cover crop with wet feed

[More to life]

Any suggestions for a winter cover crop on land prone to flooding ?

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Any suggestions for a winter cover crop on land prone to flooding ?

When would it be put in? How many days do you have until the first flood could be expected?

 

[More to life]

it's generally ok till christmas it would be planted after maize early Oct

 

[sheepdogtrail]

When it does flood, on average how many days is the field under water?

Flood tolerate grasses: Reed Canary, Timothy and Rye Grass. I would not consider Reed Canary or Timothy a cover crop as they take a long time to get established. It is hard to beat a tetraploid annual or Italian Rye Grass. Flood tolerate and will germinate and grow in cooler soils (10C). They can withstand multiply flooding events during the winter and at least 10 days in a anaerobic environment.

Cereals - Triticale. Flood and cold tolerate. Not as flood tolerate as Rye Grass. But still good. It can survive a few short periods of being underwater.

Legumes - Most of them are flood tolerate but not winter active. There are some red and white clovers that are winter active. Which means they will not grow much in the winter but will continue to cycle nitrogen if the ph is around 5.7 to 7. They will provide some cover. In my opinion, the best clover would either be Balansa or Berseem. They are annuals, flood tolerate and will self terminate leaving the coming corn crop with some N to work with.

 

[glasshouse]

Wet feet surely?

 

[More to life]

Wet feet surely?

Yes didn't check it

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You can't sow legumes in October and expect much, certainly not red clover , Rye , Westerwolds, maybe winter Vetch Mustard or Texel Greens due to there rapid establishment. Maybe another year it may be worth looking at intercroping legumes