Food plot seed recommendation

[GAbuckhunter88]

So I have four new food plots on my farm that have all been created this year. Three were limed back in end of April and the fourth just recently.

I know this year I won’t have the PH where I want it on the plots so I’m curious what’s best to plant? My thought was winter wheat and oats but I also wondered if I could get any clover to grow successfully without having the PH right? My end goal is to make two of them year round clover plots. They range in size from .25 acre to 1 acre.

 

[Canuck5]

Oats, cereal rye, Dwarf Essex Rape, Crimson Clover, and Arrowleaf Clover might give you your best chance, under your conditions. There's several variables involved ....... Not sure where your plots are, but I don't see much rain, in any forecast for this month.

 

[GAbuckhunter88]

Oats, cereal rye, Dwarf Essex Rape, Crimson Clover, and Arrowleaf Clover might give you your best chance, under your conditions. There's several variables involved ....... Not sure where your plots are, but I don't see much rain, in any forecast for this month.

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I don’t plan on planting until end of the month/first of October when I see rain in the forecast and cool temperatures, just trying to have everything bought and ready for when it’s time. Thanks for the advice above

 

[Ihunt]

If you put out enough lime, I would not hesitate to plant the clover this year. I would plant oats first, till them in, then put down the clover. If you have access to a cultipacker, I would run it over the oats, put out the clover, then run over it again.

 

[elfiii]

So I have four new food plots on my farm that have all been created this year. Three were limed back in end of April and the fourth just recently.

I know this year I won’t have the PH where I want it on the plots so I’m curious what’s best to plant? My thought was winter wheat and oats but I also wondered if I could get any clover to grow successfully without having the PH right? My end goal is to make two of them year round clover plots. They range in size from .25 acre to 1 acre.

Yes you can. Just pour the lime to it. If you're close to 6.0 Durana will make it through.

 

[Triple C]

I'm with Ihunt and elfiii...If you limed good in April then tee up the grains and Durana or Ladino clover. Winter wheat will germinated on concrete if it's wet. Winter wheat, cereal rye or oats will work just fine. As Ihunt suggested, plant your grains first then overseed with the clover and drag or cultipak.

 

[TomC]

Last year I did pure winter wheat and it was out of this world. Brought in small herds until March and survived VERY high grazing pressure until spring green-up.

I just came in about 30 minutes from redoing this same plot that is about 1.25 acres and this time loaded it up HEAVY with winter wheat and added Ladino. Will frost seed more Ladino into this plot late winter. I'm TARD, dust in my nose, ears, everywhere, can't even tell my tractor is orange, shoulder is killing me from toting that Earthway 2750 but it feels good to get it done. Now it just needs to rain.

Anyway winter wheat is a NO BRAINER!!! I frost seeded Ladino around my house late last winter and you could throw a rock and hit deer from my sofa spring through summer.

 

[Powerline]

I just got a bag of the fall release from Green Cover seed. Looks like a great blend.

 

[Gaswamp]

Oats, cereal rye, Dwarf Essex Rape, Crimson Clover, and Arrowleaf Clover might give you your best chance, under your conditions. There's several variables involved ....... Not sure where your plots are, but I don't see much rain, in any forecast for this month.

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[Gaswamp]

canuck5 any way to blow these uP

 

[Canuck5]

Sent you a pm

 

[SouthPaw Draw]

Canuck- What is the recommended rate to put out diacon radishes per acre when mixed with a cereal grain?

 

[TJay]

I am trialing a berseem type clover called Frosty Berseem. It is an annual clover but the selling point is that it is very cold tolerant. Reviews are good, deer really like it, it's a fast grower to combat over grazing and it's ability to grow through the winter and into spring is a plus. Anyway I bought a small bag online and will sow it in an area that I can keep an eye on, we'll see how it does. Kind of an experiment.

 

[UFG8RMIKE]

Is there a selective herbicide for a pure stand of winter wheat? Something that will kill the grasses and broadleafs without killing the wheat?

I was planning a mix with wheat, brassicas and clovers but we would be up against weed pressure and unable to spray. We are trying a light disking strategy to leave the recently cut summer biomass as mulch on top so we are stuck with the weeds that are currently growing, and that would pop up with our fall planting. This is what I like about a full clover plot, you can knock out the weeds easily. Our only prob however is that our soils aren't right yet to support a solid stand of clover. We've gotten it to come in lightly, but it's kinda just there, and not really growing or providing any real biomass.

 

[Canuck5]

Canuck- What is the recommended rate to put out diacon radishes per acre when mixed with a cereal grain?

If you are doing 50 pounds/acre of a cereal grain, then I would go with 5-6 pounds per acre of diakon radish. If you add more cereal grain or add clover, I would bump that down.

 

[Canuck5]

Is there a selective herbicide for a pure stand of winter wheat? Something that will kill the grasses and broadleafs without killing the wheat?

Not that I know of and if there is, it might be pretty expensive.

But here is a trick. The longer you wait to plant, the less chance that you will be bothered with "summer weeds" and if they do come up, your first heavy frost might kill them, so don't worry about summer weeds.

Winter weeds, you have to try to get a jump on them and that's by getting your fall crop out of the ground quickly, using the proper seeding rate and covering the soil with plant life.

Cereal Rye, with a 3 clover blend on November 1, 2020




Same plot on March 20, 2021



Same plot, after crimson has petered out



If I wasn't so lazy, I would've run the bush hog 12" off the ground here, but I didn't. Deer didn't care. 7-31-2021




I properly limed and fertilized, but other than that, did nothing. This was a first year food plot on a gas line. I will just add in here too, that this gas line was just grass and weeds .... year upon year of grass and weeds and grass and weed seeds. I got the jump on them!

 

[Canuck5]

So, if you lightly till the soil, 2" or less and plant the right "stuff", you will still have good biomass deeper in the soil. This is a medium red clover plant, that I just pulled out of the ground, but should've dug out and I would've have broken off as much of the roots as I did. And you can still see the deer are still eating it.

There will be lots of decaying roots, left in the ground, after I lightly till this plot.

 

[Canuck5]

When I lightly till this clover back into the soil, it will release nitrogen. Free nitrogen for my next food plot crop. I like free! And most of the free nitrogen is in the above ground part of the plant, which when decayed will become available. That might take 30 days or so.

 

[Canuck5]

I keep talking about Medium Red Clover and I have my supply covered for this year, but as I understand it, there may be a shortage of it. If you were thinking about getting some, you might want to check your sources.

 

[UFG8RMIKE]

I just did, it's 120 bucks for 50lbs. What does it normally run?

I just put the order in for our seed, gonna plant on sat. Wheat, Arrowleaf, Crimson, Radish and Turnip. Decided this time to skip the red clover in the mix in favor of a double crop of buckwheat again next year. It grows sooo well and puts out a TONS of biomass for soil building. We will go more clover heavy once we can hold on to more nutrients in the soil.
I came across something the other day that looked like the perfect year round perennial however after reading more, it's very labor intensive to plant via rizomes. Perennial Peanut, the stuff can live through anything, very very, hardy, and a stand can last 30 years. It also has some selective herbicides that will allow a pure stand. Prob is it's difficult to establish, and not quite sure it could handle constant browse pressure with the number of deer we have. They grow it in the small concrete median islands here in FL, it always looks beautiful, with zero care or watering once fully established.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AG358


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