Planting late season food plots
Wisconsin
Contributors to this thread:
I have a very moist 3/4 acre, open canopy area I'd like to plant. Going to spread winter rye and mixed clover.
The area currently has 2' tall vegetation. Ground can only support a person, no equipment (That wet). Should I cut the vegetation then spray it or just spray it?
Cut it, wait 7 - 10 days and then spray it. If you are planting winter rye and clover there is no need to till, you will be bringing new seeds up and there is no need for that. Many times there are dormant seeds waiting to see the light of day.
Mike is right. People have the urge to work dirt too much.
Spray it and wait a week then broadcast seed and mow. Weeds will act as mulch.
Just planted my late plot over the weekend. PTT, Beats, and rape. Was lush clover prior, sprayed two weeks before. Ran a drag over it just to loosen the tope 1/2 inch of soil. One piece of advice I will give and I have noticed worlds of difference on......ensure good seed to soil contact! As it appears you have a very wet chunk of ground and cant use any vehicles, I would recommend a hand roller (can rent them pretty much anywhere). I have purchased a roller to pull behind the atv, and have noticed a world of difference since using it on any broadcast style plot.
I'd personally add some oats to that mix as well.
Not sure what kind of clover you are planning to plant, but Alsike does well with poor PH soils and can handle wet feet very well. Frosty Berseem is an annual but it grows fast and will serve a fall only plot well too.
I agree with RJN above. I'd spray it, wait a week, broadcast the seed and then cut it.
Mowed down a new plot today. Going to be a L shape.
May be a stupid question, but when you say "spray it", what are you spraying it with?
Usually Glyphosate (buy generic - Roundup is $$$$). Add Amonium Sulfate (AMS) as it allows the Gly to adhere better. Gly will kill most everything it contacts. If someone wants to just kill grass or broadleaves, there are other herbicides that are more kill specific.
Mowed it and now doing a PH test with Antler King test strips. Will spray it in the morning. Getting breezy now.
When buying Gly. make sure it doesn’t have a weed preventive in it. Read the label close. I almost made the mistake. I did score 2.5 gallon of 41% Gly concentrate For $49.95 at tractor Supply on sale.
Looks like some lime is needed.
Looks like some lime is needed.
DT, have you ever had a soil sample done after using a test strip to see how well they compare? I have not read a whole lot of good things about the test strips. I would think that if they are close, that would be good enough because it would give you a pretty good idea on what amendments are needed.
From what I reviewed they were +/- a 1/2 a point. A guy that was revising them had a lab report of 6.9 ph and the test strip came in roughly about 6.2 - 6.4 depending how you read the color scale. Like mine his was in between colors.
Got the sprayer mounted and changed it from a wand sprayer to a boomless broadcast sprayer and get about a 12’ coverage in a pass. Tested it with water only this afternoon.
As someone who works in a lab at a hospital, urine results are determined by test strips, and that's the golden standard. There shouldn't be any reason that it shouldn't work with soil. However, soil pH could change based on the type of habitat you have on one side of the field vs the other.
I got about an acre of a brassica mix in the ground 2 days ago. The rest of that seed I am going to broadcast in to a bean field on the other side of the property. Never had beans before so this will be interesting, hopefully more than a learning curve.
I'm planting mine this week. Hope things go better this year.
Drop tine--that a new sprayer for you? If so they are notorious for leaking after a year or 2. Mine did after year 1 I think. Still haven't fixed. Just put duct tape around for a temp fix. Just a fyi
Glyphosate sucks. No deer is worth spraying that crap around.
Big and Beasty 8 days after planting.
Smokey- I don't like spraying gly but couldn't imagine what my plots would look like without spraying. Do you have a proven method?
Not to hijack this thread but if you want to be one step safer, use glyphosate without surfactant. Surfactants in Roundup as example can be shown to be more harmful than glyphosate, an analogue of the amino acid glycine. Glyphosate makes headlines because of it mass use. There are hundreds of others in agriculture that are highly restricted but these are not seen by public, and are highly toxic. Simply put, use chemistry in moderation and according to label. Dihydrogen monoxide mixed with surfactant is deadly to aquatic invertebrates and used by many. Only time will tell when a lawyer will call out dihydrogen monoxide as a killer. Moderation is critical, overuse is not necessary.
