allelopathic effect/Rye/no till

[Bigeight]

Can someone talk me through the allelopathic effect when it comes to planting things into winter rye the following spring and how the allelopathic effect works?
Fall clover plantings are night and day compared to cover crops that don't use this same process. Why does it keep weeds from germinating, yet people throw and mow, and drill into the rye the next spring with no issues??

I want to start doing this no till rotation, but stuck to winter wheat because I was scared about the allelopathic effect with the rye, but I'd much rather use the rye. Can someone walk me through how this all works??

 

[cutman]

I’m a little confused about what you want to do. Do you want to plant into living rye in the spring or dead rye (from the previous season) in the fall?

 

[Bigeight]

I'd like to do both, if it's an option. Bigger fields I'd love to drill beans into the living rye in mid May, and smaller fields I'd love to broadcast goodies into the dead rye from the previous year. Just don't understand how/IF the allelopathic effect comes into play with either of these approaches.

 

[cutman]

The dead rye will not have an alleopathic effect.

Living rye will have an effect, but you can avoid it by terminating your rye in the spring either 2 weeks before planting the beans OR terminating the rye as the soybeans are emerging. Rye produces a black ooze as it's dying that can affect germinating plants. If the soybeans have to emerge through this ooze, it will negatively affect them. If they have already emerged by the time the ooze has arrived, it won’t affect them at all.

 

[Bigeight]

So I would have to track from previous years when the weeks that the rye usually dies off and make sure I'm not timing any of my seed to actually be GERMINATING at that same time. Before and after is totally fine, it doesn't actually sterilize the soil in any way ??

 

[cutman]

Correct.

It’s difficult to work with dead rye because of how thick of mat it forms, but it doesn’t sterilize the soil at all.

 

[Bigeight]

Thanks Cutman! Exactly what I wanted to know !

 

[cutman]

You’re welcome. You should look at Bakers thread about crop rolling as well. A roller crimper is an option to terminate rye without using herbicide.

 

[Baker]

While I'm sure there is some allelopathic effect from the rye I have found it inconsequential to planted cultivars following the rye. I understand it may effect small seeded weeds or plants but frankly any effect in my fields has been negligible. I still get weeds in the thatch. None of my cultivars including soybeans, cowpeas, sunn hemp, sunflower or buckwheat show any ill effect at all.

This year is the first year I have experimented with roller crimping the rye. What I found is that the rye doesn't all mature at the same time. I was able to lay down a thick thatch that was effectively terminated by the crimper. However a reasonable number of plants weren't mature enough to be terminated and they just popped back up and in fact are standing now going to seed. No big deal just an observation. All said I see scarcely any allelopathic effect from the rye and will continue heavy plantings of it. { I drilled some fields at 150 lbs/acre }