That's interesting, especially since I just spent $300 on Nitrogen

Because most people don’t test what they read on the Internet. Ryegrass is a heavy reseeder so I wouldn’t intentionally plant it in a plot because I don’t like mono culture plots that can come in the future years, but deer definitely eat it and they like it.

When I was in the club that only planted rye - the fields looked like they were glowing they were so green

Only legumes “fix” nitrogen. Ryegrass can be a “bank” for nitrogen when used as a cover crop but it doesn’t produce it thru roots.

Agree. Ryegrass can't make its own nitrogen. It loves nitrogen applied to it, but does tend to do better than other fall crops if you need a cheap plot and can't afford to fertilize it.

Say what you want, but I put a bag of this out behind the house on a bare hillside where we had new field lines put in for our septic tank...just wanted something to keep it from washing out in a heavy rain. The area is maybe 10yds wide and 30yds long.....the deer have been hitting it hard pretty much every day.

Well it is certainly getting plenty of fertilizer.

^^^^And the grass is always greener there.

This is true as well. There's also some emerging research that's showing rye grass likely does impart some nitrogen to neighboring plants via bacterial relationships, but you can Google it.

I trust what I see, and plots planted purely in rye grass, or mixed with it, are much greener than those without. There's something going on with the way it uses nitrogen and isn't just banking it for the next crop.

Sure you're not thinking of cereal rye like Elbon or Wrens Abruzzi.......they are considered to be nitrogen scavengers.......


On the field line comment....you also have a lot more microbial activity going on

Deer eat grass

We've been planting our fields with rye grass for years. Blend of rye grass and wheat. Stopped using oats because they die so quickly. Fields are beautiful and green, and the deer eat it up.

Importantly for you, rye grass will grow quickly in anything--just needs moisture. You should have nice green fields in two weeks from planting.

I threw out some leftover cereal rye about a week half ago and its coming up

Oats die so quickly?

Some varieties of oats will disappear with a hard frost or freeze. Others are much hardier. Went round and round with a cheapskate member one year over oat selection for plots. Looking at two options(some kind off feed oat and buck forage oat I think it was) and one variety was good until a freeze andctge other was good down to 10F or something like that. The difference was $3/bag for good all season or disappears before bow season is out.

I was in a club many years ago which used mostly annual ryegrass. The deer ate it but not like what they do with wheat and oats. It'll also grow so tall and thick without heavy browsing(or mowing) that you could almost hide IN it and rope a deer.

We've never done reygeass. We had some get in some of our plots. Biologist said kill it out. We did.

I sow feed oats and they always last all winter and are there in turkey season for them to eat grasshoppers out of. Never seen any die before it seeds out. Maybe there's something different about right here and where y'all are at. 257 had said something about his daikon radishes dying out too because of cold, I have not experienced that either, my daikons always last all winter and go to seed in the spring