Hello all!
Thank you to all who responded to my question. Good info.
Original question:
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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.
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