Hard Seed in Hairy Vetch: What You Need to Know Before Planting
Hard seed dormancy is why many farmers avoid hairy vetch—but it doesn't have to be a problem. Learn what hard seed is, why it matters, and how seed age and variety selection can drop your hard seed count below 3%. Find out why Winter Warrior hairy vetch outperforms typical VNS varieties.
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0:00 Now, one more thing you need to know about hairy vetch, and this is why a lot.
0:02 Of people don't like the planet. It can have a decent amount of hard seed. Hard.
0:07 Seed is seed that does not germinate the year that you plant it, but it will come
0:12 up the following year or the year after that. And that can be a problem with
0:16 Hairy vetch. But one of the secrets to not having as much hard dormant seed.
0:21 Again genetically, there's some things that they're doing, and the Winter.
0:24 Warrior has less hard dormant seed than a lot of the VNS varieties. But the
0:33 Dormant seed will break its dormancy and it will come up. So, the best hairy
0:38 Vetch that you can buy is something that's a year old and wasn't just.
0:42 Harvested the previous summer. And again, the majority of our vetch that we
0:46 Have here at Green Cover this summer and this fall is carryover from 2025 production, which means it has set in our warehouse for over a year. We continually test it and monitor it, but the hard dormant seed counts have now dropped below 3%, which is very low. It's very good for hairy vetch. So, folks, if you want to be more profitable, consider lowering your input expenses, grow some of your own nitrogen. We encourage you to consider the Winter Warrior hairy vetch.