Volunteer cereal grain?

[weekender21]

I sprayed this plot on 17 August and didn’t get around to planting until 28 September due to work schedule and dry conditions. I expected to find a burned down plot with maybe a little green but was surprised to see a dense carpet of winter wheat.

I just assumed any volunteer wheat from last year’s planting would have already germinated by mid August. Have you seen anything similar? I’m not complaining, was only planning to plant WR due to the late opportunity. I added more than enough WR to fill in the gaps. Plenty of rain followed the next day.

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[yoderjac]

Seed can be a funny thing. They seem to know when conditions are right to germinate. Also, it depends how you handled the plot. I sometimes let WR go to seed in the spring. Even when the seed becomes viable, it is still in a seed head. I can then usually reduce my seeding rate for my next fall plant because of the volunteer WR. My planting activity seems to cause it to germinate, or perhaps it is timing.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I sprayed this plot on 17 August and didn’t get around to planting until 28 September due to work schedule and dry conditions. I expected to find a burned down plot with maybe a little green but was surprised to see a dense carpet of winter wheat.

I just assumed any volunteer wheat from last year’s planting would have already germinated by mid August. Have you seen anything similar? I’m not complaining, was only planning to plant WR due to the late opportunity. I added more than enough WR to fill in the gaps. Plenty of rain followed the next day.

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I think the ancient idiom applies here "Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth". Not knowing what happened if I had to guess I'd say it appears to be less than two weeks of sprouted growth on newly germinated seed, so my guess is that you had a thick carpet of seed that didn't germinate until a timely rain woke it up?

 

[Native Hunter]

Seed are amazing. When I planted NWSGs and killed fescue I had one field to come alive with Hairy Vetch. None had been in the field for over 30 years. Another field was taken over by passion flower. None had been seen in the field for over 50 years per my dad. I contacted a seed company and they sent sent 6 people to pick up the pods. They flattened the leaf springs on two full sized pickup trucks and filled a big horse trailer buy picking up pods on 5 acres.

In the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, "Life, uh, finds a way."

 

[weekender21]

Seed are amazing. When I planted NWSGs and killed fescue I had one field to come alive with Hairy Vetch. None had been in the field for over 30 years. Another field was taken over by passion flower. None had been seen in the field for over 50 years per my dad. I contacted a seed company and they sent sent 6 people to pick up the pods. They flattened the leaf springs on two full sized pickup trucks and filled a big horse trailer buy picking up pods on 5 acres.

In the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, "Life, uh, finds a way."

I still have volunteer vetch in that plot 3 years since I planted. Not a ton but I can always count on some!


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[Native Hunter]

I still have volunteer vetch in that plot 3 years since I planted. Not a ton but I can always count on some!


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The reason I had it was because my grandfather used it as a cover crop in a tobacco patch. After the tobacco farming was over (30+ years) it was planted in fescue and no vetch was seen anymore - until I killed the fescue.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I still have volunteer vetch in that plot 3 years since I planted. Not a ton but I can always count on some!


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Throw one hairy vetch seed on my land and it’ll spread like fire except where I want it.


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