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Thumb of Michigan | Here, we've found that the radish don't like a lot of competition. I have aerially seeded them into 30" soys with some success, but have never had any luck seeding into standing corn. In your case, I think that you'll probably get a decent stand of radish that you can plant rye into, but I'm guessing that you'll limit the full potential of what the radish might do for you. Just a guess, and it may not hurt them at all. We generally spray glyphosate on wheat or rye stubble a couple of weeks after harvest, then seed the radish with a drill. I've not seen an awful lot of vollunteer small grain come after seeding- we either got it all with the glyphosate or it does in fact have some auto toxicity to small grain.
When we've grown radish for seed production, they'll be the first thing we plant in the spring. In one odd circumstance we had unseasonably warm weather the 3rd week of March (maybe 65 degrees during the day) that we've had 90% emergence in 4 days after seeding them. That field was frozen and snow covered 2 weeks previous. My point is that they have a lot of push, especially early. They were no-tilled into soy stubble in that case, so they had a little protection from frosts after. In our soils, I'd neber try to plant them that early in a conventional till seed bed, I think they'd be too prone to freezing off. The late summer/fall seeded radish will be a MUCH larger root than spring planted. I feel that the spring planted will root deeper, however. I've never measured total root mass spring seeded vs fall, so its nothing but a visual observation.
Only time I fertilize radish is for seed production. I feel I'm defeating one of the reasons I plant them in the fall by adding additional N for example. Generally, we have more than enough residual N to get them established, after that I want them to go looking for it.
One other thing- I'm not sure if you have sugar beets in your particular area. If so, be EXTREMELY careful what varieties of oilseed radish you use. Colonel and Addagio are very good at eliminating sugar beet cyst nematodes. There are at least 2 varieties I'm aware of that have been found to be a host of sugar beet cyst nematodes. Don't create a problem for yourself or your neighbors! | |
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Tillage Raishes-give me more info
