To plow, or not to plow now- for Spring Sweet Corn

[crazydave2]

Greetings everyone. I've enjoyed reading the forum for quite a while but this is the first time I have posted.

My wife and I are in the very early stages of restoring what remains of my great grandparents farm. The old tenant was finally removed in July and we've spent as much time since then cleaning, removing old fence, bush hogging, barn cleaning etc....We'll start the house renovation in the Spring (built in the 1860's)

Anyway, now that I have the poorly managed tillable acreage (about 20 acres) cleaned up and looking better than it has in 20 years according to some, I am eager to prepare for next spring.

I bought a beautiful Ford NAA, 6 ft bush hog, single bottom plow, 6 ft king kutter discs, and an old dirt scoop for 3,000 off a friend. It runs smoothly with no smoke. I try to find any excuse I can to fire it up and use it.

Knowing that I will try and grow about a half acre of sweet corn next spring to test my skills my simple question is this:

Is it wise to plow now, disc it up, and plant a winter rye marking my corn patch in order to try and control weeds, or just wait and turn it all over in the spring? Conventional wisdom points me in both directions and its almost October. I can plow it up and run the discs this week for certain, but am I too late or just wasting time and gas?

The area I am planting is basically fallow having some alfalfa, chicory, queens annes lace and a bunch of other weeds that I've cut with the hog.

How would you handle it?

thanks
david

 

[breadtrk]

Look for Tillage Radish. Perfect time to plant it is now. It will plow the soil for you, drag up nutrients from a few feet down, and add all that back to the soil when the winter freeze gets it. It will decompose rapidly leaving you with very mellow soil, ready for disking and planting this spring.

It also has high nutritional value for wildlife, becoming more palatable for them after it freezes and the sugars rise in it. My brother has been doing this for 2 winters, then a winter grain crop for 3 years, the start over again. His dirt looks good enough to eat and will grow any garden type plant he tries. He even put in telephone poles with a cable across the top a couple years ago to grows Hops for a local brewer.

 

[tony Cecil]

I would turn it now, and scatter some rye seed, just for beauty, and plan on what ever else you plan on planting…It might behove you to put some lime on the soil, as t take some time to sweeten it up…Good Luck Tony

 

[smstonypoint]

It would be best to conduct a soil test to determine the amount of lime to apply this fall and fertilizer to apply next spring.

Steve

 

[bigtiller]

For YOUR 20 acre field, most farmers in my area would disk it this fall and next spring run a field cultivator over it and plant. They are pretty much done with plowing. For food plots and gardens probably I would do something different.

Edit: Okay, I just reread the OP's question. For half an acre, not 20:ashamed: , Yes, plow this fall and till it next spring. With fall plowing, the ground will warm up and dry sooner next spring allowing you to start planting sooner.

 

[Fossil Farm]

If you have not done a soil test yet, that would be the first place to start. The rest depends a bit. How much slope is the field, how close to a stream, etc. I know PA has some additional ag. rules that other states do not. It is not too late to get a cover crop seeded, but you need to act fairly fast. Rye, turnips, oats, etc. can certainly help get some organic matter and reduce soil erosion while the tillage will help getting lime or other nutrients incorporated into the soil this fall, again depending on the field conditions. Best place to start would be a soil test ASAP. Good luck !!!

 

[Tompet]

If I read your post correctly you are only wanting to know about plowing one half acre for some sweet corn next spring, not the whole twenty acres at this time. If that is correct I would go ahead and plow that little patch this fall. You will get to fire up the tractor and in my experience by turning in the fall you will have less weeds in the spring. Winter rye optional.

I used to plow small garden plots and if someone was planning a garden in an area that was never plowed or not turned in a long time it always made for a better garden with an initial fall plowing. The turf breaks down over winter and the weeds don't get an early start.

 

[paulemar]

Plow it, disk it, plant it with the Winter Rye/cover crop seed. Plant it thick. Get that done ASAP. You want as much growth this Fall and into Spring as possible. Think of those torrential thunderstorms we get every Spring washing away your topsoil without a cover crop. I'm assuming that there are some slopes to deal with like most places in SW PA.
For sure get a soil test kit from the Allegheny County Extension Office. Info is available online, you must send for it and they'll have it mailed back to you in a week. Some feed stores or Garden centers have them available. Soergel's Orchards out Rt 79 near Wexford usually has soil test kits. Expect to need lots of lime, probably a multi year project if you must use bagged lime. The recommended lime amounts from my soil test (11 lbs. per 100 sq. ft) only brought my PH up from 4.5 to 5.7 on old an unused for 50 years section of field. I understand that they don't want a huge PH change all at once. Probably messes up the bio life in the soil. My sweet corn the next Spring was fine. I followed the recommendations given with the soil test results. I sent in another soil sample the next year and they recommended the same 11 lbs. per 100 sq. ft. My corn patch was only 5000 sq. ft.---- less than 1/4 of what you plan. Have fun!

 

[crazydave2]

thanks everyone for the suggestions. I really appreciated them. I decided to go ahead with it.

I'm looking into the Tillage Radish but likely wont have it in time for this season. I will try this next year when I do bigger stand.

I got the stand plowed and disked over a few times. I'll hit it again tomorrow morning and put the rye down Saturday heavy and cross my fingers that it wasn't too late. It's on a fairly level piece of ground for Western PA.

I never plowed/disked anything before and looking at those attachments every day sitting there got the better of me. I just wished I would have gotten to it a few weeks ago.

I was surprised the ease with which the old NAA and the single bottom turned it under. Disks turned well, but all the zerks seem plugged. Something else to do, eh?

I'd never consider doing the entire 20 with those though, it would take forever. gives me reason to buy a bigger tractor in a few years

Soil test is in order and will also take care of that this weekend.

thanks and happy growing!

 

[bullockcm]

I think your rye is in plenty early. I am 5 hours north of you and typically our seasons are around 2 weeks ahead or behind depending on how you look at it compared to your area from what I have seen over the years being there for work. I planted a small area in rye last year for the first time and didn't get it in till mid Oct. and it did fine.