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Roanoke, IN | If waiting until after harvest to seed a CC I think cereal rye would be that only thing that will establish reliably. But you won't get much fall growth if you're looking for ground cover. Most growth will be in the spring. Last year I seeded some in corn stalks and all it did was sprout and then went dormant. It did have very nice spring growth.
You can get ryegrass to do well after early beans, but in late beans or corn chances are it won't make through the winter. For our area (I'm in NE IN too) I would shoot for no later than the last of Sept / 1st Oct.
Another option would be oats. In the early fall, they grow quickly and will survive until Dec or so and you don't have to worry about killing it in spring. You can also frost seed oats in the spring ahead of beans. I wouldn't do that ahead of corn because of N issues.
Unless you can get beans off the first week of Sept, I don't think radishes will be that cost effective, not enough time to grow. As for cost, oats would be the cheapest $10/ac, then ryegrass $13/ac, then rye $15/ac. It is hard to harvest and get everything planted at the same time. Are you notill? Ryegrass might be your best bet if so. If convential till, dead oats worked in makes a good seedbed. Cereal rye is a battle unless it is killed early in a convential till system. What are your goals for using CC?
Overseeding into standing crop either by air or ground can widen your window. I am working on a highboy seeder similar to the one posted on here last year. I can contact you off list if you might be interested in doing something like that since we're close. Corn-soy rotation is kind of limited, but I think you can find something that works for you. | |
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Cover Crop Options - Corn-Soy rotation
