Rye cover crop

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Emily
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What is the best way to clear my rye cover crop? I planted rye in November
in a part of my garden when it was built and I will want to clear it for
May planting. Someone told me if I just trim it to the ground, it will grow
back, which would compete with my future plants I assume. But I pull out
the root, don’t I lose a lot of the beneficial bacteria and fungal
relationships? I don’t own a tiller and was hoping to be no till.
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CoastRichard
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In one of the recent webinars Dan suggested cutting the rye back now. Let the green decompose in the soil as the rye grows back. Then when decent height again, cut it back. And then after it grows back again, terminate. Now how to terminate cover crops - that is question for Dan or others. Couple no-till approaches I have read about but not attempted yet on my first year of cover cropping - cardboard, board method to bend over. Following ...
Danoost
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If you need to remove the cover crop by May, cover with a thick layer of cardboard for a month until it's dead. Remove cardboard and plant.

If you have more time, mow the crop several times when it shoots up to around 10". Then let it produce a seed head in June. When it does, cut it back hard a couple times. That's usually enough to kill the plant.
Michelle Dargatz
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We used Rye this year in our fall cover crop and I have to say that I would not choose to use it again. The beetles LOVE it, but it is difficult to terminate. We also planted some buckwheat, which winter killed wonderfully, and the worms just LOVE it! It the future, I'll be using Buckwheat over Rye and definitely add in some radishes and other fun things.

To terminate, we cut down with either a flail mower or hand shears a minimum of 3 times and then the last time I used the shears to cut just under the soil surface. This has seemed to work and I've now planted peas and potatoes in those rows. Onion transplants will be going in next.
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