First Time Food Plotter

[Vols Fan in FL]

Greetings all. Hope your Fall is off to a peaceful start.

Question:
This—

…currently looks like this after a mow about 2 weeks ago—

So now that it’s time to put something new into the ground, should I:
A) Simply throw out seed (and if so, what type? My normal 5-seed mix plus some Durant? 5-seed only? Durana only?) and then run it over a bunch of times with a cultipacker?
B) Throw new seed and run it over with a 4-wheeler only?
C) Time it right, throw it out before a big rain storm and do nothing?
D) Till it all into the ground and start again
E) Do nothing

Thanks in advance for all the responses, good, bad or indifferent.

 

[Canuck5]

1. Congrats on your nice stand of Durana! Throw out more in the thin spots, at the normal rate and then over the rest of the area at 1/2 rate and do it now

2. Throw out 200 pounds/acre of 0-20-20 fertilizer, if you can find it. 8-24-24 would work too, in a pinch, and do it now.

3. Not sure where your plots are located, but if you are south of Macon, adding some medium red clover in your mix wouldn't hurt. 5 pounds to the acre.

4. Throw out 50 pounds to the acre of wheat or cereal rye.

5. Run a cultipacker over it and call it a day.

Next year, invest in some clethodim plus a surfactant and 2,4d-b herbicides. Only use your mower if broad leaf weeds get out of control, exceed the height of the clover and don't cut the clover. Otherwise, park it and use herbicides. I no mow no mo. Mowing takes away tonnage of clover and doesn't improve the nutrition of the clover by much. It will stress the clover in hot dry weather too.

 

[Vols Fan in FL]

if you are south of Macon, adding some medium red clover in your mix wouldn't hurt.

Thank you sir. This is all very helpful! I am due west, more or less, of Macon in Butler. Would you still recommend red clover?

 

[Canuck5]

I am due north of you in Talbot County and I use a lot of Medium Red Clover. MRC has a deeper root than Durana and should weather drier summers. The negative to MRC is that it's a biennial which might last 2 years, maybe but I replant it every year.

Here is one MRC I pulled out of the ground, Labor Day weekend and the deer were still using it, plus it shows how long of a root it has. Deer are still using it today, too.