Puny, they just look puny this year! Those Austrian Winter Peas are supposed to be 30″ tall like 2009…well, with less than 2″ of rain in NW Ohio since mid-July, I guess they look pretty good…but still puny. THAT is why I take a shovel with me…I want to see what they are really doing IN and TO the soil. Take a look at this video to see what I found. Thanks to Greg Fretti from CISCO for helping video this segment so I could dig.
What do you think? These videos are incredible! Could you please if possible mention the seeding rates used?
Brett, Great idea! On the Pea/Radish Mix the Mixture has ~30# of Austrian Winter Peas and 5# of GroundHog Radish. This combination seems to offer good ground cover, good N producing coverage and very good soil-busting, N-scavenging, radishes. The biggest issue on this mixture is getting the peas deep enough and yet not sink the radishes too deeply into the soil. While working with farmers we have found that the radishes can be as deep as 1 1/2 inches when planted with peas and work very well. However, when planted with Crimson Clover and annual ryegrass the radishes do well planted at 1/4 to 1/2 inch as well…and they do well flown into standing corn and soybeans. The peas MUST be incorporated around 1/2 inch or more to get an adequate stand.
Erosion control is an ongoing battle in today’s atmosphere. Its much more crucial we remain environmentally conscious whilst we begin to develop further into outling areas
hydroseeding
I agree that erosion control is a very big issue. That is one reason that I promote good soil coverage with cover crops. I know of a company that recommends about 1/2 the seeding rate that I often do and when looking at their products in plots and fields it provides about 50% coverage. I realize farmers want to save money on cover crop seed…but let’s make sure we have enough coverage to do what we want, controlling erosion should be at or near the top of everyone’s list…but sadly it often is not. Thanks for your comment!
There are some interesting cut-off dates on this article but I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There’s some validity however I’ll take maintain opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as well