Hello all!

Thank you to all who responded to my question.  Good info.

*Original question*:
What is the latest into the summer people have planted and gotten a good
stand of oats/peas cover crop?  I'm especially interested in hearing from
zone 4 and 5 folks.

*Responses*:

The escape clause  on any response is how warm and damp the fall weather
will be, but bothe the oats and peas are pretty  frost tolerant, so I
wouldnt be afraid of putting them in for another month.They do pretty well
in cool temps and really  need a couple  of nights in the mid to low teens
to get terminated

We always say "legumes by labor day"

The earlier the better but after mid September not as much growth as I
would like

Here in Hartland,  zone 4, we count on getting a good stand if we plant
oats & peas no later than Sept 15th.
For planting garlic into a living mulch we aim to sow oats & peas by August
15th .

mid sept can still leave you with an ok stand... also it'll be more
workable in the spring.  Mid Aug. is ideal for biomass, but that leave
excess spring residue that makes field work hard - esp. plastic mulching.
good luck!

Always worth a shot. If it's probably too late I skip the peas, but oats
are so cheap, worst case scenario you feed some birds, and even if you
don't like birds you gotta benefit from them pooping.

--
Ryan Demarest
Naked Acre Farm
www.nakedacrefarm.com