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EC IA | This spring doesn't really qualify as "wet" yet, but it has been enough to stop the planter a few times. In one field, we have 3 different "treatments" - rye (~65 lb/ac, seeded with VT) at shin to knee height, unworked cornstalks, and cornstalks with a single VT pass in the fall. By far, the VT pass with no rye is in the best condition to plant, followed by unworked cornstalks, followed by the rye cover. Lack of sunlight and wind at the surface seem to be more than offsetting any soil moisture the rye is using, at least in the top few inches. Perhaps we just need to go to a significantly thinner stand or terminate earlier - things we'll try next year. But for now, with a few days in between each rain, having a rye cover has been frustrating.
I have seen it posted frequently on here that living cereal rye cover will help dry the ground out in a wet spring, and it seems like a good theory, but I've yet to see it work out in reality. Anyone have data that can show it? What seeding rate? When was the rye terminated?
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Cereal Rye in a Wet Spring
