lesa
Garden Master
Looks fabulous, Steve. I'll be waiting for your progress report...
Nude Avena
- Thread starter digitS'
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thistlebloom
Garden Master
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Me too! 
hangin'witthepeeps
Deeply Rooted
Steve I am intrigued!!!!
I have heard of some people using oats as a cover crop. I was wanting to experiment in a section of dirt this winter. It's a 20 x 20 section. I would cut it by hand and save some seed to eat and feed the stalks (?) to the horses. Do oats grow in the fall/winter in 7b? How much would I need to sow in a 20x20 area? Thanks, Melissa
I have heard of some people using oats as a cover crop. I was wanting to experiment in a section of dirt this winter. It's a 20 x 20 section. I would cut it by hand and save some seed to eat and feed the stalks (?) to the horses. Do oats grow in the fall/winter in 7b? How much would I need to sow in a 20x20 area? Thanks, Melissa
- Thread starter
- #14
digitS'
Garden Master
Melissa, those are good questions . . . I think your local Cooperative Extension can best advise you.
Oats can take a frost but they could never survive subzero winters. They are used as a "winter-kill" cover crop in the north . . . but, you aren't in the north. There is also something about oats' sensitivity to light and day-length but I've forgotten what that is.
Grown as a spring crop, you could probably harvest oats in mid-summer and have time for other crops to follow them.
Oat seed might be sown at 90 pounds an acre. An acre is 43,560 square feet. Your 20 x 20 plot is 400 square feet or about 1/100th of an acre. Looks like a pound of oat seed should work for you. If the soil is fertile and moisture adequate, you may want to put a little more seed down.
Think about winter wheat . . . and check with the locals.
Steve :tools
Oats can take a frost but they could never survive subzero winters. They are used as a "winter-kill" cover crop in the north . . . but, you aren't in the north. There is also something about oats' sensitivity to light and day-length but I've forgotten what that is.
Grown as a spring crop, you could probably harvest oats in mid-summer and have time for other crops to follow them.
Oat seed might be sown at 90 pounds an acre. An acre is 43,560 square feet. Your 20 x 20 plot is 400 square feet or about 1/100th of an acre. Looks like a pound of oat seed should work for you. If the soil is fertile and moisture adequate, you may want to put a little more seed down.
Think about winter wheat . . . and check with the locals.
Steve :tools
- Thread starter
- #15
digitS'
Garden Master
My millet crop:
It could be cut for hay at this point. I saw the neighborhood tom cat out there the other day, chewing on a leaf. If I'm unlucky, he will get it all
.
It should develop fairly quickly now but, like the oats, I planted the millet really late.
Steve
It could be cut for hay at this point. I saw the neighborhood tom cat out there the other day, chewing on a leaf. If I'm unlucky, he will get it all
.It should develop fairly quickly now but, like the oats, I planted the millet really late
.Steve
