plowing timing question.

dmiller

Member
Have a hay field (mostly grass, some alfalfa already sprayed with roundup about 4 days ago) that I want to plow out (chisel plow is what I have) and seed into winter wheat.
My question..
How will the ground moisture (if there is any) be effected by my plow timing? If I plow it all and then disc it (probably twice depending on how it breaks up coming out of sod) later do I want to disc soon after plowing or will it hurt it if it gets done a week later. Is this something that I should plan on doing the passes as close together as I can and get the seed in the ground or is it all right to do it spread out over a few saturdays?
 
Last fall it was dry here, I was putting wheat behind corn and disced, spread fert and disced then drilled. I was crunched for time and had a couple warm windy days in between my disc passes. I lost a lot of moisture, then the seed wheat set in the ground for 3 weeks before we got enough moisture to get it to germinate. Ended up with 45 bpa wheat, but I got lucky.
 
my opinion,and what ive always done, is to disc,and plow,then wait two to three weeks disc again,before planting. when you turn something under normaly it will tie up the nitrogen for a certain period of time,until it gets to decomposing good. by waiting to plant it seems i get the seed off to a better start.any rain that falls in between seems to get trapped better in the plow furrows than on a field disced and ready to plant.of course you run the risk of more erosion the longer you wait to replant.most of mine this year is ready to plant now,but its been so dry that i wanted to give straw a little more time to decompose. just my opinion and how ive always done.
 
I've gotta chuckle a little bit. I remember when I planted wheat after alfalfa one time. My cousin just smiled and said "you're going to laern a hard lesson about that". I did. Poorest wheat I ever grew.
 
Yea, that can be tough, hope the roundup took well....

I'd make one disk pass a 1/2 day after plowing, so the slightly damp lumps bust up yet.

OR

I would plow, wait for a rain to mellow the ground, and then disk it after the rain.

Depends on if you need to be in a hurry or can wait.

In my soil, my climate, worst is if you plow, wait 2-3 days for the lumps to dry out & turn to bricks, and _then_ try to disk it.

Actually, I used to plow, run the harrow over the field in the same direction I plowed it within 8 hours, and then disk it the following day. This got the lumps dealt with somewhat, hoped for a light rain in the next week, and could work up the seedbed nice after that.

Bottom line is, best to work it while the plowed lumps still have some moisture in them, whether fresh from plowing or after a rain.

--->Paul
 
I think you would be a lot better off letting that sod sit over the winter and rot. If you no-till you could go into it with RR beans or corn that way you can get across it with roundup again to catch the grass that didn't get killed.
 

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