Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Oats and rye?

L

loneranger

Well-Known Member
I know everyone aims for planting oats and rye the first of Sept, but I have some small areas that by golly have pretty good moisture now. Some more is expected Sunday night. If I get oats and some rye in now I will have to be weed whippin it back for 2 months and might be spent by Nov when I want it.? But I have seen some very DRY Septembers when I couldn't get even Rye to germinate so I might just plant some now. Before it dries out again.?? For those who are wanting rain,,best rain Sunday night is NOW forecast for western and northern Iowa. Track of the LOW pressure into SE Iowa so not so much expected There,,or here,,DRAT!
 
I would throw some clover in with it, use it as a cover crop also. Double duty. Then you'll have a good clover stand next year.
Hope you are right about rain in Western Iowa. Good luck!
 
dug up the area today. It is surrounded by trees and even though the plot got 3 inches of rain last week aint all that damp so guess I'd better get seed in now with rain in the forecast. Never know about Sept. It tends to be DRY. Heck about every month tends to be dry anymore..
 
I had bad luck when getting this mixture planted too early. If properly fertilized you can get too much growth and the oats and rye lose their palatability. Had this happen a couple of times and the deer would hardly touch the plots. I found it was better to wait and plant in mid September to insure that my cereal grains were effective in archery season. My deer seemed to prefer them 3-4" tall in early Oct. Then they could keep them mowed down and fresh.
 
dtr said:
I had bad luck when getting this mixture planted too early. If properly fertilized you can get too much growth and the oats and rye lose their palatability. Had this happen a couple of times and the deer would hardly touch the plots. I found it was better to wait and plant in mid September to insure that my cereal grains were effective in archery season. My deer seemed to prefer them 3-4" tall in early Oct. Then they could keep them mowed down and fresh.
Click to expand...

I think you raise some good points here. I personally would be OK planting now...but I would qualify that by saying that...it depends. :) If you plant the rye mix now and get good rains AND have it well fertilized then yes, I think you could see a little too much growth by the end of Sept. that could reduce the attractiveness of those plots.

However, if you plant now and don't get a lot of rain AND don't fertilize it that well...then you might be just about perfect. So...who knows? :)

What if you planted now and if it looked like things were going good, too good, then you over seed some rye on the plots around say Sept. 10? Then you could have some fresh, new stuff to go along with the actively growing rye. I don't think I have done this, but it seems like it could be a hedge. As for my opinion on the oats part...they are going to get killed off somewhere around Oct. 10 to 20th anyway. I would not worry about those too much.

You could also mix in some peas and they will always hit them hard and I don't think there is any way for them to grow up too much...they eat them so fast.
 
I planted rye oats last year round September first. Oats stayed green. Until late November! Was told they would die and guess they did but even after heavy freeze in Nov they were being eaten. Warm fall again forecast so aint worried bout it gettin too cold. Too Warm. Is more like it. Sweat city trying to hunt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom