A Series of Time Lapse Pictures
 

This series of pictures shows the progress of one of my small plots (0.4 acre) that was planted on 9/23 in dry dry ground. Dates at bottom of each picture.

That's neat review.

The payoff.

Looking good! Lots of green and lots of deer.

I'm surprised with all that straw and decomposing material around, the seeds and freshly germinated seedlings did so well.

They always told me that freshly decomposing mulch was a hostile environment for young plants. The decomposition uses up a lot of necessary nutrients and promotes fungus.

I was told extra nitrogen helps some. Maybe a fungicide would also help?

Your plots seem to be doing fine though. Maybe good seed and good plant type selection helps?

This plot is on its 3rd. year of no-till. The first year I did a "throw and mow", the second year was a "throw and mow, then roll". This year was "throw and roll" (no mowing at all). Results have improved each year. It seems that the better the thatch/mulch build up, the better the results. I suspect two things come into play - it hides seed from the birds and it holds moisture much better than tilled soil.

Holding in that moisture is the key, and that's why a lot of the farmers around here have made the switch to no-till. Pretty dry climate here and moisture is almost always an issue, so anything that can be done to save moisture will often save yields.