Did you till the ground at all or at least disc the seed into the soil? Rye will grow almost anywhere.

 

No till - just mowed, glypho, and broadcast.

 

I took our buddy Pinefarm several years to establish his rye plots. His soil was sandy.

Anyway, hang in there.


Several nice bucks were taken this year there but his habitat work didn't happen overnight.

 

Bummer. It was very dry. Mine did not grow nearly as much as normal this year. I got germination but I disk and pack.
Guessing that you don't have a small disk to break up the ground.
Sandy soil ?

L & O

 

I do have a small disk, but I didn't use it. October was really dry also.

 

Same results. Stuff will grow anywhere, except my food plot in sand/clay.

 

Was really dry around here in that time frame.

Did you do anything after broadcast to get good soil to seed contact?


Farmer next to me leveled a hill on his field. What used to drain around the hill and through four foot culvert down the road now runs down my edge of the property through a two foot culvert and floods my yard, not helped by the fact that the idiot left the bank at the edge of my property a raw shelf waiting to erode and block the drain even more.

I sloped the berm cut out all the stumps and threw rye on it, raked it over and it grew beautifully on bare untreated orange sand.

Thinking I had something I hoed out the weeds the next year cut down all the volunteer choke cherry and sassafras, fertilized and thee down rye and the rye didn’t do crap.
Then I didn’t need the rye to stabilize the slope any more as the roots of all the weeds did that, but I wanted rye.

Oddly sunflowers will not grow on this sand either but thrive in the garden 50’ away.

 

Rye will grow anywhere had some growing in my trailer when seeds fell into a groove had no dirt at all but water to germinate looked like a chia pet rug. Problem is water if no water you need to bury it at least, otherwise Turkeys and other birds will have you wiped out before the week is over.

 

I'm willing to bet you've got some rye growing even though it can be hard to tell sometimes. Are deer attracted to your fields? Did you use an exclusion cage to monitor browsing?

I think you'll be surprised in the spring when it greens up and grows tall.

 

There is some growth....

Maybe 1 green stalk every 1-2 square feet, maybe 3-4" long, and laid flat in the ground not standing up.

...but I can't say for sure it's rye, and not the glypho'd dead grass coming back.

 

This is the first year I got rye to successful take on the 1/4 acre of sand behind my house. I attribute it to all the deer being dead

 

Do you have any cams on the plot? Could tell you whether it's eaten to nothing from browse or really didn't grow. Sounds like the latter but might not take too many deer to eat it to nothing.

 

Moisture to germinate is critical. If birds don't eat it all while it sits there it will take off even weeks later. I seeded 3 times on good soil this year with mediocre results

 

I have never seen birds eating rye seeds when I have just broadcasted into a plot. It's not included in any birdseed mix that i have ever purchased. Ryegrass seed is part of the seed mix that I planted for pheasants foverever years ago so pheasants must like that.
I'm not saying birds won't eat it, but I don't think it's a preferred seed. Wheat is a different story.
What may have happened, especially on sandy soil in dry conditions, was false germination. Just enough moisture to germinate the broadcasted seed from the morning dew and then it dies in the sun and lack of rain.
Planting next year instead of broadcasting would get better results.

L & O

 

I have never seen birds eating rye seeds when I have just broadcasted into a plot. It's not included in any birdseed mix that i have ever purchased. Ryegrass seed is part of the seed mix that I planted for pheasants foverever years ago so pheasants must like that.
I'm not saying birds won't eat it, but I don't think it's a preferred seed. Wheat is a different story.
What may have happened, especially on sandy soil in dry conditions, was false germination. Just enough moisture to germinate the broadcasted seed from the morning dew and then it dies in the sun and lack of rain.
Planting next year instead of broadcasting would get better results.

L & O

My turkeys eat the hell out of it.

 

I didn't plant this year do to no rain in the forecast. I don't think we got much rain until mid Oct. I have crap ground, pretty much sand. In years past the rye has done really well, but I don't plant unless I have a significant rain event forecasted.

 

Hey Pesky, I am assuming this is at your new hunting ground.
I am assuming you had something besides Ferns since you cut to 4".
You did not need to spray the second time, that is to kill the seed bank which will not sprout anyway in the late summer.
I never fertilize any of my Rye till the late freeze or first thing in the spring for my Clay, but you are in Sand.
You should shoot for six feet tall by mid July, not the wispy fields.

You are a young guy at 50 and can use the exercise anyway, besides you have a kid to help.
This is what I would do;

Buy a used cheaper Rototiller down at your house, get it now so you have something to work on this winter.
Leave it right out at your property covered.

Spray once first thing in the spring after it turns green then start Rototilling.
Dig and cut any roots you may hit that are at the circumference of the field.
Do not level the ground, all you are doing is packing the ground and letting pushing air out of the ground.
Buy a couple bags of Oats and a bag of 12's or 16's, no Lime, that's the last thing you want.
Throw the Oats and some fertilizer at the end of the day no matter what time of spring or summer.

