Rye or wheat???

Which germinates easier when broadcast into standing brassicas?

Planted daikon radish yesterday and plan on broadcasting grain into the radishes in 5 to 6 weeks. I've never broadcast grains before so want to get the most bang for the buck when I do. 5 acres.

Rye grain...for me wheat always wants either really loose like recently tilled or dirt over it...

I plant it all together and did Thursday. Our normal plant date is the 1st of September but we have had so much rain with lots of future chances so decided to just go ahead and take advantage of it...

Rye.... it will grow anywhere

I have the same luck with both (both will grow in the bed of my truck and I've never had a failure with either one in a plot). Even though they both germinate and grow well on my place, deer prefer to graze the wheat.

Split the difference and use triticale if you can find it. Otherwise, I’d do the Rye.

Rye will germinate easier in broadcast applications, will do better in poor soil conditions, and grow in slightly lower temperatures than wheat. In some comparisons wheat is preferred by deer over rye. The number one reason why I plant fall rye is that in our area it's the only green thing around in late winter, deer will often be digging into the snow for that green rye.

Rye germinates in the pickup bed, on the flat spot by the PTO connection, on the brush hog and on top of the tractor rear axles and it grows in those soil less spots. That is just from either spreading it or driving thru or brush hogging a rye field with seed ready. Last year the deer preferred the winter wheat over even BFO oats and way more than they did when the fields were mostly planted in rye in 2016 and 2017. Some years the deer preference is not so obvious and most years here nothing touches BFO as far as deer preference. The winter wheat fields this summer have so many weeds in them that harvesting clean seed is not possible. Had very few weed seeds in the rye and triticale fields harvested in 2017 and 18. Rye is the first green here when the snow melts. So rye is both better than wheat and not as good as wheat depending on the goal. That is why rye and wheat were hybridized/crossed to produce Triticale(hoping for the best of both worlds). Given a choice, I'd use all three in the same field to feed deer in the fall, winter and early spring and to hide fawns come spring. If I had to use just one it would be Rye here. Luckily all three are usually readily accessible here.

My rye last winter in the middle of February. This strip was full of deer every evening. If you zoom in you can see that it looks like someone mowed it.

I use triticale and rye here, at 25 lbs rye and 75 lbs triticale. I basically do this because the triticale is about 25 percent cheaper but I still want the rye stocks for throw and mow next year. This is my first year at this ratio.

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Thx for all the replies guys. Rye it is!

Will rye germinate with minimal rainfall?

I have had my rye NOT germinate in September with some pretty good dews....and maybe a tenth or so of rain. This is following some extremely dry conditions. The seed was also surface broadcasted into minimal thatch.

This is just one situation. Rye isn't a miracle seed. It does take some moisture to get going.

rye will wait around a couple weeks in my experience. The deer really like my rye early in the fall when its new - it never has the same attraction again - but also never goes unused. the first 4-6 weeks is best. If fall attraction is the goal - Its better in my opinion to plant it later - so that it goes dormant before its a lush field.

Either IF it ever rains. Being where we are I wouldn’t go either until after Thanksgiving or you’ll just be feeding the turkeys and doves.

Radishes are up. Need a lil' luck with the rainmaker. Rye will get broadcast ahead of a rain event in bout a month.

IF you’re lucky. Let me know when you plan to do it so I can be sure not to plant a rain shield.

You’ll be lucky if those radishes survive.

THE LLC said:

IF you’re lucky. Let me know when you plan to do it so I can be sure not to plant a rain shield.

You’ll be lucky if those radishes survive.

Click to expand...

THE LLC said:

IF you’re lucky. Let me know when you plan to do it so I can be sure not to plant a rain shield.

You’ll be lucky if those radishes survive.

Click to expand...

Need mother nature to cooperate with some rain over the next month. I've never planted this early but thought I would plant well in advance of 1st frost to get as much growing time as possible. I know they're relatively drought tolerant but the heat over the next couple of weeks is a big concern. We shall see what this looks like come mid October when the grains will go down.

Yep, used the same thought process in 2016 then it didn’t rain again until early December. I literally have pictures somewhere of my plots the week after Thanksgiving that looked like they had just been plowed. And that was done in early September. I’ll see if I can find one of those.

Worst part is September SUCKS then October is the driest month of the year. It really is amazing we ever get anything to grow in the Fall. Good thing antlers are done growing by then.

Is it just La. or maybe the south but elbon rye is either unavailable or stupid expensive? I'm going with wheat this year at 9.50/50