When it comes to thriving food plots, the soil is the foundation upon which they are built. Simply put, plants can thrive in good, healthy soils yet never reach their growth and nutritional potential in poor-quality soils. Want healthy plants? The soil must provide for their needs, or you’ll be using a lot of foliar fertilizers sprayed directly on the plants. If the plants don’t get what they need, they can’t produce. Improving the soil is almost always the most effective way of providing those necessities. Cereal rye benefits soil the most from all the plantings available.
Cereal rye is an effective soil builder of organic matter (OM). OM is plant and animal residue that breaks down in the soil to form humus. In turn, humus is organic material that microorganisms have converted to a resistant state of decomposition. Once in their stable state, those materials are done breaking down and are viewed as OM.
According to The Noble Research Institute, “Organic matter is a reservoir of nutrients that can be released to the soil. Each percent of organic matter in the soil releases 20 to 30 pounds of nitrogen, 4.5 to 6.6 pounds of P2O5, and 2 to 3 pounds of sulfur annually. The nutrient release occurs predominantly in the spring and summer, so summer crops benefit more from organic-matter mineralization than winter crops.”
At the same time, OM acts like the soil’s sponge. Traditional food plots need water to grow. Rain and the lack of it probably cause farmers and food plotters more stress than any other factor.
Generally speaking, the higher the OM levels in the soil, the more precipitation is absorbed into the soil, and the less runs off. That moisture is stored in the soil comparatively longer when OM levels are higher. At the same time, OM is improving soil structure, enabling the soil to take up and hold more water.
Finally, higher OM levels help reduce erosion. Again, from The Noble Research Institute, “This property of organic matter is not widely known. Data in the universal soil loss equation indicate that increasing soil organic matter from 1 to 3 percent can reduce erosion by 20 to 33 percent because of increased water infiltration and stable soil aggregate formation caused by organic matter.”
Cereal rye is a powerful OM builder because of its robust dicotyledonous root system, with a deep tap root and a vast network of smaller offshoots. The root system looks much like an upside-down Christmas tree, minus the decorations. Its ability to dig very deep is the key behind cereal rye going dormant when temperatures are below freezing, immediately springing to life during a thaw. It also is why cereal rye can mine nitrogen and potassium from deep in the soil, bringing it close enough to the surface for future plantings of shallow-rooted plants to benefit from.
Add it all up, and no other planting draws deer like crazy that can touch cereal rye’s abilities to improve the soil.