Food Plot - Gonna give it a try

[686]

Nailhead, it sounds like you have a great plan for this fall. Good luck with the plotting and good luck connecting with Broke Horn!

[Nailhead]

Thanks guys. Broke Horn is the only "stud" we see. There is an older 6 point that runs with him. A month ago the 6 didnt look like much. Heavy mains that make him legal for sure but with only about 1" tines. However over the past few weeks his brows have grown a bit and his G2s have grown about 4". Hopefully he keeps putting on inches. Wish we could afford to let either of them walk but on our place its going to be time for either of them if they walk out. We just dont have the population density to let them walk in hopes of seeing others. Over the last 3 years of hunting this place we have only taken 2 deer. And will likely only take 1 or 2 at most in a season. We like to watch them grow and are selective about what we shoot. Even if our neighbors arent conservative like we are.

[Plan B]

I think I am going to plant similar to last year however, I think this time I am going to plant both plots the same and see what happens. The Rye did really well laying down a thatch, so it gives me a good idea of what I should be able to expect this next spring and I can plan for it.

With the summer basically burning everything off and my plots being taken back over by native weeds and grasses, I think I am going to spray to kill and wait a couple weeks confirm I got a good kill. Then I will fertilize, disc, throw rye and oats, pack, and throw Kale, Chicory, and Clover on top.

If the kale and chicory do not come up strong this year I might give up on them or have to dig further to see what is going on. I get a bunch of little sprouts the come up and then nothing. I have not been able to tell if the deer just hammer it and keep it mowed down or if the soil just isn't right for either of them. I may consider throwing in an additional clover this year, but I haven't decided yet. I also may end up having to throw some lime this year, which I haven't had to before. My pH came down below 7 over this past fall, but I know some plants don't mind it so will have to see.

My hope this year by mixing the oats and rye is that they will complement each other and be able to get a good thatch over both plots. Then come spring time, I want to throw buckwheat into the plots and mow or roll it down. Even if the deer don't take highly too it, I want the buckwheat for soil improvement. And I plan to expand and plant an additional spring/summer plot next year, with peas, sunflowers, and something else. Haven't decided what that something else will be yet.

That is at least the current plan I have running around in my head. Now that I had a good turn out last fall, I want to stick with what I know now for this season and then maybe next season add or take away to improve it. Maybe radishes or turnips or something for change of pace and to see what kind of results I get. The trick I am finding is playing to your soil condition, and fixing the soil is not something that comes quickly. With as awesome as my plots looked this fall after fertilizing heavily, the soil samples I got back this spring/summer were very similar to the year prior where I didn't fertilize at all. Something else I need to stay on top of is making sure I find the time to go back and top dress my plots with Nitrogen after they have been established.

How did your durana clover perform after you mowed the rye? Did it explode with growth and make it well into the summer?

[Nailhead]

The clover did OK in that plot but not great. It did WAY better in the Oats plot. The oats plot was full of clover down in the oats and continued to grow after it was mowed. The Rye was really thick as you could see from the pictures. I think it may have hindered the growth of the clover in the beginning which kept it from really exploding. The rye was really tall and dense which I think did not allow a whole lot of light throughout the day down to the ground and I know clover needs plenty of sun. The oat plot was thick as well, but not nearly as dense as the rye. The structure of the oats as they get taller also let a lot more light to the ground.

On the flip side, the Oats didn't lay down anywhere near the thatch that the Rye did. This is one of the reasons I am going to throw Rye and Oats in the plot together. I think it will possibly keep things thick while still letting enough light to the ground to allow the clover to do its thing. Last year I did 100 lbs of each is separate plots, this year I think I am just going to go 50/50 in both plots and see what happens.

[deer farmer]

Nailhead, food plot addiction, nice Buck too. From the pics u posted, it looks like you had a couple of nice food plots of rye and oats, and u mention mixing the two this year. I figure u may have thought about it already but I will throw this out there, for what ever that is worth. I used to mix the oats and rye seed together but I now prefer doing 15' wide rows of each and have now included winter wheat in the mix in some of the food plots. So row of rye, row of wheat row of oats. and will finish with a row of clover around the edge of the field. I don't do this in every food plot but a couple of plots I do. Thought I might throw that out there, for what it's worth. I makes it a little more interesting watching to see what will get hit the hardest at different times of the season. And the clover edge works pretty good and is used pretty heavy in the spring when the need it for the fawns and antlers. Have fun

[Nailhead]

We getting serious about food plots this year.

[Nailhead]

So we got the food plots planted this weekend even though there was no good chance of rain coming, but we won't be back for a few weeks so it needed to get done.

