North Central Illinois | Larry - 10/14/2021 06:41
I have never crimped rye. But looking into it. My understanding is that you can plant beans when you normally would and wait with crimping until the rye is at the right stage. Doesn’t hurt the beans much if at all.
I did that this year. Organic so zero herbicide. Previous years I have planted at anthesis and crimped later.
We were dry all season, so the moisture used by the rye took 10-20% off of yield compared to tilling rye in before planting and cultivating.
My biggest frustration with crimping after emergence is the beans got bent over in the tangle of rye and started setting pods at ground level. No matter what, I left several pods on every plant that were below the sickle. Especially frustrating with this year's prices.
I tried leaving some rye without crimping. Lost 15% yield on beans compared to crimping, but I got 25 BPA off the rye. Should have used a fuller season bean. I'm going to try that again and see whether the yield drag is less in a year with more moisture. |
Cover crop with uncertainty of chemical availability next year.
