Winter Rye field to Sunflowers. Questions...

[stevep]

I have a small field that I planted to the winter rye / clover mix last season. I don't think I used enough seed, so it came in, but really thin. (Pic below). I want to plant sunflowers (for doves) in this field in another month. My question is... since it's so thin, what do I need to do. Should I spray it to kill it, or will I be OK if I just disc it all under and then plant my sunflowers in the freshly disced plot. It certainly doesn't have to be perfect. I just didn't know if I should be spraying with Glypho, or if just discing it all under would work fine.

Thanks!

Steve

 

[letemgrow]

Small sunflower fields will get pummeled if you have a good # of deer.

 

[stevep]

Small sunflower fields will get pummeled if you have a good # of deer.

I've already got the posts set, and I'm going to try and fence it off with electric fence. We'll see how that works. Any thoughts on the question of tilling under or spraying?

Steve

 

[letemgrow]

Are you going to drill in the sunflowers if you spray it? Broadcasting on top of hard ground will not work too well so the seeds need to be planted either way.

I vote to work it up and then seed it, but then you have weeds to worry about.

 

[stevep]

Are you going to drill in the sunflowers if you spray it? Broadcasting on top of hard ground will not work too well so the seeds need to be planted either way.

I vote to work it up and then seed it, but then you have weeds to worry about.

My plan was to spray this week, disc it up a few weeks later and plant second week of may. I have a "drill" of sorts... (one of those push seeders), but the seeds will not be broadcast. In essence they will be drilled. Then I'll hit it with a pre-emergent.

At least that was the plan.

 

[letemgrow]

My plan was to spray this week, disc it up a few weeks later and plant second week of may. I have a "drill" of sorts... (one of those push seeders), but the seeds will not be broadcast. In essence they will be drilled. Then I'll hit it with a pre-emergent.

At least that was the plan.

I'd spray and drill then, skip working it up if you can press the seeds in the soil.

 

[Sligh1]

U will be fine spraying that winter rye. Hit it on a warm day. U can work it up or drill. U will be fine. I assume there's no clover in it? That's a tough one to kill but u will b good. I'm not familiar with sunflower pre emergent herbicides though so check to see if soil contact is critical like with atrazine. If so, I'd work it up.

 

[stevep]

Well... No telling if it's going to work or not, but here's where it's at. I sprayed last week, and it seemed like it worked pretty well. Everything was yellowing pretty good before I started tearing it up. I was unable to get a disc, so I ran a cutivator over it a bunch to break it up as much as possible, and used one of the little "push" planters (yes, by hand...). I'm not 100% sure it's going to work, but I've got millet as a backup if I find that in 3 or 4 weeks there's nothing growing. If nothing else it will make for a fun experiment.

If I see that they're starting to come up in any kind of decent fashion, then I'll be putting up electric fence in short order.

This exact plot was also the location of this fella's demise yesterday. SWEET! This was all scrub woods a year and a half ago. It's awesome to see how some attention to habitat makes the critters want to hang around all the time. He came in to fight off 3 jakes. Cool sight.