Allan, One way to handle green rye is given in Plowman's Folly by Faulkner, not suitable for your raised bed thing, but then, in me humble opinion, neither is rye, period.
A winterkill crop like oats or ryegrass would be better suited especially since you have acres to mow before you sleep, eh? I believe, and someone jump down my throat if I am wrong, that you can make hay out of green rye and then feed it to animals. The hay part means you can save it and feed it only as needed. The animal part means they will work it into a green slurry for you, and then even produce milk, meat, wool, in the bargain. Yeah, you'll get a little less green slurry that way, but believe me, making anything like cereal rye into a green slurry takes more horsepower or patience than most of us likely have, plus your time might be better spent elsewhere. A simpleton's solution might be to mow and leave beside your raised bed for use as a mulch later on. You'll lose some magic to leaching and such, but it'll be right there when you need it.....maybe in the fall? In the tractor tool scheme, I think something like a silage chopper might do enough to beat up the stuff for composting well without the overkill implied in 'green slurry', at least to my mind..... Re late frosts, if it makes you feel any better (misery loving company and all) they had one in the Niagara region of Ontario too. You should expect late frosts, you know after Blue Ridge comes the 'M' word, eh? At least from time to time....but those vineyards in the Niagara region don't expect it..... On to small scale things, I grew rye to maturity once in a small patch, Gene Logsdon-like, and used the dry straw both chopped and whole----both ways worked to deliver aeration into the green stuff. I certainly agree with what's been said about getting a mix of sizes and shapes of materials for composting. I am, since my youth, a big fan of rameal chipped wood for a bulking agent and fungal food in composting, as well as a dandy mulch for the right crops.... I have used a 5 HP chipper shredder to cut up straw, and expect it would work best on green rye if fed in bundles, butt end first. Probably also best to feed it right after cutting while the turgor is still there. I would take my screen off completely, letting the front cutter and the hammermills do all the chopping and roughing work. Mixing grassclippings, straw/leaves, and wood chips in about equal volumes, by running them together through this shredder, I never failed to get 150 F temps when I wanted them. Most of the grass clippings go in thin layers on the worm beds now, though, which saves a lot of annoying ahrimanic shredder work. They get sandwiched between layers of leaves for the sake of C:N balancing. The long and short of it, Allan, is there are likely several different things you could do with your mown rye. I agree with you that none of them include incorporating it immediately and then planting soon. I hope for your sake it is far enough along to actually be killed by mowing. There is technology out there of all shapes and sizes, able to shred everything from giant tree roots to little office envelopes. If you just want to scarify the stuff enough so that the 'crobes can get into it, putting it under your macroherd for some time ought to work, and that was just what Sir Albert did. 'Trampled underfoot' isn't just about the subway rush in New York, you know... A layer of green rye, stomp, stomp, stomp, a layer of straw, leaves, or wood chips, stomp, stomp, stomp, some more green rye, stomp, stomp, stomp, a bit of manure falls in, plop, plop, plop-----get it? :-) Frank Teuton---has recently been reminded of the power of hooves, from Belgian horses to sheep, and even birds can scratch up compostables a bit....you might call it 'macro-comminution' if you've been spending too much time at sites like this one: http://www.earthlife.net/insects/isopoda.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allan Balliett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 8:22 AM Subject: Re: Shredders for composting > >Dear Allan, > >Why not just mow the rye over with a mower and spray with Barrel Compost and > >then turn in by spade as a green manure, roots and all. Saves a lot of > >effort and still aids the soil. > >Then make a proper compost heap, with your hay and green matter and manure, > >for later use, and use your last lot of compost turned in with this lot as > >well on the raised beds. > >Cheryl > > Cheryl - > > Thanks for the suggestions. > > I'm working with acres here, often by myself. I'm going from covered > soil to raised bed that I transplant into almost immediately, hence > the raking off of the heavy organic matter, which, incidentally, > extension agents in these parts do not feel contribute substantially > to organic matter if turned in (roots, which remain in my beds being > the greatest contributers and of mass equal to the tops). I do BC the > beds right after spading-lifting-tilling. If I had money-time, I'd be > hitting all the beds with Pfeiffer Field Spray, also. > > Please let me know if I've misunderstood what you are saying. It is > not my experience that I can get right into the beds if I plow down > 'full grown' rye, even with BC > > -Allan >
