Winter rye cover crop

 

I am in zone 5 and have question about cover crop.......I have small garden,
about 800 sq ft.....about 300 sq ft is now available for planting, and I
have just planted  winter rye as a cover crop/green manure......Now I am
having second thought...I have only small rotor tiller and am concerned that
the rye grass will be difficult to till in spring....any advise appreciated.

 

 cheapdave@home.com wrote:


After the rye, you won't need it.
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the
poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

 

 Billy wrote:

Depends how high it gets. Too high, use your mower with a cacher, or a
mulching mower, then till. Yep, the small tillers have a hard time with the
high cover crops, takes several passes.

 



How high is the rye likely to get? And how late in the year can you plant
it? Much of my garden has squash and tomatoes and plants that produce until
a good frost kills them, which can be as late as mid October. Can you plant
rye that late in the season?

 

On Fri, 4 Sep 2009 10:14:26 -0700, "Zootal"


I'd plant the rye now - reminds me I need to buy some seed myself. You
can plant amid the tomatoes and perhaps other plants. I'll be planting
where my zinnias are.

depending on the weather etc, my best rye crop was close to 3 feet
high. It was great looking out to a mini field of green when
everything else was dead and brown.

Kate - mid TN