Come mid August spray standing Oats to get rid of any Weeds that are there from your Seedbank.
DO NOT cut anything.
Throw your Rye heavy on the surface, the rain will flow your seed to the lowest spots and also bring the sand topping the seed.
Since you are in sand throw some fertilizer on top now.
If you can get some cheap Straw, throw that on top, it really does make a difference.
This will prevent the Birds from eating your Rye seed since they have been eating the Oats and are tuned to your field.
Fertilize again in the late winter or early spring.
Let your Rye get to it's six foot and let it fall naturally.
Weedwhack down and Rototill after and reseed with Rye but do not level.

You will be surprised how easy it is to Rototill once the original is done and may want to get some more exercise improving your plots.
Broadcast your Legumes in early spring after fertilizing as soon as it thaws.
I am a firm believer of having Deer food different than what is around for miles.
The Deer become acclimated to your food and will show up for the variety.
In your case, Small Burnet.
Once planted and taken care of you can get years or a decade with very little work.

 

I am assuming you had something besides Ferns since you cut to 4".
You did not need to spray the second time, that is to kill the seed bank which will not sprout anyway in the late summer.

Sweetfern, blackberry, and a short grass of some sort.

As for not sprouting - there is already sweetfern and grass growing back after 2 applications of glypho in August.

 

Could be totally unrelated but this year's garden I planted Danko variety rye hoping to bake pumpernickel bread.

Rats and squirrels meticulously dug up about 99% of the rye berries I planted.

 

If unable to till/disk don't mow broadcast seed then roll/crimp gly. The grass/weeds will make a thatch that will protect the seed and hold moisture. Scratching the surface would definitely help. We have fairly sandy soil on ours. I lightly disk and do it this way and it works as long as It does get wet.

 

Mostly trying to knock down the sweetfern and blackberry - which were basically 4-5' tall bushes at that point. Plenty of the sweetfern had trunk 1-2" in diameter.

 

Unusual to see rye not grow. You weren’t too late and we got enough rain in late September through October it should have grown. Next year I would mow and spray in August, lite disc or scratch the ground with something even drag a piece of fence if nothing else handy. Plant around Labor Day and drive over it with a lawn mower or 4 wheeler to help compact. Should grow, remember there is a difference between rye grass and winter rye. I just use bin run rye from the elevator.

 

I live in Ohio, have deep, dark soil. Everything grows here, except the rye I planted this year!!

 

This is why I no till drill any seed left on top for more than 4 days will be eaten by turkeys and other critters at my place. I also have sand.

 

Cousin put his rye plots in labor day weekend. Rose City/Mio area. Very sandy soil. They did establish and had green in them for opening day this year. I think you put them in any earlier the lack of rain probably hurt.

 

It was most likely a rain issue. I planted rye first weekend in Sept. October 23rd there was still seed on the ground.

 

I have a property not to far from yours and we had terrible rain for sept / oct (way too little) my guess is you did everything right but had poor germination which allowed the birds to eat it before the rain came in late OCt


TD

 

I have a property not to far from yours and we had terrible rain for sept / oct (way too little) my guess is you did everything right but had poor germination which allowed the birds to eat it before the rain came in late OCt

Seems probable.

We got about .1" the day I broadcast, then about a 0.5" a few days later... but the entire month of October had less than 0.5" for the month at the closest weather station.

 

I bet when you go back there next May the rye you planted will be thick and about three feet tall.

I can't seem to get the stuff to grow for hunting season with an early fall planting. It'll be there in the spring though! Seem to do much better with oats or winter wheat with Labor Day plantings as far as green sprouts in October, which is weird as rye is typically an easy one to get established. I just can't get it to grow in early Fall.

I have switched most of my plots to clover now and those seem to be doing really well. I'll overseed some oats and rye into them early fall.

No till planting of turnips and kale seem to work extremely well on my ground too. I plant those in late June/ early July. The deer were just pounding that plot in early October, didn't touch it for a bit, and are just starting to work it over again as of last weekend.

 

........
No till planting of turnips and kale seem to work extremely well on my ground too. I plant those in late June/ early July.
...........

The turnips grow decent size bulbs ?

L & O

 

15th years of sand farming in Lake county here.

Couple things I will add. Mostly likely just lack of water but…..

Rye hates the sedge grass that grows up north. In my experience that’s need to be all killed off completely or it won’t grow well. I’ve even had issues with it growing in dead sedge.

There is such thing as too acidic. I’ve seen me do it. It will sprout and not grow and lay flat on the ground. Even just a few bags of pelletized lime helped with that.

Many of the common food plot practices didn’t work for me at first. Ole Ed Spinazzola finally helped me to get going in the right direction.

 

Ed Spin was a true pioneer in food plotting. My best mentor for sure.

 

Carbon will change sand ground faster than anything