davidhelmly
Senior Member
Last year I hunted 3 different small tracts of property, the first 2 tracts had no food plots on them and the 3rd tract had a 4 ac plot that was about 95% weeds.
The 4 plots on the first 2 tracts are all around 1 ac each, two are just over and one is just under. All 4 of theses plots were old grown up pasture.
I mowed them in the summer and sprayed them about a week later with gly and got a good kill, by Sept they were starting to get a lot of regrowth so they were sprayed again with gly. They were all limed at 3 tons per acre just after the first spraying and all were planted with exactly the same mix of seed, white clover, red clover, crimson clover, chicory, radish, turnips and wheat.
The 4 ac plot on the 3rd tract really needed to be killed and started over but it was opening weekend of bow season when I got the tract to hunt so I decided not to spray it at all and knew I would regret that decision the following spring. It was mowed as soon as I got it and with it being so late in the game I didn't put any lime on it until this spring, I had 8 tons spread on it back in April.
It was planted with the same mix as the other plots with the exception of chicory, it was just clover, brassica and wheat which worked out good because it will be getting sprayed with Butyrac 200 very soon and probably again in early-mid Aug.
Some how all 3 properties missed most every rain shower we had all summer and were very dry, we had a good rain on all 3 properties in late Sept/early Aug "don't remember the date" and there was rain forecast for the following week so I planted them all the day after the rain, they were all planted with a minimal till planter and it does a great job with lots of soil moisture so things were looking good... with good soil moisture everything started popping out of the ground...
In the next 8+ weeks I think we had about 1/4" of rain total so all of the plots looked horrible, just a little growth in the shady areas of the plots but overall terrible. The rains this spring have helped a little and by March they were all full of grass so I sprayed them with cloth in mid March and got a very good kill.
I have glanced at them a few times but I actually went down and walked all of them yesterday and couldn't believe how much better they looked, they're a little weedy but I'm not looking for magazine quality plots, it's just over 8 acs total and they are feeding a LOT of deer, I pulled what few cameras I still had out but now I'm excited to get a few back out on the plots.
Here are a couple of pictures from the 4 ac plot, it is the weediest by far and will be getting sprayed since there is no chicory in it.
Here are a few from the first tract I got last year, it has one square 1 ac plot and 1 long narrow plot.
And a few from tract 2, it has 2 rectangular plots that are a little over 1 ac each.
The 4 plots on the first 2 tracts are all around 1 ac each, two are just over and one is just under. All 4 of theses plots were old grown up pasture.
I mowed them in the summer and sprayed them about a week later with gly and got a good kill, by Sept they were starting to get a lot of regrowth so they were sprayed again with gly. They were all limed at 3 tons per acre just after the first spraying and all were planted with exactly the same mix of seed, white clover, red clover, crimson clover, chicory, radish, turnips and wheat.
The 4 ac plot on the 3rd tract really needed to be killed and started over but it was opening weekend of bow season when I got the tract to hunt so I decided not to spray it at all and knew I would regret that decision the following spring. It was mowed as soon as I got it and with it being so late in the game I didn't put any lime on it until this spring, I had 8 tons spread on it back in April.
It was planted with the same mix as the other plots with the exception of chicory, it was just clover, brassica and wheat which worked out good because it will be getting sprayed with Butyrac 200 very soon and probably again in early-mid Aug.
Some how all 3 properties missed most every rain shower we had all summer and were very dry, we had a good rain on all 3 properties in late Sept/early Aug "don't remember the date" and there was rain forecast for the following week so I planted them all the day after the rain, they were all planted with a minimal till planter and it does a great job with lots of soil moisture so things were looking good... with good soil moisture everything started popping out of the ground...
In the next 8+ weeks I think we had about 1/4" of rain total so all of the plots looked horrible, just a little growth in the shady areas of the plots but overall terrible. The rains this spring have helped a little and by March they were all full of grass so I sprayed them with cloth in mid March and got a very good kill.
I have glanced at them a few times but I actually went down and walked all of them yesterday and couldn't believe how much better they looked, they're a little weedy but I'm not looking for magazine quality plots, it's just over 8 acs total and they are feeding a LOT of deer, I pulled what few cameras I still had out but now I'm excited to get a few back out on the plots.
Here are a couple of pictures from the 4 ac plot, it is the weediest by far and will be getting sprayed since there is no chicory in it.
Here are a few from the first tract I got last year, it has one square 1 ac plot and 1 long narrow plot.
And a few from tract 2, it has 2 rectangular plots that are a little over 1 ac each.
