Winter rye, when to kill it, how long to transplant?

[outsiders71]

From what I understand, I need to wait until the winter rye flowers before cutting it, otherwise it'll grow back. I'm doing no-till so I plant on just chopping it up the best I can with a lawn mower then spreading it. Anyways the majority of the rye now has the head, but I don't see any flowers yet. Can I chop the rye now or must I wait longer?

Second question is in regard to transplanting. I wanted to plant into the mulch, but do I have to wait 2 weeks before I plant my transplants into it?

Thanks.

[dice]

I chopped mine down when I saw the first grain head. I raked
off the top growth to save it for mulch (it was too early to just
leave the mulch in place, the soil needed to warm up first).
In some beds I turned the stubble over with a spade (needed
more organic matter down deeper in the bed, and I had spread
alfalfa, shredded leaves, gypsum, and dolomite lime over it).
In others I only turned it over right where a planting hole was
going to be, leaving the spaces in between the holes unturned
with the mowed rye stubble sticking up.

It seems to work fine both ways. I am getting a few sprigs
still growing, probably late plants that had not flowered yet
when I mowed it. Easy enough to pull them out by hand or
hoe them out when the soil is dry and leave the rye plants
lieing on top of the soil, where they will dry out in the sun
and die.

I think you can plant into the bed where the rye was growing
any time after it is mowed. It is going to take a couple of
weeks for the seedlings to grow roots out into it anyway.
I would turn it over anyplace that you are direct seeding and
plant into the dirt that was underneath the stubble (rye
suppresses sprouting of some kinds of small-seeded weeds,
and that probably goes for things like lettuce, carrots, arugula,
etc, too). If you are planting seedlings, just making a hole for
the seedling seems to work fine (especially if it is an "Earl's
Hole", with various soil amendments mixed in under and
around the seedling).

[outsiders71]

Thank you very much Dice. Tomorrow I'm going to give it a go. I wonder if the ole lawn mower will be able to handle it .

[dice]

I wonder if the ole lawn mower will be able to handle
it.

It does get kind of tall for that. I did one bed with a hedge
trimmer, the others with a weedeater. If it is really thick,
either way takes some time and persistence (I would make
a big swath, then stop and rake it behind me, then continue
on until I got through the bed).

Looking at the difference in some of the mostly clay soils
I have after winter rye grew in them all winter, I figure it
was worth it. It looks a lot more like topsoil this year than
it did last year.

I could not shred it afterwards (clogged up the shredder),
so I am simply using the mowed top growth as is for mulch.

The suggestion to cut it a couple of weeks before planting
is for people that turn the top growth under, either mowed
first or not. That gives it some time to start breaking down
and help heating up the soil (like shallow tilling grass clippings
into the top six inches of soil). For no-till, I doubt that you
need that two week gap between mowing it and planting into
it. That would not have been possible for me anyway if I waited
for it to flower. A week after we got to 14 hour days and I saw
the first grain head, it was time to plant.

In reports that I have read of no-till farmers growing rye and
a legume mixes in winter, knocking it down with a flail
before planting, and then planting into the resulting mulch
without turning it under, they were planting plugs (little plants
that have been started in a really tiny pot), so winter rye's
allelopathic effects on seed-sprouting was not an issue.
I assume that anyone that can afford the use of a custom planting machine for machine-planting plugs through cover
crop mulch probably has enough knowledge of soil
temperatures to know whether that matters when planting
a particular crop in their locale. Here it was rather cold this
spring until a few days ago, so I would have had to cover the
mowed top growth with black plastic or something else that
will retain heat if I had left it in place on top of the stubble.

[outsiders71]

Thanks again Dice!

I took your advice and used the electric hedger, I don't know why I didn't think of that myself! It worked like a charm. Took me some time but it worked very well.

Thanks!

[creister]

Outsider,

I have planted a legume rye/wheat cover crop for 3 years now. I also practice no till. Once the rye has a seed head on it, you can cut it. I then cover the residue up with compost and shredded leaves. Usually around 3 + inches of mulch. I have not had much trouble with resprouts on the grains, and if they do, as Dice said, they are very easy to pull out.

I will ususally cut the cover crop about a week before I plant out, seeds or transplants. I've never had any trouble with allelopathy from the rye. Everything comes up/grows if I do my part. I now have about 4 inches of humus on top of my clay soil, and around 2 or more inches of very friable clay below that. Worms are in abundance. I am very pleased.

I usually cut mine down with a weed eater, and then run my mulching mower over it. Works great. Please note, that my soil warms pretty quick due to our mild winters and warm springs. I also wanted to mention that two years ago, we had avery mild winter. The rye/wheat was over 4ft. tall when I cut it down.