Anyone ever heard of Sainfoin?

[bearpaw]

I had a small plot of it and it never got going, I thought because the deer mowed it down. We planted a larger spot, a few acres in fact, it never really took off either, I'm not sure if it was browsed too much, the soil was too acidic, or . This year we over seeded it with oats, they always grow. I think I'm going to stick with grains and clovers mostly, they seem to be much easier to grow.

[Special T]

looks interesting

[Ghost Hunter]

I'd like to see it in the field before committing.  Doing good with alfalfa, oats.  Trying peas in with oats this year.  Turnips did good but didn't seem that big a hit.

[Jonathan_S]

Sainfoin growing great alongside the alfalfa. Believe it was the Shoshone variety that I mixed in with the Timothy and alfalfa

It's seems a bit more drought tolerant and a richer green in the thinner soils. Deer clip it off the same as the falfa plants

[Old Man8383]

I came across it in the early 1970's  on ODFW's Summer Lake Wildlife Area.  They planted it along with yellow sweet clover and a mix of grains for a food/nesting cover plots.  The grains acted as a cover for the Sainfoil to get going.  Great upland and waterfowl nesting cover.   The resident deer herd on the wildlife area pounded it.  Preferred it to the alfalfa growing across the road.  I've  not planted it in Western Washington. 

[grundy53]

I wonder how it would do on the westside. I have some fields I want to plant but trying to figure out what I want to plant.

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[bearpaw]

It's very adaptable to low rainfall areas, might be too wet in western WA?

[Jonathan_S]

Maybe but I've got some areas that are getting watered regularly and are doing exceedingly well

[bearpaw]

Maybe but I've got some areas that are getting watered regularly and are doing exceedingly well

Good, there's the answer he was looking for! 

[grundy53]

👍

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[bearpaw]

Maybe but I've got some areas that are getting watered regularly and are doing exceedingly well

Good, there's the answer he was looking for! 

Well maybe, just noticed you are located in Medical Lake, that's more like MT/WY than western WA.

[jrebel]

Maybe but I've got some areas that are getting watered regularly and are doing exceedingly well

Good, there's the answer he was looking for! 

Well maybe, just noticed you are located in Medical Lake, that's more like MT/WY than western WA.

Dale

Where do you buy your oat that you are planting?  Do you have to plant them every year or do they come back?  I've been looking at planting some.  I have great success with sucragrass (sp?) that comes back year after year and the deer appear to love it.  I will be replanting most of my food plot this fall with it but would be interested in pockets of oats to see how they grow. 

[cem3434]

Tag

[bearpaw]

Maybe but I've got some areas that are getting watered regularly and are doing exceedingly well

Good, there's the answer he was looking for! 

Well maybe, just noticed you are located in Medical Lake, that's more like MT/WY than western WA.

Dale

Where do you buy your oat that you are planting?  Do you have to plant them every year or do they come back?  I've been looking at planting some.  I have great success with sucragrass (sp?) that comes back year after year and the deer appear to love it.  I will be replanting most of my food plot this fall with it but would be interested in pockets of oats to see how they grow.

Oats are the easiest thing to grow that you can plant, if you spill them in your truck bed they will sprout and grow! 

I buy some oat seed from the country store in Colville, I also buy some from local farmers when available for about half the price of retail oat seed. Oats must be planted every year, usually in the spring, you can plant in the fall, but they will not withstand fall frost and die off after heavy frost. For a fall planting I would recommend winter cereal rye or winter wheat, both grow almost as easy as oats, will provide fall green forage, spring forage, and will seed out in the summer. With grains you will need to plant every year, they are not perennial like grasses.

You could over seed your grass with some grain? It will sprout when it rains.

You could also plant a few patches of tetraploid rye grass (by itself or overseed) it comes in quickly after it rains and is very attractive to deer in the fall.

There are some seed mixtures called "throw and grow" and a couple others with similar names for fall planting, it's mostly tetraploid ryegrass, you can buy 25 lb bags of tetraploid ryegrass at the country store, it's much cheaper than buying several little 7 lb "throw and grow".

[Ridgeratt]

Try these folks.

https://landmarkturfandnativeseed.com/products

They will custom blend anything you desire.