tillage radish

[flying belgian]

Any body ever plant any tillage radish? Seams like it might work good following my spring wheat harvest. I have always inter-seeded a plow down clover mix with the wheat but in a dry year I think the clover competes with the wheat for moisture and cuts down on my yield. Looks like the radish would cost about $8/acre more then clover if you count extra field trips and more seed cost so I would have to get more wheat yield or more corn yield the next year. Think I could gain it? Also can you get the radish tops through field cult in spring or would they just bunch up acting like a dump rake? Oh I'm in so. Mn. so it freezes hard over winter. The seed dealers seem to have all the answers to my questions but they are just trying to sell seed so I don't know how much credit to give their answers and the extension office just has no experiance with it but offered to reserch it for me. Still waiting for their response.

 

[usetob]

flying, from what I can find it's more for a cover crop, is that what you want?

 

[flying belgian]

I want it as a soil enhancer. I understand the roots go down very deep in a short time and gather up p and k and nitrogen then the root rots very fast in the spring making the nutriants avail to corn the following year. That is the reason I plant clover to plow down in fall but it takes up to 3 years for clover roots to rot and also like I said the clover competes with wheat for moisture and nutrients where as radish is planted after wheat is harvested.

 

[paul]

I fell into planting peas with oats, seems to add N at the right time for the oats, picked up some yield I think. Also end up with some peas in the bin, which is no problem for me but might be for some....

I tried some radish from Albert Lea Seed House last year, but I did it wrong - planted them with the oats in spring, found out they get no root & go to seed when lanted early. Oops!

Enough sprouted again behind the combine to see some grow. Odd things, if you have good fertility they really grow big, 1/2 in and 1/2 out of thye ground. In poorer ground they don't do so well. Simple observation from a less than good one year trial.

I let the cattle graze this field (it also had turnips & clover in it) so can't really say what they do for fertility & compaction busting in my case.

--->Paul

 

[rdandersom]

I haven't tried radishes but have watched a nieghbour that did in the early 90's.He used what was called oilseed radish.I don't know if it was really necessary but he always worked the ground pretty fine before broadcasting the radishes and he was a no-till pioneer around here.

I have had the same issues with clover in the wheat.I follow wheat with soys so I don't need the N the follwing year and last year had to spray the clover to get it through my 2 bar chisel even with a coulter on each shank.

This year I am planting a small plot of oats to harvest then broadcast on the wheat stubble then lightly disc it to cover.This might be worth thinking about as it might be a cheaper way to accomplish the same effect but may not rot as fast as the radish and will definitely winterkill.

I was originally going to use barley instead of the oats but was advised that barley is more closely related to wheat and corn than oats and can sometimes overwinter.

 

[Animal]

I went to an organic seminar last year and one of the speakers was from a university in Ill. He was just raving about the use of radishes. His claim was that they could do anything but churn butter. I am planning on trying them in the near future, I really wanted to this year, but it was too late when we got our crops out.

 

[chuck t]

don't know nothing about farming, but go to qdma.com and look on the forums for posting by Lickcreek. he addresses using radishes for soil enhancement for deer food plots, and he may be able to help you

 

[Tom from Ontario]

I grow oilseed radish for seed sales. It's popular around here for the dairy boys when they tear up an old hayfield, spread manure, and then put in OR. It acts as a nutrient 'sink' and will take up nutrients and hold them rather than getting them leached off. If you have real good, ground, they will flower and go to seed in 6 to 8 weeks, so folks are usually pretty careful about planting time so it is frost killed before seed drop other wise it will keep coming in following years. Yes, the big root thing is right. The tops will die and decompose over winter and unless you have an exceptionally heavy growth, it should be brittle enough in the spring, it will flow through a decent cultivator.
Last year, I couldn;t combine until middle of November and it came up through sweet clover. I'm hoping the second year of sweet clover will shade it out.
Good Luck with it.

 

[stan jefferies]

I use these from time to time, I think oilseed radish is the proper term for tillage radish. I no-till them into wheat stubble in July, then they usually get huge, die, rot and leave big holes that break compaction and they fix N. I chisel them up in spring and plant corn works pretty well. Dont just look black and white at cover crops, sometimes buying N is cheaper than what they actually put in but N doesnt build organic matter so in the big picture its usually a good thing.