More food for thought concerning soil health and food plot strategies

nrh0011

Senior Member
Sometimes you need to do some tillage to reinvigorate an established plot, lime it deeper, repair damage from hogs or erosion, deal with weeds you don't have a chemical for, etc... With certain crops (alfalfa, for instance), you must rotate to a different crop after a few years. That's the perfect time to fix any other problems. Don't over do it, don't do it when the soil is too moist & don't do it too often & you can still maintain good OM levels. I have to periodically terminate my perennial clover plots & start over; horsenettle, hog rooting, loggers...something eventually wins out, forcing a re-do.

When you need to surface fertilize, use ammonium sources:
ammoniated phosphates (MAP & DAP), ammonium sulfate (AMS, my favorite), ammonium nitrate (more readily available, but more leacheable & no S).
I use ammoniated P04's + AMS + potash as my fall fertilizer base.

Avoid urea for surface application unless you can hear the thunder & will get at least 0.5" of rain out of it. If your plot has a lot of residue, it can tie up N for quite a long time (1 of the problems with the wood chip method lauded above by Mr Baby). But if you are getting good breakdown TO humus, but not beyond it to mineral soil, you will get good retention & availability of nutrients. Unless the ground floods for a couple of weeks, or somebody works it wet; then you start over at square one.

When you do your soil test, pick one that gives you CEC. CEC X 10 = the lbs of N your soil is capable of holding. Any excess you apply will leach away in rainwater. Don't try to build K if your pH is above 6.5; just put on what the plants need that year/season.

Ding Ding Ding!! I fully believe in no till planting, but tillage will always be needed in some scenarios, i.e. compaction and other reasons mentioned above by Forest.
 

nrh0011

Senior Member
Not sure what the standard would be but my soil OM has been growing at a rate of around 0.9% per year through the first 5 years on my sandy soil. This has come through cycling 2 heavy grass crops per year.

nice work CNC
 

GeorgeShu

Senior Member
CNC, I have a question that may display my ignorance of soil chemistry or ignorance of something at any rate.

It deals with increasing your soil level of organic matter. How can the OM level increase under a no till scenario if the OM is not incorporated into the soil, ie, turning it under and mixing? Doesn't the OM reside on top of the soil and slowly deteriorate into a "duff layer"?

Thanks for all your fine posts here and previously at that other site. Have thoroughly enjoyed them.
 

CNC

Senior Member
CNC, I have a question that may display my ignorance of soil chemistry or ignorance of something at any rate.

It deals with increasing your soil level of organic matter. How can the OM level increase under a no till scenario if the OM is not incorporated into the soil, ie, turning it under and mixing? Doesn't the OM reside on top of the soil and slowly deteriorate into a "duff layer"?

Thanks for all your fine posts here and previously at that other site. Have thoroughly enjoyed them.

Thanks man!.....The microbial community in your soil is what breaks down and incorporates your thatch….that’s their food source. Things like bacteria, fungi, nematodes, etc……
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
And the worms help too! :)
 

GeorgeShu

Senior Member
OK, I understand that the micro biota consume the OM and break it down into "tiny bits" in the form of excrement, dead biota, undigested matter, etc.

How is this matter in its various forms transported from the soil surface deeper into the strata? Is it simply from the worms and other critters eating near the surface and then excreting matter and dying down lower? Is the broken down matter near the surface carried down with water infiltration? Frost heaving the soil? Combo of above. Other factors?

I am just trying to puts the pieces of the puzzle together in my mind. To me its a pretty straight foward process with tillage and easily observed. Not so much so with no or minimum tillage.

Maybe I need it explained to me like I am a 5 year old!!!!

Thanks for your patience....
 

CNC

Senior Member
How is this matter in its various forms transported from the soil surface deeper into the strata? Is it simply from the worms and other critters eating near the surface and then excreting matter and dying down lower? Is the broken down matter near the surface carried down with water infiltration? Frost heaving the soil? Combo of above.

....

Yep it's a combination of a few factors......maybe some of these other knowledgeable guys can help us with more specifics but you've got the gist of it. Roots also play a big part in getting OM into the subsoil without tillage. When a plant terminates then the root structure that is left behind turns into decomposing plant material…. leaving channels and streaks of OM down into the subsoil.
 

Triple C

Senior Member
Not no-till but close to it. Planted radish n turnips yesterday after mowing and spraying this field during the last month. Use a one pass planter that opens up a small furrow for the seed to drop in and get good germination with this method. Dead thatch helps hold moisture.
IMG_4094.jpg

I am tilling fairly heavy around the perimeter of this field to prepare a clean seed bed for clover which we'll plant in about a month.
 

