Food Plot Discussion

[jasnt]

I've been doing it without a sprayer for many years, it's time I had a sprayer 


I just took a quote on a $4000 sprayer, that will be my high end cadillac sprayer.  Ag Spray

21' booms with the rugged boom suspension (no single pole booms dangling off chains bouncing around everywhere) 
2 agitators
boomless nozzles, fold up the booms and go boomless sprayers  (got some brushy areas to spray where booms would suck)
silver series pump (roundup ready) 
nice gun w 22' hose for fruit trees
150 gallon tank
dripless nozzles with diaphragm
03 nozzles 3/10 gallon @ 40 psi   easy to switch out nozzles too

[bearpaw]

I just use an ATV mounted sprayer, it works in the little plots pretty good.

We have some mixed clover plots that have done pretty good with minimal maintenance. We sprayed 24d before we started and again after the first planting of oats or rye was growing good, then we seeded clover the second spring. It has seemed to work best if we overseed with clover lightly every year, you can do that late fall or early spring, we've seeded one of them 3 years in a row and this year the clover is super thick, that helps keep the weeds from taking over too. I've tried about a dozen different varieties of clover, it seems like a mix with 2/3 Durana white clover and 1/3 medium red seems to come in heavy and really provides a lot of forage if you have lots of deer or elk hitting your plot. Some of the other clovers we planted it seemed the deer did not like as well or they didn't grow as well. A few times I tried establishing clover by simply over seeding old pasture or forest openings but it didn't seem to come in very well without some tillage of some sort, obviously tillage lets the seed make soil contact to germinate better.

This is a small plot of oats and clover together, a first time planting this spring with both at the same time, no fertilizer and no lime was used, this spot is doing ok without either, it was getting wildlife traffic in the spring, not so much right now with everything green everywhere. I'm behind on spraying for weeds, (look close in the photo, that's not all clover and oats) I just ordered more 24-db to spray this and a couple other similar plots. I'm attempting to establish clover with the oats so that next spring all I do is overseed with clover seed and don't have to till it at all. This would save a year in establishing the clover stand from the way we were doing it in the past using 24d on the oats and planting clover the second year. I will spray with 24db, the clover should be fine and hopefully I get most of the weeds killed too. I'm trying to get these clover plots established faster with the least amount of mechanized tillage and maintenance, it will be interesting to see how this works out.

[T-ROY]

that is looking good

[bearpaw]

I didn't plow, I only had my disc with me, I was wishing I had the plow because the sod was denser than I thought it was, I disced enough to get the soil pretty well exposed and planted the oat seed with a hand broadcast seeder, then drug in the seed with a piece of hog panel pulled behind an atv, and then broadcast the clover over the top and left. I usually pack the seed with a water filled roller behind the atv but didn't have that with me either. I wasn't sure how well it would germinate but it's doing better than expected.

I'll see what the plot looks like in the fall or early spring, originally after seeing how dense the sod was I had figured I might be discing this plot again next spring but it came in better than expected, if I think it's needed I might pull a spring tooth over it before adding more clover seed, hopefully I can just add more seed and it will keep coming in thicker with clover. Because it is growing better than expected and I don't think I'll have to disc or plow again I wished I would have added some alfalfa into the seed mix. Because of the 24-db spray I'll use it wouldn't do any good to add chickory because the spray will kill chickory.

If the grass tries to come back in too thick I could spray clethodim to kill out the grass. I'm hoping I don't have to do that but we'll see.

[T-ROY]

yes i would be nice to see more pictures in sept and oct. is this plot south facing?

[bearpaw]

yes i would be nice to see more pictures in sept and oct. is this plot south facing?

Mostly westerly, I imagine it will dry up in July until fall rains green up the clover again. There is the option of overseeding with a winter grain to get some good late fall attraction. If I over seeded with winter rye or wheat and then mowed the oats that would probably help the winter grain germinate better, but I've been told it should germinate as soon as there is good rain even without mowing. (I've tilled in the fall for winter grain before, this over seeding method would be a new thing to try.)

[Wsucoug]

If i was going to be putting in a food plot for this season, I would be seriously considering doing it right now. Current forecast has very high possibility of rain coming this weekend.

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=48.5439&lon=-117.9015#.XUsqBOhKhPY

Longer term forecast has cooler temperatures coming, which will help prevent sprouts from drying out after germination. 

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/index.php

Regardless, if the rain does not come, then you definitely do not want to be planting. You need to be looking for a minimum of a quarter inch of rain, which hardly ever comes around this time of year.

Additionally it always feels like a gamble with the weather in Aug.

[Henrydog]

When your food plot is green but your lawn is dead...you might be a  redneck.  That is a good looking plot Bearpaw.  Nice work

[Wsucoug]

yes i would be nice to see more pictures in sept and oct. is this plot south facing?

Mostly westerly, I imagine it will dry up in July until fall rains green up the clover again. There is the option of overseeding with a winter grain to get some good late fall attraction. If I over seeded with winter rye or wheat and then mowed the oats that would probably help the winter grain germinate better, but I've been told it should germinate as soon as there is good rain even without mowing. (I've tilled in the fall for winter grain before, this over seeding method would be a new thing to try.)

I actually did this last Fall. Overseeded winter rye in the first photo. And then rolled the stocks down on top of the seed. Second photo is during late buck. Last photo is the rye filling into the chicory in the late spring. This method really keeps the weeds at Bay and also provides good early spring tonnage.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[Wsucoug]

I am going to bump this one more time. Current forecast is 90% chance of rain for Saturday and Sunday. This is about as good as it gets this time of year.

If your not sure what to plant on such short notice,  I would order up two 50# bags of awnless triticale and 10 pounds of red clover per acre and call it good. 

[nwwanderer]

Rain in august makes for great brassica  (turnips, canola, rape) opportunity.  Some of the best winter forage going, extra fancy nesting habitat next spring and 40% fat 20+% protein seeds for late summer and fall next year.  You have ten days or so before that door starts to close.

[bearpaw]

I saw the weather forecast so was busy planting yesterday, I planted several small plots with various mixtures of winter wheat, winter rye, winter greens, turnips, and winter peas. Last night it rained hard, so it was perfect timing.

[T-ROY]

im preying for a September rain. im going to go with the winter rye and clover on labor day weekend.   i mowed what was growing in the power lines and i can tell i dont have lot of deer of but im pretty surprised how well the ones that are there are eating the new growth. the majority of it looked like weeds to me.

my plan is to drag the heck out of it to get it smooth so i can mow it in the future if needed, and then  try that over seed, lay down the spray  as needed method. i bet last weeks rain may make for some great archery season plots.

[T-ROY]

Isnt it way to early for rye and triticale ? seems like it would be tall and stemy by winter

[T-ROY]

yes i would be nice to see more pictures in sept and oct. is this plot south facing?

Mostly westerly, I imagine it will dry up in July until fall rains green up the clover again. There is the option of overseeding with a winter grain to get some good late fall attraction. If I over seeded with winter rye or wheat and then mowed the oats that would probably help the winter grain germinate better, but I've been told it should germinate as soon as there is good rain even without mowing. (I've tilled in the fall for winter grain before, this over seeding method would be a new thing to try.)

I actually did this last Fall. Overseeded winter rye in the first photo. And then rolled the stocks down on top of the seed. Second photo is during late buck. Last photo is the rye filling into the chicory in the late spring. This method really keeps the weeds at Bay and also provides good early spring tonnage.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

boy that looks nice beautiful piece of property to boot.  would mowing be better than just rolling it down and after the over seeding?