Opinion on planting winter rye now-NY
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Yasla
16-Oct-21
Having a lively debate and could use some help. We have 600lbs winter rye in garage, our corn was just cut a few days ago. What would you do, is it too late to plant? Should we just hold onto it till spring?? In upstate NY, not far from PA border. It poured here today and rain in forecast, we are in complete disagreement if planting is a wasted effort.
Corn came down about a month later than usual, guessing all the warm and rain is reason. Thanks!
From: Catscratch
16-Oct-21
Rye will grow in fairly cold temps. Are you looking for winter plots, or are you good? I'm not much for saving seed. Might as well plant if conditions are favorable.
From: Zbone
16-Oct-21
Due to lack now of sunlight hours mine has seemed to have gone dormant... Planted on Sept 7th, it sprouted in 4 days and grew like crazy the first 2 or 3 weeks later, but slowed to almost a stand still by the first week or so of October...
Haven't every tried this late in the years but if you do try, please lets know how it does, I'm curious myself if it will sprout and grow this late...
From: t-roy
16-Oct-21
Very temperature dependent, this late, I would guess from being in NY. Getting pretty late in the game, to get much growth now, unless you get a prolonged warm stretch.
From: ND String Puller
17-Oct-21
I planted September 7 but it was terribly dry until a week ago we got rain and cold weather. Supposed to be 74 today so I guess we’ll see if it pops up.
From: ND String Puller
17-Oct-21
Pic won’t rotate, should have tried Shug’s “please don’t turn” caption LOL
From: RIT
17-Oct-21
I’d still plant especially if you have nothing growing. Winter rye will germinate and grow in the 30s. Zone 6A here in Ohio and my WR is pushing 10” tall and green as ever. Winter Rye will start growing again if you don’t have snow cover and get some winter days that pop into the 50s and 60s. You won’t get a ton of vertical growth but I bet you still get a thick cover of 2-3” rye.
From: t-roy
17-Oct-21
ND……either you got the pic to rotate, or you’re plotting on some really steep side hills! ;-)
From: ND String Puller
17-Oct-21
LOL yes!
From: dmandoes
17-Oct-21
plant it
From: Jason44681
17-Oct-21
Planted a week and a half ago
Planted a week and a half ago
Plant it!
From: Jason44681
17-Oct-21
From: elkaddict
17-Oct-21
I’m in zone 5a and broadcast seed yesterday. Our weather pattern is still showing unseasonably warm weather ahead. Rye is pretty cheap if the weather patterns change. It’s worth the risk in my judgment.
From: Yasla
18-Oct-21
Weather forecast for next 10 days.
Weather forecast for next 10 days.
Thanks all- I took your advice and went ahead and broadcast it all, agree a pretty cheap experiment. Weather was perfect, an on/off light drizzly rain, i was soaked by the end of it. I took some before pics but you all know what a cut corn field looks like. I will check in on occasion over next few weeks and let you all know how it turns out. Got it all spread by about 4:30, hopped in stand and got a nice doe around 6:15, was a great afternoon!
From: Habitat for Wildlife
18-Oct-21
I broadcasted a week ago in NW Missouri and have germination. I would plant if conditions are good. Best wishes.
From: Cornpone
18-Oct-21
I hunt a vegetable farm in western NY. When the sweet corn is done mid September they brush hog it, disk it and plant rye as a cover crop to be plowed under next spring so they can plant the sweet corn again. Right now the rye is doing well and the deer are starting to come back into the fields to eat it.
From: Jason44681
20-Oct-21
Nice work Yasla! Good luck with the plot!!
From: t-roy
20-Oct-21
C’mon global warming!! (just temporarily)
Good luck, yasla.
From: Yasla
24-Oct-21
UPDATE: nothing! At least not yet. Just walked to one of the spots I broadcast winter rye last week and nothing growing. Didn't expect anything though. Temps appear to be stable for next 10 days, lows in upper 30s and lots of rain here and there.
From: dmandoes
24-Oct-21
no roots sprouting from the seed?
From: Yasla
24-Oct-21
October 23
October 23
I didn't notice any at first but now on second look, maybe? Took only 1 Pic ramdomly of seeds on rocky dirt and does look like a couple of these might be sprouting?
From: Yasla
24-Oct-21
From: BullBuster
24-Oct-21
That’s ugly. Is that moon rock? Come back to earth!
