've seen great soil improvement after planting rye grass in the fall it makes a huge root mass that dies off in warmer dryer weather it's excellent if it is turned under in late spring the root mass adds lots of organic matter to soil

  16. Thanks for this view of things under plastic. I'm concerned that this 25×100 silage tarp I just got would make my soils go anaerobic. I was considering adding other Ruth Stoudt sort of food waste varieties, leaves, cardboard, spoiled hay, wood chips, etc. Now I want to see what happens to soil life underneath over one month, 2- 3 months, etc. How come Curtis Stone likes a "stale seed bed"? Why don't his veggies act wrongly? He must add an inch of good, better, best composts and aerate with broadfork? How do I stop the weeds & yet not damage the soil life, I wonder. I want bigger test trials over a longer period of weeks. Thanks for your work, btw!

  17. Hi I’m loving your videos and learning a lot from them. This is my first year gardening and I’m wondering. Will the winter rye keep on growing if I keep cutting it at ground level? I heard that you need to cut it right when the seed head forms. I’m scared that it might keep growing and I won’t be able to direct sow in my bed. Thanks in advance!!

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