Too late to overseed? My greenfields look bad and was trying to hold the deer on them. Figured they would like the tender sprouts? Or should I cancel my plans due to the cold air coming? Thanks

I’d spread it. A little rain and a few days of sun should get it going.

crimson clover

I've hit mine with Ammonia twice. Good color just no volume. Property adjacent to me didn't plant any plots this year and mine can't keep up. Didn't put cages out but there's a pine limb that blew down in the storm. Grass in/around it is 6-8" high. The rest looks like a golf course.

Im not sure about rye but i threw out a bag of oats around Thanksgiving just ahead of some bad cold. A couple weeks later it started sprouting. Got a pretty good little greenfield now. I figured i was wasting the seed

We overseeded w rye multiple years when hogs tore us up bad - came up good - deer hammered it

Not too late with Rye. That stuff will take off the first day it gets warms enough to germinate. And yes, the deer will love it.

Remember to get Cereal Rye and not Rye Grass. We have had great success with Abruzzi Rye in SE Alabama on sandy or sandy loam soil.

Don’t put rye grass in a green field. Deer don’t eat grass. You want to plant cereal rye, not rye grass.

I’ve had great luck with annual rye grass. No drawbacks for me. Deer hammered it and only lasted a year.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it

I just threw out a bag of Jackson ryegrass. That’s all I was able to find

If you’re in North Al I don’t think you’d get enough growth to help you , if your in lower Alabama - go for it !

I used to hate on rye grass till I planted a perfect foodplot of oats and clover and wheat and others, and my dad planted rye grass for his cows right next to it and all I ever saw deer in was the rye grass. I would put out rye any day of the year and expect it to grow

Ruger8 - I heard a ton of guys super hate on rye - I use to hunt in club that only planted rye - saw more deer Than I ever saw in my life - see 30 some hunts - best club I was ever in

It’s not what I plant now - but I would throw it in a heartbeat if I needed to - those were The prettiest fields I ever seen and they usually full of deer

People will argue with you in what you said you saw in comments above even though you were the only one here to see that comparison 🤣

I don't know why people post that deer won't eat Ryegrass, or don't eat Ryegrass. They absolutely will and do. I don't plant Ryegrass in my plot on the farm, but there's a lot of wild Ryegrass in our hay field. The deer absolutely do eat it and appear to like it pretty darn good. It grows in clumps in the hay field, not thick like it was sewn and they eat the clumps to the ground. It's not like they just pick at it. I think there is some confusion that cereal grains are something special and that Rye grass is just grass. The blades of vegetation on cereal grains are "just" grass in the same way that the blades of vegetation on Ryegrass are. They're both grass. They both produce (seed) grain.

Having said that, to the OP, you'd be better served to plant cereal Rye, instead of Ryegrass because it's faster to establish. It is the most cold hardy of any winter annual.

I think rye just stays tender to their pallets.

They will hammer marshal rye. Don't know why anyone would say otherwise.

It will need a warm day or two. We are in Alabama so it will happen. Once it does , you'll be fine.

The reason rye grass food plots look better, too, is that it fixes nitrogen unlike wheat, oats, or rye grain. That extra bit of N provided by the roots of the grass benefits everything growing around it, and it's probably why deer hammer it all winter long, because it doesn't need fertilizer to keep tender growth going. The plots that I've mixed in the grass look great right now. Low to the ground, but still bright green.