Over Seeding?

[spencer12]

Hey guys, I have a quick question about overseeding or no till planting. I have been planting winter rye for a few years for weed suppression on a small chunk of ground on my small farm. I normally plant winter rye in the winter and Egyptian wheat in the early spring. I do this for deer and quail cover. This area is less than acre. The past 3 years I’ve harrowed up the ground and replanted the Egyptian wheat in spring. However I have found that my Egyptian wheat simply lays over due to how quickly it shoots up and how thick I plant it. Once it’s laid over, it simply gets overtaken by morning glory or bindweed and all the groundcover is lost preventing the native browse I’m trying to promote from growing.
So a couple questions, if I simply overseed the rye in spring how would I do this? Just use a spreader directly into the rye? Or should I knock it down first and then sees it? I’m thinking leaving some standing rye will provide a little support for the Egyptian wheat when it’s young. Any suggestions or tips?

 

[Triple C]

spencer - You might want to consider lightly discing the area just before greenup...say in the next 3 weeks to release the seed bank and let it go until fall. Just enough discing to distrub the soil. Should see an explosion of native forbs pop up. Then come fall, hit it with gly and let it completely die down. Then plant your fall plots in to the dead thatch.