too late for cereal rye cover crop?

10/24, was plannin on starting monday but a few guys saying its too late for any real benefit. On sandier soils, bean stubble. Looking for benifit of mellow soil in spring for no tilling corn or oats, hopefully recycling available nitrogen, heavy rain soil infiltration as some areas are prone to washing out. Opinions?

Depends on the weather get rain and it stays warm you might get lucky however if it freezes early and stays cold it won't grow. I'm in southern wi and gave up the idea already and you watch it will be a mild winter and it would have been ok

It probably will sprout but it won't grow much and you may not get any tillering.

Plenty late, it is a crap shoot.

When I was a kid my dad planted rye while it was snowing. Next spring we had a great crop. We grew it as a plow down every year to mellow our clay soil.

I don't know the weather patterns where you are, but they say cereal rye will germinate and grow later than anything else. any time it gets above 40 during the winter, it will grow a little bit. Here (Long Island) it is not too late to plant, but it would have been better to have planted it earlier. I'd try it- any growth you get will help to reduce erosion.

(quoted from post at 16:01:06 10/24/15) I don't know the weather patterns where you are, but they say cereal rye will germinate and grow later than anything else. any time it gets above 40 during the winter, it will grow a little bit. Here (Long Island) it is not too late to plant, but it would have been better to have planted it earlier. I'd try it- any growth you get will help to reduce erosion.

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I'm in SE nebraska. I planted it last year in mid Nov and it worked out great!

I'm planting some here in Ohio today, it will still get to 12-18 inches high by spring planting time. I have always thought that a rye cover crop will cushion the impact of the rain and not pack the ground like un-protected ground and it gives grass seed a chance too... Years back some around here would run a 12 volt grass seeded on the back of the combine and make a place to keep a few bags of Rye on the bonnet of the old Double O combines, they would hook the seeded up to the electric header switch,,they would get a good stand of cover crop that way. Of course this would not work out on the machines of today...

I would say that is a crap shoot at best north of me this late.

It will germinate, but in a normal fall and winter from this point on, I don't know that you will get enough growth to notice anything, especially going to oats. If it were going to beans or something you planted mid to late spring it would have a chance to grow in spring a bit, but not with oats and corn.

If you have the seed sitting there, worth a chance I guess, but I would bet it ends up more cost and hassle than it was worth at this point in time.

Certainly woulda planted it before this rain, not after........ Every day counts.

Worked up a field road real late here, just before I combined, it was so rutted from a ditch cleaning and had so many critter mounds I couldn't drive on it any more. Put in a big mix of turnip, clover, alfalfa, waterway grass seed, oats, and a bu of rye. Wanted something green by freeze up, and want a bit of grass to catch next year. The worked up ditch grass will actually take over in two years, so doesn't matter if what I planted really takes or not. Forget what day I did that, was too late for good results, but probably last couple days of
September.

You can see how the critters felt about my efforts.

Paul