Does anyone have any experience with Double Nickel seed? Found a dealer near me not too far to drive to. I’d love to avoid shipping costs. Along with that, please let me know of anyone with reasonable shipping prices. They also sell some grasses I could use for screening or breaking up the larger plots. Hoping to find a nice perennial for that. Thanks!
Double Nickel Seed?
- Thread starter Matlax
- Start date
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Welter Seed & Honey pays for 1/2 the shipping on some seeds. The reality is that we all generally pay shipping for seed. It is either bundled into the price of the seed or you pay for it explicitly. When you buy from the local coop, the shipping is less because they are having tractor trailer loads of seed delivered vs UPS to an individual property.
I buy most of my common seed like cereal from the local coop, but I do order some seed on-line from places like Welter or Handcock. It just depends on the seed which is least expensive. It it is close, I'll use the coop to support the local business.
Can't help with Double Nickle specifically.
I buy most of my common seed like cereal from the local coop, but I do order some seed on-line from places like Welter or Handcock. It just depends on the seed which is least expensive. It it is close, I'll use the coop to support the local business.
Can't help with Double Nickle specifically.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
It is a matter of matching the characteristics of the seed to your application. In my case, there is no substantial deer preference between different cereal grains. I choose WR over the others because of the soil benefits and low fertility requirements. I've also done away with traditional tillage and got to no-till and T&M for my plots. WR has better germination rates when surface broadcast on my soil than oats and WW. I see no difference between branded and VNS WR. With daikon radish, I see zero difference, so I go with the least expensive, which is usually Groundhog radish. I find the same with turnips.
It has been a while since I've used chicory, but there is a difference there. Some chicories have lower tannin content than others which makes them more palatable to deer. I also find differences in clovers. My go-to clover has been Durana. It is an improved clover that I can by outside a mix. (Some BOB companies only sell their improved clover as part of mix with inexpensive annual clover like Berseem making the cost per pound of the improved seed astronomical). The characteristics that fit my application are drought resistance and persistence. It is slow to establish, but if you follow best practices of planting it in the fall with a WR nurse crop, and mow the WR in the first spring back to 6-8 inches each time it gets much taller than a foot, it establishes well.
In general, I find the coatings to be a negative. They generally decrease the number of seeds per pound. If the field has previously been planted with a legume that uses the same inoculant, there is usually enough in the soil (especially with no-till and min-till operations) that pre-inoculated seed is not necessary. It is cheaper to inoculate yourself if it is necessary.
It has been a while since I've used chicory, but there is a difference there. Some chicories have lower tannin content than others which makes them more palatable to deer. I also find differences in clovers. My go-to clover has been Durana. It is an improved clover that I can by outside a mix. (Some BOB companies only sell their improved clover as part of mix with inexpensive annual clover like Berseem making the cost per pound of the improved seed astronomical). The characteristics that fit my application are drought resistance and persistence. It is slow to establish, but if you follow best practices of planting it in the fall with a WR nurse crop, and mow the WR in the first spring back to 6-8 inches each time it gets much taller than a foot, it establishes well.
In general, I find the coatings to be a negative. They generally decrease the number of seeds per pound. If the field has previously been planted with a legume that uses the same inoculant, there is usually enough in the soil (especially with no-till and min-till operations) that pre-inoculated seed is not necessary. It is cheaper to inoculate yourself if it is necessary.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Winter rye has low fertility requirements and will grow in lower pH soils. It has some allopathic properties that make it more effective against weeds (one reason it makes a good nurse crop for clover). It generally produces deeper roots a more biomass which eventually adds OM to the soil.
The key for producing OM is first avoiding tillage so oxygen is not introduced into the soil to burn it faster, and then selecting a balanced mix of carbon (grasses, cereal, ...) and Nitrogen (legumes like clover, beans,...). Over time this builds OM.
The other cereal grains have benefits too, but WR is my go-to cereal grain.
