A good idea- or not?

[Dieselrider]

For the last three years I have planted my garlic and mulched with a thick layer of straw and it always works great. I like the idea of planting more crops in the straw for several reasons like adding back to the soil etc. This spring I decided to plant several things in straw rather than plastic mulch....
I ended up with an oats field rather than a garden where I used the straw.One particularly difficult place to weed out the oats was the onions. I guess I never realized just how many seeds were left behind in the straw. Is this normal? The only difference between the Garlic beds and onion beds would be the time of year that I plant.
Would winter kill the oats seed so it doesn't germinate in the spring? If so, I could prepare the onion ground and mulch in the fall for spring planting or I could go back to plastic. What do you all say. Advice appreciated. Thanks

[geo in mi]

If wheat straw, the seeds will germinate and not winterkill. If oats, winter moisture exposure will nearly always kill off any seeds in the garden.

geo

[Paquebot]

The presence of grain seeds in the straw is an indication of a poor year for the farmer. It means that he was unable to collect all of the grain for some reason. Generally that means a storm which knocked a lot of plants over. Just went through my garlic today and pulled some very healthy wheat plants. To me, it's just something expected as part of using straw for mulch.

Martin

[where I want to]

There is oat hay as well which is grown as hay for fodder. The seed hads are left intact. Could be that this is what you got.
I find I have a lot less weed problem with rice straw, if you can get it, or rye straw, although both decay more slowly.
The one great thing about oats growing is that they pull up pretty easily, roots and all.

[dcross]

I leave bales of straw outside so the seeds sprout and die before I use them as mulch.

[Callieslamb]

I think you're lucky. Everywhere I put down straw last year - supposedly oat straw - I not have pig squeak.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I think you're lucky. Everywhere I put down straw last year - supposedly oat straw - I not have pig squeak.

Okay, so you made me Google it.........

http://www.hortmag.com/plants/plants-we-love/pigsqueak

Dang, it spreads by underground ryzomes......

geo