From: Yasla
24-Oct-21
Lol! it gets worse than that! this lower end of this huge field sometimes is hard to see any dirt at all. Yet year after year, solid corn comes up through it all. Rough on equipment...
From: dmandoes
24-Oct-21
its going to be alright as long as the roots don't get hit by hard frost
From: Catscratch
25-Oct-21
My goodness that is some ugly dirt! I would certainly want something green covering it up at all times.
From: Stressless
01-Nov-21
Well - in mid-Ohio I had a plot that failed mostly due to rain - drought in this portion of OH.
Came to camp early 13 Oct and seeded rye on 14 Oct with rain that night. figured at the peak of the rut I'd have some deer candygrass for the does. I wasn't optimistic as the temps fell below 60 for a large portion of the last half of Oct.
Here we are 1 Nov - rut just ramping up and whammy... Cereal Rye for the win! This is the rye planted 14 Oct, planted at 230# seed/acre.
From: Zbone
01-Nov-21
Today in NE Ohio seen a freshly seeded rye field about 3-4 inches high... Guessing was planted a week ago...
From: t-roy
01-Nov-21
^^^Catscratch X2!…..Actually, I’m don’t see ANY dirt! That’s amazing that you can get anything to grow in that stuff, Yasla!
From: Yasla
02-Nov-21
Update-checked out progress yesterday, lots of germination! While that is great, this might be the end of experiment. We have had an incredible amount of rain lately which I think was good, but starting tonight evening lows will be 33, 29, 29, 27, 28 so might be the end. Highs in 40s. After that, highs in 50s and lows in 40s as far as I can see. So I'll keep checking, low expectations though.
From: Yasla
02-Nov-21
Speaking of my bad dirt! I got home yesterday and noticed two things. Two strange weeds growing where I park my atv and trailer, it's landscape fabric covered by gravel only, zero dirt. I pulled them both, ones leaves were all gone and Turnip?? Shocking if yes but seemed to be growing just fine. Also this winter rye is growing in trailer, and on atv which is pretty cool too.
If I park my atv and trailer with green fuzz in a field and hunt over that, is that baiting? I grew the Foodplot, it's just portable... Lol.
From: Yasla
02-Nov-21
From: Yasla
02-Nov-21
From: Catscratch
02-Nov-21
You're right about stuff being able to grow anywhere. My grandfather told me wheat will grow in the bed of your truck if you get a heavy dew on it. He was right. I do a lot of TnM and Regenerative practices in my plots. Seen some amazing things from plants. Really cool if you're into that sort of thing.
From: Zbone
02-Nov-21
That's funny, but I seen rye growing in the back of a pickup truck bed once while working for a reclamation outfit when I was young... It's hardy stuff, they also seed it first in poor soil after reclamation projects... You'll see it a lot along road work projects around here...
From: Yasla
15-Nov-21
Area 1. cant get it to rotate ??
Area 1. cant get it to rotate ??
Update- has been just about a month since putting the rye out and clear answer- it took and we have green coming up. All 5 areas look about the same, can see a green hue from a distance though its not like a green carpet or anything. Most plants are 3-4" tall or so, in looking around i could see many had tips that were browsed off. Overall, its not going to feed an army but i am pretty happy with it, would call this a success over not having anything at all out there. Will update again when it makes sense! thanks for the guidance.
From: Yasla
15-May-22
Just a stripe of rye, had three stripes like a turkey foot, with tree stand at the joint. It was raining hard when I put this down, and in this spot, seed settled in the rows.
Just a stripe of rye, had three stripes like a turkey foot, with tree stand at the joint. It was raining hard when I put this down, and in this spot, seed settled in the rows.
Planted this sept 15, a month before the question that started this thread. Was 6-8” during season, and saw deer often feeding in it.
Planted this sept 15, a month before the question that started this thread. Was 6-8” during season, and saw deer often feeding in it.
Last pic. This field had been manured but not planted, also sept 15. Planted acre of winter wheat (l) side by side with acre of winter rye(r). Rye came in just bit better, and we had deer prefer it.
Last pic. This field had been manured but not planted, also sept 15. Planted acre of winter wheat (l) side by side with acre of winter rye(r). Rye came in just bit better, and we had deer prefer it.
Quick update. There wasn’t significant growth beyond that November update as you would guess. But deer seemed to be eating what was there, easy to find signs of browsing during hunting season. Fast forward to now. All of these look great, not sure if it’s worth much for deer or turkeys here in spring as there is a ton of other food like alfalfa growing nearby. Nevertheless, some pics.
