Last year I claydoned a Pedders mix into wheat stubble on land going into borage which is planted between mid April to mid may usually.
I did not use pellets or N on the cover crop and it did not grow into anything much. I was hoping for a bit more growth early spring which did not really come to much and sprayed it off 1st week of April.
The soil under my wheat and rape was really dry by may and other borage growers near me had dust comming of their varderstads drilling into ploughed or autumn or frost top downed ground.
My ground was really wet so I waited a couple of weeks trying the drill a couple of times but it just smeared and pulled up big clods. In the end I hired an aitchison which looked much better but still smeared badly.
The borage has grown ok on soil with some sand in it but badly on heavy clay with low plant population. Short uneven crop, not what you want for borage. lots of the roots are thin were the crop struggled to get its tap root down and the plants had purple leaves for the first month or so of growth.
This is what the Claydon was doing.
Claydon vs Aitchison.
I might be going mad but it had crossed my mind that to broadcast a cheap cover crop seed, oats from the combine or just let the combine losses go up a bit. Then use a profilab curved time subsoiler but leave the land unrolled to increase surface area and improve the drying out in the spring so I can use the Claydon. I would then spray off around Christmas or get sheep in to eat it so the sunlight and frosts can get into the ground.
I want to improve my soil health and I know cultivating and leaving the ground full of air will reduce organic matter. But I also want to grow good borage so I have there a dilemma.
Any advise much appreciated.
I did not use pellets or N on the cover crop and it did not grow into anything much. I was hoping for a bit more growth early spring which did not really come to much and sprayed it off 1st week of April.
The soil under my wheat and rape was really dry by may and other borage growers near me had dust comming of their varderstads drilling into ploughed or autumn or frost top downed ground.
My ground was really wet so I waited a couple of weeks trying the drill a couple of times but it just smeared and pulled up big clods. In the end I hired an aitchison which looked much better but still smeared badly.
The borage has grown ok on soil with some sand in it but badly on heavy clay with low plant population. Short uneven crop, not what you want for borage. lots of the roots are thin were the crop struggled to get its tap root down and the plants had purple leaves for the first month or so of growth.
This is what the Claydon was doing.
Claydon vs Aitchison.
I might be going mad but it had crossed my mind that to broadcast a cheap cover crop seed, oats from the combine or just let the combine losses go up a bit. Then use a profilab curved time subsoiler but leave the land unrolled to increase surface area and improve the drying out in the spring so I can use the Claydon. I would then spray off around Christmas or get sheep in to eat it so the sunlight and frosts can get into the ground.
I want to improve my soil health and I know cultivating and leaving the ground full of air will reduce organic matter. But I also want to grow good borage so I have there a dilemma.
Any advise much appreciated.