Is flax hard on the land???

[bucket]

Usually go with wheat and then use attain to kill the volunteer flax. Or dupont has barricade which includes attain and works great.

Anything you grow that won't kill volunteer flax will make harvest painful.

[lakenheath]

I would strongly suggest not putting flax on lentils stubble sprayed with .3 rate of Pursuit.

We have seen flax with residue damage from Solo on the prior year lentils. Neighbours have also been suspicious of Solo and have quit seeding flax following Solo.

I would almost guarantee that your flax will be damaged to a certain degree from the slighest amount of Pursuit carry-over.

The active ingredient in Solo has half the half life of the active in Pursuit, so don't take the chance.

[Hopperbin]

Surprised no one mentioned growing Canola after the flax crop. I used to do that when I wanted to reduce the cereal in the rotation when cereals were lower priced. Canola after flax does well. True sometimes there is less moisture in the top layer of soil after flax which can make the soil hard and dry. I quit growing the flax as seemed to have gotten a cleaver problem in the area. If having trouble with cleavers then should not grow flax.

[groundspeed]

I agree if you have cleavers you will just make the problem worse. i cant grow flax for that reason.

[rhoff]

We quit growing flax because the durum yield the
next year always took a hit compared to the
durum on canola stubble. Yah sure it will chop
good when threshing on a warm day but with flax
you will combine in October many years and
even with a good chopper it will cause you grief
at seeding time. Flax has to be $3/bushel more
than canola to make the same gross margin.Im
actually thankful we don't have any flax stubble
to seed into this spring. .

[Jagfarms]

My plan is to put green lentils on my flax
stubble in 2012.

[$short]

what rate of fertilizer do you use on flax. we havent grown any for quite some time so wondering what other guys use for fert. is it about 75 percent of canola

[$short]

what rate of fertilizer do you use on flax. we havent grown any for quite some time so wondering what other guys use for fert. is it about 75 percent of canola

[freewheat]

I don't think flax is hard on the land. I don't really think it is good for the land either. A perception one may get after flax, is that it seems so dry and hard at times with the minimal canopy on the soil surface causing most of this. If I remember right, flax uses the vast majority of its moisture from the top 28 inches or so, and so if it is followed with a deeper rooted crop, that follow crop can cash in on the moisture. I too have had to quit growing it due to hemp nettle and cleavers, though I have some new land that was hayland for 30 years that should be clean of cleavers etc..

Jag farms, putting lentils after flax, what do you plan to spray? I have a couple neighbors who have been spraying their flax with a half rate of pursuit to see if they can solve the cleaver hemp nettle problem. I would be concerned with the volunteer in lentils.

I like it as a crop, it rounds out a rotation nicely, and in this wet zone we are in, the drying effect can mean seeding in decent time for once. But those dang cleavers. GRRRRR........

And the straw, I always just dropped and burned the windrows. No problem.

[Daylate]

we use about a 75- 25 blend with all phos in the seed row. Used to be 50ishN but now have managed to get a 30 bu avg out of the last 4 years, and prior to that was 20bu avg.
Canola follows flax awesome in wet years. |The ground is firmer and can seed faster. The last 3 years we have got our highest yielding canola from flax stubble, but with that being said in the early 2000's our canola following flax was less. It dries out the ground so it depends on the year.
not sure how well it workes but we try seed our flax north and south, because they say that way the sun isn't beating down on the same piece of ground all day.
The chemical AUTHORITY works well on kochia and cleavers. Its registered for chickpeas but their trying to get reg for flax, but it sucks on w. mustard and v. canola so u still need buctril of coarse. Authority is sprayed as a pre emerg, with glyfos and works in the soil so seeding a day after to work it in works well, as long as theres moisture.
we had only 500ac of flax last year and none planned for this year. I agree a $3/bu. incentive over canola is minimum to entice me.
Have also tried headline in 2 diff years with mixed results. not sold on it for flax yet for us cause its usually our last to seed so i worry about early frosts on it cause it definetly adds a few days to maturity