Maize as a cover crop?

[JNG]

Have a field going into Spring Linseed (or maybe spring barley) and have enough Pedders French mix left to cover the field at a half rate. Went for a look around the merchants store and found some 2008 Maize seed, he was willing to pass off free of charge, no idea if it will even germinate but thought Id mix it to stretch the seed I already have. Any reason that anyone can think of that it would be a problem, I know its a bit late but soil still warm here so it should have a fast start!

 

[Andy Howard]

Go for it. As long as germination on maize is ok.

 

[JNG]

Go for it. As long as germination on maize is ok.

Sure if does not germinate its cost me nothing except 10 mins mixing it with a shovel in the loader bucket! It was just I know nothing about the Maize plant and if it would cause problems with cover crop destruction or disease or drilling next spring, but thinking about it it will hardly get too big drilled on 2nd sept?

 

[martian]

Got a vague memory of the French BASE people planting maize in their covers, you get good biomass growth. Certainly won't seed, go for it!

 

[York]

Maize is one of the crops which has very very much root exudate. It's a C4 crop, might be tooo late for good growth. So, I wonder if it's from this point of view a waste.
It's def. a very good cover if you can get it to a decent growth stage.
York-Th.

 

[JNG]

Cheers lads, drilled now so 13ha with 30kg/ha Pedders french mix (sunflowers/various peas/vetch/phacelia) and 10kg/ha Maize. Soils temps @16 degrees so hopefully get a good start, soil has some moisture hopefully plenty to germinate but would still benefit from a drop. Put an area in the field with some fodder raddish mixed in also (for @greatingrass )

 

[Great In Grass]

Sorry @JNG I read the above with the intention of commenting right away and then got side tracked. It would be very interesting to see how you get on with the oilseed radish. I was offered another type of large rooting plant a little while ago, still to get the full details, maybe some trial seed in the spring.

 

[Baling Hay]

Cheers lads, drilled now so 13ha with 30kg/ha Pedders french mix (sunflowers/various peas/vetch/phacelia) and 10kg/ha Maize. Soils temps @16 degrees so hopefully get a good start, soil has some moisture hopefully plenty to germinate but would still benefit from a drop. Put an area in the field with some fodder raddish mixed in also (for @greatingrass )

Can we have some photos of how these covers progress please?

 

[JNG]

Can we have some photos of how these covers progress please?

Yep no problem.

 

[JNG]

Can we have some photos of how these covers progress please?

Got 70% germination on the 5 year old Maize seed.

In field tho its hard to find, was dry after planting where as my pots got watered, its also difficult to tell it apart from Vol Barley, but thats one beside the pea. Overall this field of cover is a bit behind my others drilled in August which are here. http://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/wills-interesting-links-page.3941/page-2#post-175513 But got a half inch last night so might take off a bit, its still fairly warm for time of year.

 

[Clive]

@JNG how did this do in the end ? did you get worthwhile growth from the maize ?

 

[Louis Mc]

We Have maize As part of a diverse mix where spring oats failed due to flooding. Only drilled a week but time will tell. Not a lot of plants per kilo is one downside to it I think.

 

[Andy Howard]

Heard about tillering corn here the other day. Maybe be a better cover crop especially for grazing.

 

[JNG]

@JNG how did this do in the end ? did you get worthwhile growth from the maize ?

Wow this is a long time ago, don't think it came to much, it grew but was drilled late and the field had other more dominating plants, that field had spring rape in 2011 and loads of volunteers came along with the drilled cover and dominated really, I think if you drilled in early Aug maize may be a useful component.

 

[dontknowanything]

I doubt if maize would work well planted in July as part of a mix, let alone August.

 

[Louis Mc]

Decent growth from maize, drilled 13th June so it has potential in a mix if you could get the seed cheap enough. Will off the combine maize grow???

 

[marco]

Decent growth from maize, drilled 13th June so it has potential in a mix if you could get the seed cheap enough. Will off the combine maize grow???

you talking about g m stuff off the boat?

 

[Louis Mc]

you talking about g m stuff off the boat?

No the stuff they grow over in the south of England??