A couple of days ago we planted the first corn in one of the no-till beds. Most of the rye did what it was supposed to do and died. Some survived. The survivors i cut again with the weed whacker. As expected, where the cut rye and clover did not cover the ground thickly some weeds have started to grow. Other than a few tough perennial plants such as burdock the thickly covered areas have very few or no weeds germinating. I started the corn in 2 1/4 inch pots 3 1/2 weeks ago so they would have a head start when the no-till bed was ready for planting. They were about 6-8 inches tall with a good root system when i planted them. I put a handful of alfalfa meal as a nitrogen source where each plant was to go and worked it in as i planted. I watered them in with a solution of fish fertilizer. We had a thunderstorm the following evening which added some more nitrogen from the atmosphere.
I think this just might work!
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I'm interested in seeing how this works for you. We had fewer components to our experiment this year...basically horse barn cleanings w/woodchips on sandy scrub hardpan. Along came the Bermuda right with the sprouts of whatever we planted. I'm pretty sure we're the red headed stepchildren of the no till world, seeing as how we basically watered them when small and then didn't do much to them after that due to work demands elsewhere. But to our surprise, the purple hulls and the okra are giving the Bermuda a run for its money. They didn't shade it out, but they are competing with it and look like there's going to be some bearing. We planted pretty thickly, too, whichh makes me wonder if that had anything to do with their survival, or if the Bermuda would have choked them out more if they'd been planted farther apart. Wish we had your expertise!
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