Excellent post Treefarm. I have seen a lot of people just not read the labels and incorrectly (illegally) apply many herbicides and pesticides. That is one of the big problems. I really see no need to use them at all. Never needed them in the past, don't need them now.
I’m going to go against the grain, or actually with it, and plant some winter rye and oats pretty soon. Turnips and radishes are in and growing, and hoping the winter rye and oats will give the deer something to munch on while the other stuff sets up for late season.
I planted radishes about 3 weeks ago and Rye/alice clover this Sunday. Fall plots I spray, wait a week, broadcast and mow.
Planted mine today. Was able to use a metal lawn rake to get to bare soil. Though rain isn't in the forecast I worried about waiting too long. Had a bag of winter rye and bought the clover happygolucky suggested. Seed was separated by markers so I know what works best. Even with the lack of rain the soil is semi moist from the spring runoff running through the center of the no till plot . With it being nearly dry I was able to remove all the half rotton sticks/stumps from the plot area which will make cutting it easier in the future. While it's half the size I originally wanted my spot is surrounded by hundreds of acres of corn, beans, and oats which should help keep deer from brousing It too bad.
I was going to shape it like the letter y but the spring on the left side of the y has the ground like soup. Perhaps this fall I will be able to trench a better way for the water to pass or dig hole for water to stage.
I was also worried about spraying it since two springs run into a small creek about 100yrds away. The amount I used worked well as the weeds died yet the moss underneath did not. Using the rake the moss peeled right back exposing clean soil.
Gun plot.
Gun plot.
Archery Plot
Archery Plot
This thing weighs a ton. Should be able to rip up the soil easily with a few passes.
This thing weighs a ton. Should be able to rip up the soil easily with a few passes.
I sprayed mine about a week and a half ago before I left for Canada. Checked it this morning and was pleased with the kill. Tomorrow I’m disking and planting Grandpa Rays Fall draw and Frosty Delight. Of course adding all the soil amendments also while doing so.
There is an interesting study being done on glyposate, an ingredient in Round UP, and other products. I learned this by going in for another medical check up, and it was being studied by medical doctors, in an article I read......... Nothing is of course proven, but its something they are strongly looking at........
I was given a list of 15 vegetables to limit my consumption on, because of this chemical, and corn was the main one, they told me to stay away from, but I do not eat corn anyway. But the by product is in so much other foods.........
There is a study, on CWD, and one scientist, suspects, chemicals used in our genetic production of our food sources, to possibly be connected. Its an early study and only a theory, but you have to wonder, what they will find out in 50 years from now, that we never knew....................
I wonder what we plant, is all that healthy, in the first place, with all the chemicals used?
Sure is dry out here in Lincoln County.
Update on the Big and Beasty plot. Different angle but amazing change since day 8. This is 12 days later.
My plan is to get some Oats and clover in later this week if it is dry enough and I can get a proper seed bed. Would like to get some shoots coming up for the opener or shortly after.
We had this happen last night and a real mess to deal with.
We had this happen last night and a real mess to deal with.
16 hours without power. Tree’s and tree tops all over.
16 hours without power. Tree’s and tree tops all over.
Looking good Doug. I planted mine Thursday and it’s looking good for the hell its been through.
Thats just nature trying to let some sunlight in for you.
Be safe
Will be interesting to see how the plots look after 6-9 inches of rain.
Mine is coming along nice so far.
Looking good, Drop. Is that an apple tree in the back?
That’s a Oak that I didn’t want to kill off. I am going to plant two apple trees in the North side of the Plot but I want to hunt it a season to see how the deer come and go from it.
Same big and Beasty plot taken today.
Antler King Honey Hole I planted third week of July.
Some healthy looking food plots, good pics.