Winter Rye in a dead field

[Springer]

New to farming or as I say, what I know about farming I learned from watching Green Acres.

I live in the north Georgia mountains. I have 18 acres on the top of a hill. Much of the hill looks scalped, possibly from wind but we do get a lot of rain up here. We are the wettest county east of the Cascades and I have been told that some years, this county meets the requirements to be a rain forest.

Had a local farmer up here helping me install a 3rd function valve. He is a real farmer. He mentioned that a good way to restore my field is to plant winter rye and plow it under in the spring.

I made the mistake by not asking him any follow-up questions. Actually, I was trying to not sound stupid which does not come easy to me. But I do have some questions.
1. We sampled the soil. It came up as "depleted" for essentially everything. There is grass and weeds growing there now with a lot of thistle. Can I just plow that under and spread winter rye seed?
2. When should I plant the rye?
3. When should I plow it back in?

I say farming but we are really gardening. Say about 4 acres. This is all new to us and would like to grow food crops for ourselves and to give/trade to friends. We have a small (300 sq. ft.) garden going now. I plowed in 20 bags of Black Kow and magnesium along with some other garden nutrients. Cabbage, spinach, onions, carrots all doing well.

But that is a garden and not a field. We are somewhat "prepper" which is why we moved up here. We are about 80% off the grid so having some arable land would be the direction we want to go.

 

[twomany]

Put cover crops in any time a field is not being used for something else. Turn it in when preparing the area for your next use of anything else. Let it grow between! It will only do good! (Unless drought keeps the seeds from sprouting, or birds eat all the seeds up off the ground. then it's just a waste of time and $ , but the effort is good.

Seasonal rye grass is good There are seasonal comfrey that is better yet.
Some operations put in radish to add bulk organics.

I can't speak to GA. climates and option. But the more you do, the better the soil gets. And it's never just once. I just threw down some seasonal rye grass yesterday on a small area of the gardens. I just now watered the seed. looking for sprouts, but it was a hot one today.

 

[Springer]

thank you for that. It is what I am looking for.

 

[BigG]

Contact your county extension agent and they can assist you with the reclaiming of your field.Adding things like black cow is good in a small area but not practical for your field. Ask the county extension agent how to take samples. They will tell you where to send the samples to get them tested and from there you can adjust the amenities that you need to add to the soil.

I would also suggest that you start with maybe an acre of garden so that you can learn by doing and also increase your ability to work the garden.

Your idea of growing and sharing is outstanding. but take it slow and grow carefully so that you don’t become discouraged.

 

[twomany]

I just typed into the search box "Cover crops for GA"

Cover Crops - Farm Management | Sustainable Agriculture at UGA

sustainagga.caes.uga.edu

I'm sure there are many more pages like it....

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

thank you for that. It is what I am looking for.

Here is the Rabun county UGA extension office. They will be able to answer your questions. And on Monday, I can give you our schedule for seeding rye, and spraying off.

Rabun County

extension.uga.edu

 

[GreensvilleJay]

if you want GREAT veggies...here's what you need....in a word... compost...
anything and everything from grass clippings, leaves, kitchen veggie waste, garden clippings,horse manure,mushroom compost, etc.
You HAVE to give back what you take out of the soil.....it's one case of more is better.
Have a tractor with loader will make 'turning the pile' easy and fun, at least every 3-4 weeks(depends on weather,heat,rain), the idea is to get the material to 'compost'. down there ,maybe 3-4 months ?
I use a Millcreek 25G spreader to evenly toss the compost onto the garden(4-8"), then rototill it in.

 

[Goz63]

New to farming or as I say, what I know about farming I learned from watching Green Acres.

I live in the north Georgia mountains. I have 18 acres on the top of a hill. Much of the hill looks scalped, possibly from wind but we do get a lot of rain up here. We are the wettest county east of the Cascades and I have been told that some years, this county meets the requirements to be a rain forest.

Had a local farmer up here helping me install a 3rd function valve. He is a real farmer. He mentioned that a good way to restore my field is to plant winter rye and plow it under in the spring.

