Planted cover after OSR

[Northdowns Martin]

What are the thoughts and merits of planting an inbetween crop after OSR before winter cereal? Early harvest so plenty of growing time, plenty of moisture as well. I plan to lightly pass over with a Carrier to try and level surface after OSR established by subsoiler, Carrier has a seeder on so can spread small seeds. Volunteer OSR normally creates a good cover but may not be helpful towards combating slug population prior to autumn cereal.

 

[Clive]

What are the thoughts and merits of planting an inbetween crop after OSR before winter cereal? Early harvest so plenty of growing time, plenty of moisture as well. I plan to lightly pass over with a Carrier to try and level surface after OSR established by subsoiler, Carrier has a seeder on so can spread small seeds. Volunteer OSR normally creates a good cover but may not be helpful towards compating slug population prior to autumn cereal.

when you get OSR off early enough and have a bit of moisture its worth it - got some going in today, not spending just using whatever bits and bobs of seed / 2016 crop left overs I have


I'm using carrier and bio drill as you propose, light 2cm max pass to help trash spread as chopper is not as good as the 12m header on a lexion !

 

[Great In Grass]

Mustard's cheap & cheerful, easy to establish, quickly covers the soil surface?

 

[SimonD]

I'm doing this with mustard, Buckwheat and hopefully some linseed. Needs to be cheap but late Sep, early October is a reasonable time away to justify it.

 

[martian]

Normally the rape comes up so thick, it'd swamp any extra cover. This year we had phacelia and vetch come through to harvest with the rape, so in addition to ready mixed cover crop seed (we're going to stick rape in a lot of covers and take a view come spring time which to call rape crops and which to spray off as covers), we've also got a good mix of volunteers to feed the soil behind the rape and ahead of wheat. Not expecting many slugs...

 

[RTK Farmer]

Turnip rape, Buckwheat, phacelia and oil radish mix planted here.

 

[dontknowanything]

Turnip rape, Buckwheat, phacelia and oil radish mix planted here.

why would you plant three brassicas after a brassica?

 

[martian]

why would you plant three brassicas after a brassica?

Maths isn't my strong suit, but I make that two brassicas. However, it's only for a couple of months (or three), so perhaps it doesn't matter.

 

[dontknowanything]

Maths isn't my strong suit, but I make that two brassicas. However, it's only for a couple of months (or three), so perhaps it doesn't matter.

Turnip, rape, radish

 

[Will Blackburn]

Turnip rape is a short season type of rape.

 

[martian]

Turnip, rape, radish

If you're going to start inserting commas then that changes everything...I read it as Turnip rape, a very respectable and sensible cover crop. What kind of madman would plant turnips and rape after rape?

 

[dontknowanything]

Turnip rape is a short season type of rape.

I stand corrected

 

[RTK Farmer]

This year's is in and coming up nicely now but in the sprit of questioning everything I'm wondering if a mix more strongly biased towards mycorrhizal "promoting" type species wouldn't be better in this situation. Buckwheat, phacelia and linseed perhaps?
Thoughts.

 

[Wigeon]

I had recommendation from a well respected source to drill some rape off the heap into the tape stubble, effectively to ensure a complete coverage of volunteers.

Apparently the slugs will eat that in preference to the wheat seeds in a couple of months. (?).

 

[Brisel]

That certainly seems to be true enough when a drill has put the seeds in a nice row for them slugs to much their way up...

 

[DrWazzock]

Plenty of volunteers here. Will spray off at the last minute before direct drilling the wheat. Past experience shows this gives the slugs a months worth of feeding before they turn to the wheat.

 

[wellingtonfarmer]

Plenty of volunteers here. Will spray off at the last minute before direct drilling the wheat. Past experience shows this gives the slugs a months worth of feeding before they turn to the wheat.

I have stuck some oats peas and vetch after some osr, really just to set a new drill up.

However I thought @Flintstone used recommended no greening for slugs to feed on. I think he recommended keeping stubbles clean to help prevent slugs?

 

[Brisel]

I have stuck some oats peas and vetch after some osr, really just to set a new drill up.

However I thought @Flintstone used recommended no greening for slugs to feed on. I think he recommended keeping stubbles clean to help prevent slugs?

This depends on your priorities. Clean stubbles will help slug control by starving them a bit. Cover cropping is better for the soil but helps harbour the slugs too. @tw15 operates a no slug tolerance policy by keeping the stubble clean after osr. I will be doing the same after osr with a straw rake but I have a couple of fields of osr stubble going into spring cropping so I'll be planting cover crops on those. Hopefully the boss's partridges will gobble the slugs up over winter...

Continuous green cover will be the mantra of conservation agriculturalists. Some of them waited 2 years to harvest their first no till crop because of slugs destroying the first one! Strip tillage's weakness is slug control and seed row consolidation. The rolls will run over the uncultivated ridges and miss the loose soil in the seed rows. Get this right & worry about fancy green covers later though do have a play with the new toy whilst life is quiet IMHO.

 

[Will7]

Plenty of volunteers here. Will spray off at the last minute before direct drilling the wheat. Past experience shows this gives the slugs a months worth of feeding before they turn to the wheat.

I have tried this twice, and twice it has failed. Heavy land

 

[Northdowns Martin]

Plenty of volunteers here. Will spray off at the last minute before direct drilling the wheat. Past experience shows this gives the slugs a months worth of feeding before they turn to the wheat.

I have tried this twice, and twice it has failed. Heavy land

Like wises, this approach of leave, spray and drill failed once which is enough for me not to try again.