Planting and prep ( updated)

Alright guys I know this topic has been beat to death....

I just cut and raked a spot clean. I know it's late but id like to plant about a 10 ft wide section of corn as a wall and then maybe beans or just a clover oats mix in the fall.

What can I or should I do to control the weeds first off? Then is it to late to plant corn?

Thank you

How many acres are you planting?

Let me first say this is a backyard area, the deer population doesn't seem to be very high from trail cams but I could be wrong. Collectively there may be 100 acres between 6 tracts of land the deer roam on....

This picture is about a 5000 Sq ft area the other area might be 3000 sq ft but it's extremely shaded

Duckhawk05 said:

Let me first say this is a backyard area, the deer population doesn't seem to be very high from trail cams but I could be wrong. Collectively there may be 100 acres between 6 tracts of land the deer roam on....

This picture is about a 5000 Sq ft area the other area might be 3000 sq ft but it's extremely shaded

Click to expand...

Ok, now we have something to work with. You don't think you have a lot of deer, but trying to grow corn on such a tiny acreage is fruitless. Just buy it by the bag. If you try to grow corn there, you MIGHT get some to maturity, & get an ear or two, but you will never raise a crop.

As small as your area is, I would focus on winter cereals and/or brassicas. You can erect a fence & grow anything you want; if you insist on a garden.

Thanks, last question about this post gump, is there anything that i should or even could plant now that would germinate and be beneficial to the growth this late in the growing season? Watering is not an issue just FYI

Forest Grump said:

Ok, now we have something to work with. You don't think you have a lot of deer, but trying to grow corn on such a tiny acreage is fruitless. Just buy it by the bag. If you try to grow corn there, you MIGHT get some to maturity, & get an ear or two, but you will never raise a crop.

As small as your area is, I would focus on winter cereals and/or brassicas. You can erect a fence & grow anything you want; if you insist on a garden.

Click to expand...

You forgot to say something about the CROWS and COONS

Not a huge benefit to the deer, but buckwheat would be great for the soil.

If you were wanting to screen the plot, you could plant Egyptian wheat right now instead of the corn.

So I decided to try out some summer blend from Athens seed co. Combo of iron and soy beans, corn, sunflowers and millet. Seeded it Friday 6/23. Pic is from this afternoon

I swagged it without a soil test. Prolly not the best for my next question ...

When should I apply fertilizer? And what blend for a generic application. Also should I worry with a spray for weeds? If so, what would you recommend? I have no idea.

Thanks guys!

The beauty of a soil test, is it tells you exactly what you need to apply, based on the soil you have, for $10 or so. Typically we always put the fertilizer / lime down and work it in to the top 4" of soil, since that's where the roots will be, at planting time.

Lime is probably far more important than fertilizer, because the plants cannot/won't use the fertilizer if the ph is too low, so you would in effect, waste money. Did you put any lime down? If not, it might take a lot. At my place, I had to put 3 3/4 tons/acre down. But lime is a great investment. Any lime you put down will benefit your crops for the next several years.

So, the next question will be, what fertilizer is available to you, from your feed and seed place? 300 lbs/acre of 19-19-19 would really make that grow, but if you can only get 13-13-13, use that. It also depends on your budget, so put down what you can.

The real issue you will have, is likely the deer will come in and eat the beans, peas and sunflowers pretty quickly, so you'll have lots of open spaces in there. I might save my fertilizer dollars now.

Herbicide choices get difficult, depending on the weeds and grasses that come up, with a mix like that. One thing that will kill grasses, will kill your corn, since corn is a grass. It gets complicated with a seed mix, but the deer will eat between the weeds and get what they want. Sometimes we all get too concerned about having a weed free plot, yet, the deer do eat weeds.

I think if it was me, I would just let things go, see how it turns out and then start making a plans for a small crop, like cereal grains, clovers and brassicas.

When you get your soil test results back you can then start working on a plan to get your lime down for this fall.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=808598

Canuck5 said:

I think if it was me, I would just let things go, see how it turns out and then start making a plans for a small crop, like cereal grains, clovers and brassicas.

When you get your soil test results back you can then start working on a plan to get your lime down for this fall.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=808598

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That's what I would do. Use this time to lime and do soil prep in anticipation of a Fall planting. That's only about 100 days away depending on when you plant.

For future reference:

Duckhawk05 said:

When should I apply fertilizer?

Click to expand...

At the same time you plant the seed (or immediately prior to...)

My plot is looking great! I can't tell if anything is eating it, has anyone ever had this happen? I've planted peas or soybeans before and the deer hammered them as son as they broke ground, some of this stuff is 18" tall

I had the same thing happen last year with iron clay peas. The stand got almost waist high before the deer started on it in late summer. By the start of the gun season, it was stripped.