The idea of this cover crop isnt to add nitrogen but to hold residual nitrogen that is left in the field from the main crop (sweet corn). We use urea nitrogen on the main crop. Ive tried to use legume covers to supply the needed N in the past but sweet corn is such a N hog that it didnt work well.
We dont no-till seed the radishes. Dont know if it was broadcast into stubble is you could get a decent germination. No till seed drills are far too large and expensive for what im doing so we disk. broadcast, then harrow the seed in.
For the main crop of corn we run our Hoss seeder. It works really really well but requires a very nicely worked seedbed. For that we plow, disk, till, then seed.
I just tilled under my sodbuster radish this morning to make way for some onions that I intend to plant in a couple of weeks. I have a small garden and did it by hand pretty easily. A regular shovel goes right through them like a hot knife through butter. No winter kill here either. I got mine from Petcher Seed and planted sept 13. I broadcast them by hand then dragged a rake and they came up at a nice density. I also planted clover at the same time but I seeded the radish a little too heavy and it smothered the clover. So no N fixation but hopefully the radish captured some N that would have leached out of my sandy soil. The other nice thing about it is that the soil is so light due to the radish, it feels like I’m shoveling talcum powder.
I’ve been including daikon radish as part of a cover crop for a number of years. It is great for the soil. I like to mix it with crimson clover (annual legume) and winter rye (cereal). All work as soil improvers. I typically use Groundhog radish because I can get it cheaper. When it comes to radish, there are lots of claims with different brands and I’ve tired a few, but they all perform the same for me. So, daikon radish is one seed I buy on price.
You can avoid them getting too smelly if you just chop and drop them where they are grown then sheet mulch over the top of them. That’s what I do, although I do a mix of species that includes daikon as one type, not just a single species cover crop.
