Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Throw n Mow Q&A

No, not really…..For best results you really need the seed right down on the soil surface or very, very close. Seeds have a little bit of stored energy in them and as long as they stay moist they’ll send out a little root searching for a place to take hold. You don’t want that little root to have to search very far. I broadcast clover and brassicas over the top of thatch because they're so small that the rain will work them down to the soil. Cereal grain though really need to be placed under the thatch somehow. It’s not hard to do though. Even if you already have thatch on the ground….a drag of some kind is enough to agitate seed down into it and get it covered over.

On a side note to this conversation……one of the benefits of not tilling is that you leave old root systems in place from the last crop that the new seedling roots can follow down into the ground. It’s easier for them and takes less energy to follow the old root channels than for them to forge new ones. These channels are also lined with decomposing OM and nutrients…….You don’t have to “break the soil up” when roots have already done it for you. One of the main foundation principles of soil health is keeping a living root growing. They serve a purpose sort of like the 2X4 studs in your walls…..They help maintain the structure of the soil and the “tilth”. Soil is not meant to be a tightly compacted together wad. It’s supposed to be porous….