planting winter rye this fall

[brickled]

hello,

i want to plant a cover crop of winter rye in my zone 5, michigan garden but can't do so until around nov 1st. has anyone successfully pulled it off this late into fall?

thanks for any info!

[dps]

Every year is different. It is possible that it will be warm enough to get winter rye started that late in your area, but unlikely that you will see much growth before the ground freezes. The rye will grow again in the spring, but you will lose some of the major advantages of the cover crop: nitrogen storage and erosion control.

Why can't you seed before that? Do you have a crop in place until then? Consider seeding the rye with the crop in place. At least you will get strips of rye between the crop rows. Better than nothing. If you have to remove the crop from the field later you can just mow it.

[maldonado]

rye stores nitrogen? is it a legume?