Phosphates are very high on this property from manure spreading, so I won't be adding any manure here. Its not an option because of the short growing season here and I'm growing pumpkins, squash and some sweet corn. Soil temp is crucial when planting and with all the trash on the soil with no till the sun doesn't warm it enough early enough.
Cover crops can certainly help deal with the high phosphates. Well, you're way out of the climate I'm used to so you know better than I about your growing seasons and soil temps. I will add though that I can easily see that argument for the corn but not the pumpkins and squash...outside of just being a tricky crop to no-till in to start with. Old plate planters can be rigged wit ha blank plate and setup on no-till to plant pumpkins and squash though, I have one here that's an old 56U IH and it works great. I'd think as late as pumpkins and squash can be planted that soil temps wouldn't be much of a concern...but like I said you are way the heck up there too. I have met some farmers at soil health conventions from Wisconsin that were or have already, converted to no-till and cover crops.
In the southern half of the state, yes guys are converting to no till. Up here, not so much. I'm on the edge of zones 4a and 4b. Our cabin is 40 miles away as the crow flies and is in zone 3b. Where I farm the pumpkins and squash, average last frost date is May 20 and average first freeze is Sept 20. Now, the pumpkins I plant have a 105-115 day maturity. So no, no till is not an option for me because of soil temps and a short growing season. As for how I plant them, I have a Matermacc vacuum planter that I can change the plates on to plant seeds as small as lettuce all the way up to pumpkin seeds, if I wish. I don't plant them by hand, lol. If I really wanted to use it no till, I only need to put on some trash sweeps. But again, that's not going to happen. So, my question is still, can I incorporate winter rye into my soil in the spring with my cultivator? Do I need to spray it first or not? Or, is there something else I should/could plant?
You could do that plastic mulch thing we talked about before. You need another implement anyhow. :D Extend your growing season and use less water. Win-win. LOL When you pick your early sun-scaldable pumpkins you could put in some buckwheat. It grows fast and croaks off completely at the first freeze. (hey, it's better than no green crop)
I had hoped for your sake that you didn't plant them by hand, just didn't know if whatever you were using was capable of being converted to no-till. Already answered the original question. If you're going to be confined to conventional tillage then killing out the rye shouldn't be a concern fro ma purely termination standpoint but like I said before, a field cultivator isn't going to work to till in the residue, it'll likely just clog up. Only hope of working it in with a FC is to mow it first and get the residue chopped up enough to flow through the implement. Really if you need to incorporate the residue, plowing is hard to beat and then the FC would finish it. It's going to be a chore either way without a disk.
I just absolutely hate plowing. Lol I may get a disc, but I'll probably wait another year and a half when I trade this tractor in for a little bigger one. This one is only 83hp and I would like a 105-115 hp. I'll also most likely sell this planter for a 4 row exactly like it.
Hahaha, I hear ya...I do too of course I hate even running a disk or field cultivator now. SO much faster and easier spraying and no-tilling, I disked a food plot a while ago and thought to myself "this sucks". Sometimes it's a necessity though. Northern climate and shorter growing season challenges fascinate me. Just enough to be interested..not enough to want to try to make it work though.
I checked out their site, those are a slick looking setup. I experimented with no-tilling in some pumpkins this summer. They are okay but I need to apply some hard earned experience into next years attempt and one of those planters would be sweet. Tractors are like bucks...the idea of a bigger one is always attractive.
You're lucky when you consider the OM in one of my plots.... .3 and sandy loam. Hoping to up that number a little though when I mow down the cowpeas that the deer didn't hit too hard. I guess it just takes time.
You will have a heck of a time trying to use a digger (field cultivator) to incorporate and rip out the winter rye if it is left alive. It will plug it so bad I guarantee you will use every curse word you know.
