Rye

**Sowing:** Rye is direct-sown in full sun on well-drained soils ranging from sandy or light loams to clay, doing best on moderately fertile ground not prone to flooding; winter rye is planted from late summer to midwinter depending on region, while spring rye is sown in spring. Seed is placed no deeper than about 2 inches, drilled with 6-7 inches between rows, broadcast, or overseeded into an existing crop, at rates of roughly 50-200 lb/acre; it germinates once soil temperatures reach 4-5°C and grows best where daily temperatures stay below about 20°C.

**Feeding:** Because rye is not a legume, it does not fix its own nitrogen, so fertility is often the biggest limit on growth and nitrogen is applied at the start of growth, sometimes split into two applications. Weeds are managed by herbicide or harrowing, particularly at the tillering stage, while rye's own vigorous root and top growth helps resist wind erosion.

Grown as a grain crop, rye is affected by bacterial blight, barley yellow dwarf virus (spread by aphids), loose smut, net blotch, powdery mildew, and rust, managed through certified disease-free seed, resistant varieties, crop rotation, and removal of crop residue and volunteer plants; when grown simply as a cover crop it is generally free of serious pests or diseases.

**Disorders:** Rye grain is also susceptible to infection by the fungus Claviceps purpurea, which replaces kernels with dark sclerotia; consumption of contaminated grain causes ergotism.

**Harvest:** Grain rye is ready to combine or hand-harvest once the leaves have died back and the stems have turned yellow-brown, after which it is threshed. When grown for hay, rye is instead cut earlier, at the early heading stage, for better forage quality.

**Cover crop:** Rye is widely sown as a fall cover crop and green manure that scavenges 25-50 lb/acre of residual soil nitrogen, and as much as 100 lb/acre, while building soil, loosening compacted topsoil, and preventing erosion. Its heavy biomass smothers weeds physically and its allelopathic chemicals suppress them further, with best cover-crop performance achieved when it is sown alongside a legume.

**Grain and culinary:** The grain is milled into flour for leavened bread, most often blended with wheat flour, and is fermented into alcoholic drinks such as whiskey, gin, and beer; in Scandinavia it has been a staple food since the Middle Ages, surviving today in rye crispbread. Its mature stems are also used as animal bedding, and rye is crossed with wheat to produce the hybrid triticale.

**Forage:** Rye is grazed as pasture in late fall or early spring when other forage is scarce, usually mixed with other cool-season species, and can be cut for hay at the early heading stage, ideally combined with clover or ryegrass, yielding forage with up to 9% crude protein.

Rye was domesticated in Turkey, with modern cultivated rye traced to wild ancestors found in Afghanistan, Iran, and the wider Middle East. It is thought to have entered European agriculture as a secondary crop, growing as an unintentional admixture within wheat fields before eventually being cultivated in its own right. From Europe it spread widely, becoming historically established in the North Central United States, and was carried to the northeastern United States by English and Dutch settlers.