GeorgeShu

Senior Member
CNC, thanks, I can live with that explanation. The roots and the holes they make when they decay make good sense to me along with the other factors. It has to be a combo of factors. Maybe others will add to the discussion.

Triple C, good work there, hope the results are good as well. What is the brand name of that planter? Does it use disks (colters?) to open a planting slot? Small cultipacker at rear?
 

Triple C

Senior Member
George - It's a plotmaster I bought in 2011. It has 2 rows of discs in front of the seed box with the discs up front being adjustable. Free floating cultipacker on the back of the unit. Seeds are metered out of the seed box and drop on to an angled shield and drop in the furrows created by the discs. Cultipacker firms up the openings a bit. Works pretty good when planting into dead matter and moist soil like we had yesterday following last week's rain. Not so good if dry and green.
 

nrh0011

Senior Member
OK, I understand that the micro biota consume the OM and break it down into "tiny bits" in the form of excrement, dead biota, undigested matter, etc.

How is this matter in its various forms transported from the soil surface deeper into the strata? Is it simply from the worms and other critters eating near the surface and then excreting matter and dying down lower? Is the broken down matter near the surface carried down with water infiltration? Frost heaving the soil? Combo of above. Other factors?

I am just trying to puts the pieces of the puzzle together in my mind. To me its a pretty straight foward process with tillage and easily observed. Not so much so with no or minimum tillage.

Maybe I need it explained to me like I am a 5 year old!!!!

Thanks for your patience....

Think of the grassland prairies out west. Some of the richest OM soils in the country, they all have a large organic matter content and in a soil profile you'll see the distinct organic matter layer at the surface due to prairie vegetation decomposing for thousands of years. Google "Mollisols".
 

elfiii

Admin
Staff member
Now that it has quieted down in here I actually learned something. :bounce:
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Now that it has quieted down in here I actually learned something. :bounce:

I was wondering when the big gun would show up!!!!! :cool::cool::cool:
 

Crakajak

Daily Driveler News Team
Now that it has quieted down in here I actually learned something. :bounce:

Its no where near as exciting as the PF.But we do have our moments.
Heres my thoughts George.
OM will break down every year thru mature plants dying,bugs,worms ,poop etc...The nutrients will leach down into the softer topsoil/layer.
To speed up that process we turn the soil to get more OM deeper into the soil as well as added nutrients.
The OM we turn into the soil can add a lot or little nutrient value depending on the quality of OM being turned.( thus the reason for proper lime/fertilizer on the plants and uptake of nutrients
The use of lime, fertilizer will leach into the soil over a period of time.However , the redclay hardpan will limit the depth of leaching into the soil.
Most plants only require 8-10 " of loose soil to make a good root system.
We are limited to the amount of tillage available depending on the amount of trees in the food plot.
Once I harrowed the soil, I fert/limed and then turned it again to incorporate the additives.
I then smoothed the food plot and then cultipacted it.
I then no tilled the clover/wheat, brassicas.
That was 8 years ago and have only bushhogged, sprayed, added lime/fert, and overseeded every year with a reduced amount of clover/wheat every year with a no till i rented.
This allows the food plot to have all ages of clover growing.Perennial clover takes root the first year,starts good top growth the following and starts matures at about 5 years at best.
Important also is weed management.We will never be weed free if there are wildlife utilizing the food plot,but I spray to reduce the amount of weeds taking nutrients from my clover.Timing can play a big part in this.If the weeds are allowed to go to seed we are adding a huge amount of unwanted plants that will germinate and absorb some of the nutrients we just added.
These are some things I have learned from my food plots over the years.
Any input as to the faults in this thought process is greatly appreciated.
 

doomtrpr_z71

Senior Member
While I'm thinking about it, I have the entire southern SARE library if anyone wants some reading material on cover crops, soil improvement etc. Its on a flash drive, but I think its close to 2 GB of ebooks, enough reading material for a long time.
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
My head might explode!! But SARE does put out some great info.!
 

davidhelmly

Senior Member
While I'm thinking about it, I have the entire southern SARE library if anyone wants some reading material on cover crops, soil improvement etc. Its on a flash drive, but I think its close to 2 GB of ebooks, enough reading material for a long time.

That's a very nice offer, I would love to browse and read thru it, how would I gain access to it?
 
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