Hi,
I'm pretty new to the whole cover crop thing, but this fall I'm going all in, atempting to plant cover crops in all the areas where I have bare soil. Last few days I was doing tons of fava beans and peas which are easy but today I sowed a mix of clover and vetch seeds that I bought, and my plan was to sow and then rake over them, but it didn't really seem to have the intended result of burying them. Tried just throwing some soil over them but that also didn't feel very efficient for the large area that I had sown. I figure clover is probably ok to leave exposed but I thought the vetch should be covered at least a bit...how do you all cover your seeds when broadcasting, or do you?
I usually rake before tossing the cover crop seeds on the ground, then put a light layer of aged humus and/or mulch, then water well. Never had any issues doing it that way with vetch, clover, peas, oats, rye etc..
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When I had to cover a large area with cover crop seed, I spread it around by hand and then followed up with a gentle raking. It worked wonderfully without any additional soil being needed.
If you are targeting small patches that you can approach then I would consider just poking holes with a stick and sprinkling seed in. You can then scuffle the holes closed and continue on with planting.
Try walking over the area with flat soled shoes so that the shoes don't pick up the seeds/soil.
When we do food plots we drive over the area with the golf cart or mule several times.
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If the to soil is freshly tilled, raking works just fine. Thats what i do with small grains. It's okay if some seeds are exposed. The rain will bury them.
Big seeds need deeper and there are seeders you can use by hand
If you do try driving over it as mentioned above, some soils make hardpans if the moisture content is right and the wheels heavy
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