A little background on the fertilizer cart, or "buggy" as the gal at the store called it, that is pictured above. It was my first experience with one of these things and it was a lot of fun. It was serious overkill for our little plots but a good experience none the less. I called our place that we get fertilizer from and they didn't have enough bags of 16-16-16 to fill my 600 lb order. But she says, you can use a buggy if you want which is free as long as you are getting the fertilizer from us. I was like OK, sign me up for free. It actually saved me a bunch of time and money and it was a great learning experience. Last year 16-16-16 was just under $18 per 50 lb sack. This year it was just over $13/sack. And in bulk it comes out to less than $9/sack plus the use of the buggy.

Now I assume most small time plot guys like us all use lawn throwers and such to broadcast fertilizer and seed. I know ours throws about 8' wide spread. This buggy throws 30'-40'. Talk about cutting down on making passes and the time it takes. The little lawn thrower we pull behind the four wheeler in second gear. This buggy I pulled behind our 32hp Kubota in High 2nd. It was awesome! Got our 2 - 1 acre plots covered in no time. And next time around I will be taking even more of their advice and when I go to pick up fertilizer I will be taking any large seed along. The guys in the mixing plant will add your seed to the mixer and combine the fertilizer and seed together so you can throw it all at once. I guess I just never really thought about it cause we are small time. I am sure the guys that have been doing it a while are like "duh". Haha.

So this year I did go ahead and do both plots the same. I want to give everything a chance to grow and see how well they keep what mowed down. I also changed up my seed some and kinda excited to see what happens. Here is what we threw.

Per Acre
50 lbs - Elbon Rye
50 lbs - Harrison Oats
5 lbs - Bayou Kale
5 lbs - Chicory (raw seed)
9 lbs - WI Imperial Clover

My plots where back to being pasture grass since I didn't take care of them through the summer, so we did go ahead and disc with the 6ft disc we picked up earlier this year which worked great. Then threw the fertilizer and large seed, packed it, and then threw the chicory, kale, and clover. I am hoping that it comes up good and thick and that come Spring/Summer the rye and oats will give me what I need for a good thatch. My hope is to be able to spray the rye/oats without killing the clover, chicory, and kale and then roll it with the packer instead of shredding it. Not sure how that will work to let the clover and such underneath come through. But I figure what the heck. At this same time if the thatch is good I am thinking of throwing peas, sunflower, and possibly buckwheat prior to rolling for spring/summer plots.

[jkelbe]

Nailhead, what seed store are you using? I have been going to the one in Palestine, never seen a girl work there, so I don't think that's the one.

Great tips above, thank you.

[Nailhead]

For seed this year, I ordered the kale and chicory from Handcock seed cause I didnt need much and it was all free shipping. The clover I bought from Cabelas when they had a special running. The Rye and Oats I got from Producers Coop in Bryan. A bit of a drive but they had Harrison oats that I wanted and their Rye price was better than the feed store in Huntsville.

The fertilizer I am buying from El Dorado in Elkhart. They are close and convenient to our place. Also they are good folk from my limited experience. Im still learning here as well so take any tips at face value until I can prove their worth. Hahaha.

[Nailhead]

Finally starting to see some real progress in the plots now that we have gotten a few intermittant showers up there. Got an 1" a few weeks ago, about .5" 2 weeks ago and 2" late last week.

Oats and Rye are doing great and the deer are slowly moving back in to feed in the plots. Have the best stand of kale to date. Its widespread throughout both plots mostly small stuff but definitely there. Chicory is coming up as well, but not as good. I suspect it wants more moisture than the kale does. The south end of the east plot is doing really well. It stays shaded most of the morning and is a little gummy when wet. So it is holding moisture well and it shows. Again this is a new kind of kale so hoping the deer take to it and hoping the chicory will follow soon.

[the marshall]

looking good

[gingib]

Looks good. They are not hitting my chicory at all and same as you not much of it sprouted like my wheats and oats.

I just mowed my 2 plots this weekend as they were really tall. I will never plant turnips or greens again. They are 3-4 feet tall and deer or hogs won't touch them

[Ironman]

Looks good. They are not hitting my chicory at all and same as you not much of it sprouted like my wheats and oats.

I just mowed my 2 plots this weekend as they were really tall. I will never plant turnips or greens again. They are 3-4 feet tall and deer or hogs won't touch them

The deer should hit the turnips after a good hard freeze. The starch in the turnip leaves will turn to sugar after a good freeze.

[gingib]

The deer should hit the turnips after a good hard freeze. The starch in the turnip leaves will turn to sugar after a good freeze.

That is what I thought also. I cut them down so they will grow back. The bulbs are up to softball size already

[Nailhead]

Yeah. The same I believe goes for the kale really. At least I know the Siberian Kale I used previously they say won't get sweet until a hard freeze. We have just barely gotten down to freezing this year on a day or two. We really need to cool/cold weather to move in finally. It will be December this week and was 73 degrees when I got to work this morning. That's ridiculous.