I made the mistake by not asking him any follow-up questions. Actually, I was trying to not sound stupid which does not come easy to me. But I do have some questions.
1. We sampled the soil. It came up as "depleted" for essentially everything. There is grass and weeds growing there now with a lot of thistle. Can I just plow that under and spread winter rye seed?
2. When should I plant the rye?
3. When should I plow it back in?

I say farming but we are really gardening. Say about 4 acres. This is all new to us and would like to grow food crops for ourselves and to give/trade to friends. We have a small (300 sq. ft.) garden going now. I plowed in 20 bags of Black Kow and magnesium along with some other garden nutrients. Cabbage, spinach, onions, carrots all doing well.

But that is a garden and not a field. We are somewhat "prepper" which is why we moved up here. We are about 80% off the grid so having some arable land would be the direction we want to go.

You put winter rye down no earlier that late October here in the south. For north GA I would do late November. That’s what we did in SC near Columbia. You can till it under late March or just look for when it starts to die out and turn brown. That will give you a good winter ground cover and the dead rye puts good nitrogen back in the soil in the spring. We put winter rye down every year in our pasture. Horses get grazing food, keeps the winter weeds out and dies out in time for our normal pasture grass to come.
Most counties have some type of a co-op our county AG office that can do a soil sample and tell you what to put down. If you want to wing it a triple 19 will get you started. If you are going to put lime down make sure you are like 5-6 weeks separate from fertilizer. It will neutralize your fertilizer.

 

[Henro]

thank you for that. It is what I am looking for.

All I can add is whenever I need to get something growing on bare soil, I use winter rye, because I can get it locally easier than winter wheat these days. Not sure why. I used to use winter wheat...not sure if one is better than the other for this purpose.

It grows fast and easy, it seems, and keeps soil in place...

edit: I never paid attention to it. figured it would likely reseed itself. Or other things would naturally take its place, as my goal was to hold the soil in place until something else took over. Eventually something seems to, and with regular cutting the areas I have dealt with actually eventually turned into something that almost looks like grass...

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

Here is the Rabun county UGA extension office. They will be able to answer your questions. And on Monday, I can give you our schedule for seeding rye, and spraying off.

Rabun County

extension.uga.edu

On our turf fields, we over seed in September and spray off in early May or so. This is on established bermudagrass fields.

 

[Mossy dell]

Winter rye is a vigorous, winter hardy, large-seeded [like the size of wheat berries] annual grain. It is the grain distilled for rye whiskey. It produces tons of green manure in an extensive, fibrous root system and in tall [up to 3-4'] foliage.

Winter rye is a great soil builder, but it is too early to plant it. I'd say October is best in your area but you might get it started in September. I'd recommend a very light disking, ideally with the disks set straight, just ruffle up the soil good when it is not bone dry or sopping wet. Then broadcast the rye.

Rye grass or ryegrass is an annual or perennial grass. It is not quite the soil builder winter rye is but pretty good; annual rye also will turn poor ground green in the winter. Especially if you use some fertilizer. And it is a small grass seed that germinates very quickly, and quicker establishment is important if there are slopes. I'd mow the area close and broadcast it ahead of a rain. In September or October. Disking is not as important for ryegrass—you might get a good catch from rain just driving it down to the surface of the soil.

Rye and ryegrass would help your soil and would deal with it being poor. Especially if you use a little fertilizer at planting or when it germinates.

 

[johnjk]

I actively work 6 acres of my land with a local farmer. Mainly hay but he wasn’t happy with the yields and soil analysis showed I was down in almost everything. We started a multi year process with a fall till of the entire area followed by beans. Another till and sorghum last year. Got two cuttings off that and tilled for winter wheat which came up this spring. Harvested that in July and planted another crop of beans which will be ready in October. The goal for next year is to take it back to a hay mix for cattle feed.

 

[Springer]

Man, you guys and this forum are the greatest. I gotten more information here than I would ever hope for.
Thanks much.
We are going to talk with the UGA extension. I know right where it is at.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Might see if buckwheat will grow. I used it once as a cover crop,didn't knock down BEFORE it went to seed....Ok next 2-3 years it came up..kinda pretty....bees love it. If there's beekeepers nearby, maybe plant buckwheat and get some free honey ??

 

[Springer]

we are in Bee country