Winter Rye

Secale cereale

$4.49 Save $-4.49

Multipurpose annual, crop that makes a great cover crop but also produces straw and an edible cereal grain for eating, brewing, and distilling. Rye is very cold hardy and will survive winter as cold as zone 3. We often plant rye mixed with hairy vetch in fall to protect bare soil over the winter. Sow it any time of year to cover any bare ground even in pathways. Can be mowed but will eventually make seed heads. 

Cover crops are plants that are grown specifically to improve soil. Though rye can be grown any time of the year, it is the most common fall-seeded cover crop in northern regions, since it is extremely cold hardy and can germinate in soils as cold as 35°F. Well-adapted for a wide range of soil conditions, rye is excellent at covering the soil over the winter to minimize soil compaction, soil erosion, and nutrient leaching and runoff. It also helps soil drying in the spring. Over-wintered rye can outcompete weeds as well as prevent germination of some weed seeds. We often plant rye mixed with hairy vetch in our fall-seeded cover crop mix and like to use it to cover any bare ground in the summer especially our pathways between beds which are mowed. Rye can be tilled into the soil (as "green manure" adding organic matter to the soil), cut and left to decompose in place as a mulch, mixed into the compost pile, or fed to livestock as a high protein meal. If left in place, allow 7-10 days after killing the rye before planting the next crop, to allow biomass to decompose slightly. This is an open-pollinated, un-named variety from Albert Lea Seed in Minnesota.

Dried rye seed heads are beautiful in dried floral arrangments.

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