fall planting grains questions

Hi all--

I've got some grain/pseudograin growing questions and figured the brain trust here would have answers more applicable to my small garden system than my extension agent....I'm in north central Ohio (zone 5), on heavy clay soils, though I have amended the garden with poultry manure and compost and built raised beds to improve drainage. Pasture soils are brick clay subsoil (not kidding--the original farmhouse on the road is made from bricks formed and fired on the site) with a thin layer of topsoil. So I have the following questions:

1: I am looking to overseed grains/pseudograins into the pasture to improve diversity and tilth, and I'd like to add things with taproots to break up the clay layer if I can. Parsnips grow well for me from fall sowings and are readily eaten by the sheep. I'm looking at adding forage radishes and turnips as well as chicory and clover to the pastures. Are these reasonable additions? Is fall sowing reasonable for these? Any other recommendations?

2: I also have gotten field peas, barley, oats, rye, and hard red spring wheat as possible grain crops for my and the poultry's use. I know I can sow rye as a fall crop, is the same possible with the barley and oats? Regarding the spring wheat--can I sow that in the fall as well, or is that better as a spring sown crop? And I'm assuming that field peas would also be spring sown?

3: I've also gotten flax seed--as a source of spinnable fiber as well as food source for me and the critters--and I'm assuming spring sown for that. Is this correct?

I know this is a ton of questions, and realize I have a lot to learn about these crops....All help is very much appreciated in advance!

Hi Catherine,
I don't know about a lot of those, but I think you are on the right track with radishes and turnips for helping to break up soil. Those diakon radishes are a well known for breaking up soil. I'm not sure whether sheep like them.

As to the wheat, you do not want to plant the spring wheat in the fall. There are specific varieties that are meant for fall sowing. Get ones of those varieties and you should be fine.

Hi Matt--

Thanks for the quick response.

Re the radishes: I suspect my sheep will eat them as I haven't found much they won't eat, and if they don't the plants/roots can still compost down and improve the soil. I know that when I've added forage turnips to my pastures in the past they've been favored by the flock, but radishes seem to have a stronger flavor at least to me.

Appreciate the info re planting the wheat (and the other grains). It jives with what I was thinking. So I'll source some winter wheat to go out in plots with the other grains this fall and hold the spring wheat until March-ish.

Hi, Catherine, that's a good plan for both improving the soil and feeding the sheep and yourself. I just want to add that if you have extra seeds, flax would be a good choice for fall sowing too. The plants will be flowering by the time of first frost if you sow right now. Not enough time for flax seeds but it's always a good thing to have more plant diversity and roots in the ground.

How do you plan on sowing all the seeds? Broadcasting into existing vegetation or you have a better way? My backyard soil is similar to yours or worse. It's basically just subsoil and I am trying to get more plants to grow as part of my soil building project.

Hi May--

Great thoughts and questions!

I hadn't considered planting flax this fall as I was focused on a seed and fiber crop from it next summer. However, I may plant a bit of it just to see how it does.

You have my sympathy regarding your soil! I find that the more I can get organic matter into mine the better off I am--everything from leaves (I've been known to ask my friends in town if I can have their bagged leaves in the fall) and wood chips (the power company will drop a couple of loads of fresh chips at the top of the drive when they're trimming in the area if I ask) to poultry manure (I deep litter so it's usually pretty well broken down by the time I clean out in the spring). One good thing about my clays is that they are "sweet" soils so acidity from manure and compost isn't generally a problem....

For overseeding the pastures my plan is to scatter the seed into the mulch hay left as the sheep finish the round bales. Basically, they eat all the good stuff but leave the stems and anything that's a bit moldy which I then spread over the pastures to both provide surface cover (they're in a "sacrifice pasture" right now where I've purposely let them eat the grass down to nothing so I can reseed it) and start the seeding process with the orchardgrass and clover seeds that's in the bits of hay that they've left.

I may also play around with "frost seeding" in late winter/early spring, where I broadcast seeds as the soil starts to thaw and let the freeze/thaw cycle work them into good contact with the ground. The issue there is that for larger seeds they'll be pretty visible to birds, but we'll see.

The grain crops for me and the birds are going to go into tilled soil in the garden--turn the soil in each raised bed then broadcast and rake. I may add a light top dressing of composted wood chips just to hold in a bit more moisture, but if I time it right and do the seeding before we get a soaking rain that may not be needed. We'll see how it goes--if I've learned anything it's that my best plans are subject to change depending on the vagaries of the weather and the wildlife.

I clicked on this post on my lunch break. I came in from sowing some hard red winter wheat in the plot from which I pulled flax yesterday.

I don't have clay soils, but I do have a very sandy, not very rich soil. What I decided to do is sow wheat and buckwheat together. The buckwheat will get killed by the frost, but the wheat will benefit from the extra nitrogen as it gets established. I'm trying not to till any of my plots. The flax was planted after a mid-summer planting of rye last year. It was winter-killed and I basically, just raked the plot, then broadcast the flax into it.

Before that the ground has been covered by black plastic for about 4 years in an attempt to kill some black swallowwort that had begun to take over. That definitely did a number on the soil fertility, but it did leave a plot where I can sow grains and other crops. I'm trying to come up with a plan for a seven-year rotation for a bunch of plots of about 10'X10' so that I have a fiber crop each year, and raise some crops for chicken and people food. But I need crops that can pretty much take care of themselves after planting. I can't irrigate, and my drainage is really really fast. I'm in zone 3, so I'm pretty limited.

I've heard of a perennial variety of flax and I'm really interested in that. My zone is too cold for the perennial grain Kernza, or I'd be growing that for sure.

Thank you Catherine for your excellent questions and thank you everybody for your comments and answers. I'm quite interested in other options for my multiple 10X10 plots!
Thank you in advance,
-Ellen

Hi Ellen--

I hadn't thought of sowing buckwheat and wheat together. I may get some seed and give it a try, though given it's the end of August and our first frost is about a month away I don't know if I can do it this year. I've never heard of perennial flax, so I'll have to look that up. I do know that nettles produce a quite spinnable fiber (in fact some fine historical linens from parts of Europe are from nettle fibers rather than flax) and are perennial with the bonus of being nutrient dense foods for humans and critters as well as being a host plant for several butterfly species.

I too am looking for a rotation that lets me reduce the weed load, grow stuff for myself and the critters, and provide a useable fiber in my zone 5/6 climate on my heavy soils. It might be worth comparing notes even though our climate zones and soils are a bit different. As an aside, I grew up in zone 4 (Adirondacks) and I can't imagine what zone 3 is like--you are a hardier soul than I am!

So my current plan in the garden is to turn the sheep out to graze down the dock (have to fix the garden fence first--turned them out a couple of days ago and within 20 minutes the flock had found a hole and were happily grazing a different paddock) as short as they can get it, then turn to get the roots (which will go over the fence to them to eat and I'll save some back for a yellow dye experiment), then sow with my fall grains. I'm also seeding through the loose hay that's spread over their last paddock (leftovers from the ends of a couple of round bales) with a mix of pasture seeds including clover and chicory with some brassicas like forage turnips mixed in. I've got rain coming early next week so I'd like to get things in the ground sooner rather than later and let the water muddy everything in.

Appreciate all the information from all of you. Please keep the ideas and comments coming!