planting rye?

[MarkV33598]

I will be planting 250lb of rye by the end of the week. I have talked to alot of farmers in my area about disking then broadcasting or just cutting the pasture short and seeding in with the bahia. All have told me one or the other. What is your advice on this. I disked half my pasture today and figured I would broadcast half disked and half on short cut pasture. I have also been told not to fertilize until after the rye has come up because if I get no rain to germinate the fertilizer won't help anyway. What are your opinions on this? I live in central Florida and I don't think rain will be a problem. It rains here about once a week anyways. All responses will be greatly appreciated.
Thank You
MarkV

 

[flaboy+]

Mark, I just sewed some rye grass last week. I went and talked to a sod farmer who has a drill. He said he is selling his drill because it does not do the job down here with grass seed. He planted about 100 acres with it and about 100 by over seeding and the over seeding did the best. He also told me to just cut the fields short, get the excess off and sew the rye seed. He say "don't even roll it". I had just baled hay off of one field last week and I put rye seed out the next day. I have another two fields yet to go but will do the same on them. I think if I had the time I would have rolled them anyway. I expect to see germination in about 10 days. For the record, I don't fertilize my rye. It grows just fine on it's own.

 

[C HOLLAND]

FlaBoy, what type of field did you put the rye on, did you just use a spredder, or did you disk it with the blades straight.

 

[flaboy+]

FlaBoy, what type of field did you put the rye on, did you just use a spredder, or did you disk it with the blades straight.

I cut a field of Bahia with a disc mower to about 3 inches, I then spread the seed with a broadcast spreader on the back of a tractor. I put out about 40 pounds per acre. The recommended here is 24-34 pounds per acre. I did not disc it in or roll it.

As I said before I talked to the sod farmer down the road who grows grass for a living and he recommended against drilling. He did say the best way is to cut it all up with a disc, drag it, and the broadcast the seed. He also said that takes a lot of time and effort. He said with rye grass seed he just cuts the grass, gets the cut off of the ground and just broadcasts it out. This is the way I have done it for years with pretty good success. A little rain helps a lot also. My only problem is the turkey's like to eat the seed but I suspect they will only eat a small percentage.