Perennial Forage Planting

[bgleaton]

Seeding

The key is to make sure that the grass seed is spread out properly/evenly. For wildlife, you want the grass seed to land around 1 seed for every 3 to 4 sq ft and have the forbs fill in between. We started with these heavy grass mixes a couple of years ago but have now moved to only using Pollinator Mixes.

If the grass is seeded too heavily, then you can have a grass stand like this that is really thick:


Here are some pictures 2 years after broadcasting the same mix you have listed:




This picture is of a rocky hillside we had cedars dozed. I'm surprise that anything grew but we are seeing some good grasses and wildflower grow every year now.

[cehorn]

Thanks for the pics. We have some areas that look like that and some areas that have much better soil. Those pics give me hope but I'll still keep my fingers crossed.

[cehorn]

Just be careful if you are going to disk those seeds in vs cultipacking or dragging them in given the tiny seed size. Also, you may get a big flush of weeds following dozer work and discing, and you want to give those perennials the best shot at growing you can.

Thanks. The disk we will use after planting is really light. Most of the cover will be with the drag.

I am really curious to see what the ranch looks like this spring with or without the planting. The drought was really hard on us so NOTHING grew last year and we have areas that we dozed over a year ago that are still bare. IF it rains this year I'm curious to see what comes up and what we have for native vegetation. We definitely didn't get an idea last year.

[cehorn]

I see 3 clovers in that mix. I'd be wary of them. Clover is really a regional plant. Some grow in some areas, others not so much.

Definitely food for thought. I will likely call Turner and talk through it with them given our location. We seem to have some pretty good soil in places so I'm optimistic we can grow some things. We also have some really rocky areas where I'm sure not much will grow.

[bgleaton]

The silver river clover will grow great in your area and it's a reseeding annual. It has done awesome at our place. We normally plant it with our fall plots and from March through early June it and the armadillo burr clover do excellent.

Here is a picture of the silver river clover:


Here is a picture of the burr clover:


These two clovers and the yellow/white sweet clovers are the only clovers I've tried at our place and they've all grown well with just average rainfall. I wish we could grow other clovers but we just don't get the rainfall needed. I hope this helps.

[Radar]

The silver river clover will grow great in your area and it's a reseeding annual. It has done awesome at our place. We normally plant it with our fall plots and from March through early June it and the armadillo burr clover do excellent.

Here is a picture of the silver river clover:
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Here is a picture of the burr clover:
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These two clovers and the yellow/white sweet clovers are the only clovers I've tried at our place and they've all grown well with just average rainfall. I wish we could grow other clovers but we just don't get the rainfall needed. I hope this helps.

That sure looks good, I have tried to get clover to grow but it gets burnt up in the summer. It will grow in the fall if we have rain. I have tried multiple varieties and none will reseed.

[bgleaton]

That sure looks good, I have tried to get clover to grow but it gets burnt up in the summer. It will grow in the fall if we have rain. I have tried multiple varieties and none will reseed.

It definitely depends on the year and the rainfall amounts. It will not grow through the summer but will grow into the month of May as long as the temps stay well below 95F. It would probably grow into the summer in some areas that stay shaded in the hot afternoons.

[gtsticker]

Went to turner seed and bought some pollinator mix, some native grass seed mix and some food plot mixes. Excited to see what happens if we get some rain.


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[cehorn]

Went to turner seed and bought some pollinator mix, some native grass seed mix and some food plot mixes. Excited to see what happens if we get some rain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was able to plant 5 acres of perennial Texas Wildlife mix from Turner this past weekend. I used a Scotts hand spreader and it worked pretty well. I mixed it 50/50 with the coarsest playground sand I could find to use as a binder and put it out on setting 1 of the spreader. I was happy with how it covered. Thanks to bgleaton for the help and suggestions on using the binder, etc. It helped a ton.

I also planted 8 acres of deer food plot last weekend and 1.5 acres of dove food plot the same way minus the sand last weekend.

When I say I planted, I mean my wife and I planted it on foot. I think between the 2 of us we walked about 30 miles according to our watches. We were beat. Pray for rain!!!