Spring/Summer Planting Ideas

[hicktownboy]

I am pretty much hunting in north Georgia exclusively these days. In my previous hunting clubs and lands in middle to south Georgia, I have fed protein feed and corn out of gravity feeders in the spring and summer. Unfortunately, that isn't an option for me on the north Georgia land due to the bears we have tearing up feeders. So instead of trying to figure out a way to feed deer out of a feeder and attract even more bears why not plant some plots. I have a small clover field that I will keep mowed but I have several "lanes" that are a couple of tractor widths wide and 100 yards long as well as a couple of one acre plots. First thought was buckwheat or one of the summer mixes put out by the big brand seed companies. Goal would be to hold deer on our property and increase food variety and quality in the spring/summer. Give me some ideas on what to plant in the spring/summer in north Georgia and when to plant. Anyone had success in the Georgia heat and often dry spells in the summer with a particular seed or seed mix?

 

[davel]

Buckwheat works well with minimal effort. It will grow in acidic soil but will do better with a good pH and fertilizer. Once the deer figure out what it is they will eat it to the ground.

 

[mattb78]

Has your PH been corrected?A drought resistant forage like Lablab would be great and you may have just enough acreage to get away with it.

 

[Deerhunter12454]

Buckwheat is both a feed and a soil conditioner. Great green manure. All depends on soil test, buckwheat grows quick and shades out weeds, you can crimp it in the fall and plant your fall crop into it, millet, peas/beans, clover should have been planted in the fall/winter to get a good crop for the summer. Just depends on what you want, what you have money for, and more importantly your soil condition

 

[Canuck5]

But, perennial white clover, with a mix of medium red clover in there, for drought tolerance, is still hard to beat.

 

[mattb78]

Canuck my resistance to white clover as a primary forage is the below graph. I can see having some plots in perennial clover for convenience and year round nutrition.. but don't you want your plots peaking in November? Its a honest question because I know a bunch of guys that swear by white clover but conceptually I have concerns.

 

[Canuck5]

A very valid point! However as you suggest, it's the reason that I will always add a cereal grain, radish, turnips, rape and additional clovers to my perennial plots. Most of those things will get taken out by spraying in the spring, to let the clovers flourish. "This year" was one of those years that didn't work out as planned, but things are going good right now.

It burned down!

Well, the plots that I sprayed glyphosate on, on 8-30-2022 Now, I watch the weather. We've had a dry spring, then a wet summer and looks like Mother Nature is going to help with the burn down. Looks like early to mid October is when I will plant, if there is rain in the forecast.

forum.gon.com

 

[Canuck5]

In a good year, what I want my plots to look like in October ..... a borgishmorg!

 

[Canuck5]

I see in your chart, where cowpeas and lablab are peaking later in the year. I quit planting cowpeas and soybeans after more that 5 acres got wiped out. They do love them and they are good for them, but I just can't grow enough of them to do any good.

This is what my cowpeas looked like in May

 

[TomC]

Perennial Clover (Ladino or Durana) then overseed heavy with winter wheat or cereal rye in Sept / Oct. Year round magnet with a major boost come prime time. No brainer!

 

[Canuck5]

I'll just add that the beauty of white/red clover mix is that there is "food on the table" for the most important time of the year. The time of the year that the does are pregnant and lactating, and the bucks are trying to grow antlers. If I work up ground, plant, (wait for rain?), try to keep the deer off the plots (6 weeks?), I may be defeating the purpose, of building a better herd.

I'm not poo-pooing planting summer plots, as long as you have food on the table somewhere and enough acreage of food plots, to do so. Just my humble opinion.

But, food plotting is experimentation, to figure out what works for you.

 

[Canuck5]

Protein values

 

[mattb78]

Canuck would you mind walking us through your planting procedure when you overseed your white clover plots with cool season annuals either in this thread or a new thread? Thank you.

 

[Canuck5]

Per soil test, I will get lime spread when it is available from my Feed & Seed place. I am typically on a 3 year rotation with my 16 plots. 1/3 of the plots will get limed at a rate of 2000lbs/acre, or less.

Get my seed lined up in August and ready to roll (or before). It is based on how my plots look late spring and just guess at how much I need to add.

Get my 0-20-20 or 8-24-24 fertilizer ready. Spread it mid September. IHunt will spread 50% of his in the spring and the fall.

Start watching for rain mid-September

Ideally, in early October, I will straighten my discs and just shallowly run some grooves in the plots. Minor soil disturbance. I don't have a no-till drill, so I try to mimic one. This year, because of drought I did not disturb the soil at all, because there was still good clover growing in there and I didn't want to hurt it.

Broadcast my cereal grains and run the cultipacker over the plots

Mix my small seeds (whatever I chose) together like crimson, arrowleaf, medium red, white clover, with radish, turnips and rape. Make sure you calculate pure live seed.

If rain is in the forecast, I won't cultipack again, but if it is too far out, then I might.

Pray for rain

I will be heading back down to camp later in March and maybe spray clethodim to kill off the cereal grains and the grass I have, to let the clover flourish. 2,4d-b will get sprayed later, after the grass has been killed off. Maybe a month later.

So that will bring me to early May.

And, I no mow no mo. I also just let my clover head out and drop seed.

 

[Canuck5]

My plots are also on a line between Macon Georgia and Dallas Texas. It has been said, but not true in all cases, that anything above that line can grow perennial clover well and anything below, a perennial clover can act like an annual. A lot of it depends on the type of soil you have, soil ph, the right amount of P&K and how much rain the good Lord blesses us with.

 

[davel]

My plots are also on a line between Macon Georgia and Dallas Texas. It has been said, but not true in all cases, that anything above that line can grow perennial clover well and anything below, a perennial clover can act like an annual. A lot of it depends on the type of soil you have, soil ph, the right amount of P&K and how much rain the good Lord blesses us with.

Guys, this man is a wealth of knowledge and very, very helpful. I have picked his brain many times and he always takes the time to give advice.

 

[Canuck5]

LOL, here is a story with pictures and dates The last pic shows that the medium red clover still was producing into September ...... when everything else had either gone to seed or was dormant.

 

[Canuck5]

Root system of the medium red clover that helps carry the plot thru the heat and drought of summer.

 

[Canuck5]

A pure stand of Durana, that never was mowed and allowed to go to seed. The 2nd pic shows where it just keeps reseeding itself. The seed it dropped in 2018, helped fill the plot in, in 2019

 

[hicktownboy]

A pure stand of Durana, that never was mowed and allowed to go to seed. The 2nd pic shows where it just keeps reseeding itself. The seed it dropped in 2018, helped fill the plot in, in 2019

Super impressive. You say never mowed, have you sprayed or done other maintenance?