Standing Stubble vs Chop and Drop

I'm stuck in some decision paralysis and could use some advice please.

I have a number of standing short sorghum stalks in one of my garden beds. Should I just leave the stalks standing or would chopping and dropping get it to break down faster?  We are expecting snow here in the next few weeks.

My goal is to improve the soil, am I overthinking it?

Don't know, but if the bed or around it would benefit from snow cover, I have read that standing stubble give blowing snow something to trap it.
I've read of farmers using standing dead sunflower stalks to trap snow on their land to help keep water on their land. Renewable snow fencing.

 I usually chop the tops off of my sunchokes but leave some stalk, to make it easier locate them for harvest.
I would chop and drop them down to ground level otherwise.
Chop and drop will feed the soil more and cover it more.

Would the snow do some of the work for you by knocking down that stalk stubble?

If it were earlier in the year I would say cut down the stubble.

Timothy,

My thoughts are that the stubble should be chopped and dropped.  If you are going for soil improvement, my thoughts are that the soil will improve best & fastest if that stubble has as much ground contact as possible.  I would want all those soil microbes to get to work in the stubble ASAP, but that is harder when the soil contact is minimized.  

So I vote CHOP!  And if you can, is there anything else (leaves, grass etc.) that you can pile on with them?  I would make a blanket of slowly decomposing organic matter.


Eric

Timothy, so much variety in what can happen and what is likely to happen! Because I live in an arid climate, my bias would be to leave a foot or so of stalk to catch the snow and slow the wind, shade the soil because sunlight kills microbes. But if catching as much water on your garden plot is not one of your needs, nor slowing down the desiccating winds then I don’t know what other reasons there might be for leaving the stubs.

If you have a big enough space, and are so inclined, you can try various treatments. You could cut to the soil surface I guess that’s chop and drop, you could leave various lengths of stubble,  spread various mulches on the surface, the stalks would hold the mulch in place so it doesn’t get blown away. (Can you tell I have wind?) Next year, tell us all what differences you notice in those treatments.

I would leave it at this point. In general there are beneficial insects that overwinter inside stems. if it were earlier in season I would vote to chop and drop the top half or so and leave the bottom half standing until spring cleanup. Get the best of everything. I doubt there is very much decomposition taking place in winter anyway but once it warms up in spring that stuff will go to soil pretty quickly.

Timothy,

There are good points made about leaving stubble to slow wind.  But as was stated, that applies mostly to arid locations.  I assume that upstate NY does not qualify?

Therefore, I agree with the consensus that chop and drop is the winner here.  So many reasons why--but to me the biggest one is simply that you have more decaying vegetation in contact with the soil.  In my experience, that's always a good thing.



Eric

Like Les, I leave: asparagus, sunflower, sunchokes, corn, etc to stand as habitat. It gets chopped on June 1st as mulch. I feel like it's more "edge".

I doubt if matters much at all. As long as the stuff never leaves your garden it eventually ends up back in the soil anyway. I just do whatever I take a notion too. Maybe I'd pull it all up and bury it a bit in compost or leaves with a little compost or dirt on top, or maybe I'd just leave it there and worry about it in spring. I leave thigs like cornstalks or sorghum sometimes because I just like the way they look in the snow and wind. I've also grown early planted peas on last year's stalks, or radishes or something between them.

In the spirit of experimentation, I decided to both chop and drop as well as leave some stubble to observe over the winter. At least in this way, I will have an idea which approach suits my needs for next year. I'm intrigued by the potential for stubble to be a catch for debris/snow. If this works, I might have a 'new' system for holding onto my autumn leaf piles onto soil that I want to improve.

Thanks all!

I look forward to hearing the results!

I chop if they’re inconvenient, maybe halfway, and if I want to prepare the ground, say, to plant garlic or have it clean for next year.

A lot of the time, snow knocks down wild stalks. But sorghum is too sturdy for that.

I think even in the rainy Northeast it is important to slow wind and trap snow, especially since snow helps less hardy plants overwinter better. A diversity of techniques is often beneficial too as it results in more biodiversity.

Timothy Norton wrote:I'm stuck in some decision paralysis and could use some advice please.

I have a number of standing short sorghum stalks in one of my garden beds. Should I just leave the stalks standing or would chopping and dropping get it to break down faster?  We are expecting snow here in the next few weeks.

My goal is to improve the soil, am I overthinking it?

Well, Tim, I'm in 4b, so I don't try to grow sorghum (although I'd love to).
Just being logical, it might depend on how tall the stubble is, with higher stubble not decomposing fast..
Also, smaller particles will rot faster, so... Chop, chop, chop?
If it is mower accessible, I'd mow and make sure the "mowings" end up on the bed...
This article is over my head, but I think that your answer is somewhere in there, so good luck:
https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/30100000/Before1970/before1970/22%201962%20Greb%20Agron%20J.pdf

Standing stubble (long) never as good at replenishing or protecting soil as whacked mulch laying on ground is.
It composts better and protects better in contact w the ground.

As said above, stalks are good for hibernating insects, hollow ones for spiders and pithy ones I believe are used by birds.  In nature, I imagine it's from animals eating the top half of the plant.  I'd leave the lower half.  Rodale mentioned a study in China where they reduced cotton pesticide use by 60% by just digging holes and filling them with straw over winter, so the spiders could hibernate, so... it has an effect on the landscape.

However, since nothing biodegrades without soil contact, you'll have to account for the stalks next year.  In the PNW, I'd just plant a stratifying native if I was doing succession, but you'll know your options.

Fun story, I nearly died because of those stalks - when I was, in the spring, chopping away at some of the remaining woody stalks of my kale plants, I was being very very careful not to put the axe into my foot.  Then I swung downward, and trapped my hand between the top of the stalk and the axe handle, which then got infected, and I got to experience my first enjoyment of taking antibiotics and healthcare for granted, a habit I'm glad to say I've continued to this very day.  Hooray!  Pruning saw if you're doing it by hand.

Or if you're really really manly... wrap a smouldering piece of vine maple around the stalk like they used to do around these parts for chopping down trees.
Sorry, I mean: 'round these 'ere parts.  I forgot my 'forebears were from the prairies for a second there...  For a sec' there...  F'r'a sec' ther'...  F'r'a's'c'r'....