Sandy Soil

We have a few spots in South AL that have a predominately sandy soil composition. We have tried wheat for the past 20 years with little success. We have seen an increase in productivity with throw & mow using wheat. Anybody having success on sandy spots with something other than wheat? Thought maybe a Rye & Crimson Clover mix. Hope to offer up some kind of food and maybe help build the soil a little.

I like oats, either BFO or Coker.

Have you soil tested? Sandy soil has a tendency to have low ph. I have 2 properties with very sandy soil that I lime to keep ph at 6 or higher that will grow some of the prettiest green fields you've ever seen. We plant oats, wheat, rye and clover in the fall and iron clay peas, milo, sunflowers in the spring

Lime, Lime and more Lime. Lime every year. I took sandy soil with a 4.0 PH and got it to 6.5 but I limed it every year.

The biggest key to sandy soil is building and conserving soil organic matter. That's what provides you with all your nutrient holding capacity in sandy soil. If you don't build up and maintain a nice black layer of organic matter across the top of your sand then your nutrients are gonna quickly leach away. Nutrients like lime need something to bond to.

Cereal rye is one of the best things to grow in poor sandy conditions...either elbon or wrens Abruzzi. It out performs other cereals in poor conditions.

^^^
This. I have lots of sandy soil. And I'd definitely say this and lime. Once you get the OM layer on top, you can mix up your seeds back to wheat, oats, rye, etc.

This area was like the surface of the moon. First planting I disked in millet then alternating Cereal Rye and Millet for the past several years (had to do rye/oats/wheat last year because rye was through the roof.) 17-17-17 about 200lb/ac