If you follow my blogs, you know I am interested in cover crops. In the fall after corn and soybeans I like to plant cereal rye because there is nothing else that I can really plant that late on October or November.

But how late can one plant into the fall and get a good stand next spring?

I have seeded rye in September, October and November and even as late as Thanksgiving. And all the seedings survive come spring. But the difference is how much vegetation you see in the fall and next spring.

A September or early October seeding means you will row the stand that fall. But a late October and November seeding means you won’t row the seeding till next spring. While a late October or early November seeding will give you a good stand come spring and probably ample biomass production, a late November seeding just won’t have time to accomplish that if the winter is long and spring is cool.

Drilling rye after soybeans works in a normal year but soybean harvest was 4 weeks behind this year and didn’t get wrapped up until early November. Today (November 17) I planted 30 acres of rye into soybean stubble. It will survive and I am fairly confident it will produce a good stand and ample biomass by May 1.

However corn harvest is very late and is still on-going and I will be seeding rye into some fields as late as December 1 or after, depending on the weather. The outcome of that seeding totally depends on having an early and warm spring.