Seeding wet spots not drilled

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
Got about 3 acres that were left as I’d have got stuck had I tried to drill them.on 3 separate fields I should add.will cultivate to level the mess when dry enough and intend to drill something into the bare soil.rape will follow a couple of bits.what do the TFF massive reccomend.needs to be cheap.phacillia looks ok and seems it will smother weeds but will it seed down.any advice wellcome.
nick...
 

Luke Cropwalker

Member
Arable Farmer
Got about 3 acres that were left as I’d have got stuck had I tried to drill them.on 3 separate fields I should add.will cultivate to level the mess when dry enough and intend to drill something into the bare soil.rape will follow a couple of bits.what do the TFF massive reccomend.needs to be cheap.phacillia looks ok and seems it will smother weeds but will it seed down.any advice wellcome.
nick...
Phacelia is a great cover crop but whatever you do don't let it set seed. Phacelia is a member of the borage family, if it seeds you will have it on the farm forever.
 

Salopian_Will

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Shropshire
Got about 3 acres that were left as I’d have got stuck had I tried to drill them.on 3 separate fields I should add.will cultivate to level the mess when dry enough and intend to drill something into the bare soil.rape will follow a couple of bits.what do the TFF massive reccomend.needs to be cheap.phacillia looks ok and seems it will smother weeds but will it seed down.any advice wellcome.
nick...

I would do nothing. It is annoying to look at but it could be a lot of effort for little benefit.
 

TWF

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Peterborough
Phacelia is a great cover crop but whatever you do don't let it set seed. Phacelia is a member of the borage family, if it seeds you will have it on the farm forever.

I used to grow it to harvest the seed on setaside land. It stayed about for a few years as a weed but its all gone now

Got about 3 acres that were left as I’d have got stuck had I tried to drill them.on 3 separate fields I should add.will cultivate to level the mess when dry enough and intend to drill something into the bare soil.rape will follow a couple of bits.what do the TFF massive reccomend.needs to be cheap.phacillia looks ok and seems it will smother weeds but will it seed down.any advice wellcome.
nick...
I would try and grow something to take the moisture out or it will never repair. You will find the osr gets wet very quickly when winter comes and you'll be back to still having a wet patch if you do nothing.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
I would do nothing. It is annoying to look at but it could be a lot of effort for little benefit.

This is my logic. Patched some spring wheat last year and was frustrating having it in the way at the end of August in a wet harvest. One more job to do before combine could go away etc.

Looks nice but ends up false economy.

One of my best wheat fields this year was fallow last year. Hasn’t done it any harm at all being bare.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
What weeds will grow, if left?
If you have no weeds, then probably broadcast something onto it, otherwise save your time and effort and let weeds come away until dry enough to plant something .
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
A cheap green manure of spring oats or spring sown winter oats, and spray them off when you have glyphosate in the tank for OSR / anything else.
Throw in some phacelia for the bees. Contrary to the post above it is not a persistent weed as it’s not frost or SU tolerant, in fact it’s nice to see the occasional volunteer in a following crop.
As mentioned, bare wet ground needs roots, and drainage.

Come to think of it, is there an existing ditch or drainage scheme that would benefit from digging out and jetting or repairing???
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
How far is the wet spot from a ditch
Is it a bust drain or a spring
2of the spots are about 300 metres from a ditch but ground is very flat and ditches are shallow.the issue is the limited ampunt of topsoil,maybe 8/9 inches sits on top of brick clay and in a wet time like last couple years water cannot get away.i do pull subsoiler through yearly though.other wet bit sits in a low in the field and I just have to tolerate it.i do have another wet bit at the bottom of a gentle slope and I’ll trench and pipe that when it drys up.
nick...
 

Adeptandy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
PE15
Rightly or wrongly I’m patching mine with the same that’s already growing in the field. High seed rate and just cutting it in with the GD
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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