Food plot and a little work today

[texas bound]

I am about to start on my food plots this weekend. Got to clear some brush and determine the size. Most likely I am going to go with two 2 acre plots on 110 acre place. Cant wait to get these plots going. Will be my first time ever planting.

[birddoggin]

cool deal. so I am trying to take a lesson from your thread, I am planting beewild bundleflower around the border of the food plot, to give a bit of a screen(plus good food source, and then use the sunflower and corn to go along with the peas in the summer plot. thanks sir

Joseph

[birddoggin]

Texas bound, that's a good size. my first time too. been doing a lot of reading and research and some of the thoughts are that the plots should be 1-10% of total acreage. good luck. post pics as you go

Joseph

[unclefish]

Good luck to both you guys. I'm gonna try and expand my plot to 3+ acres this year.

Hopefully we will get some rain this spring/summer to make the plots worthwhile. I know most of the state is still in a drought so one of the things I'm trying to do is to drought proof my plots as best I can.

The two ways that I've researched how to do this best is to plant cereal rye (not rye grass) the fall before and then plant your spring/summer plot in the rye field...with its great root system helps to hold moisture just about better than anything.

The other way is to keep the soil covered at all times with mulch/plant matter/straw, etc...meaning no-till planting methods. That's why I'm experimenting with broadcasting in the standing rye and then mowing the tall rye stubble over the top of the seed. There are some QDMA guys that had great results doing this even in a bad drought. They even take soil temps in the summer under both tilled and covered soil and the difference is around 10 degrees cooler under the covered soil...crazy. And the covered soil stays moist whereas the till soil is bone dry during dry times. Gonna try it for myself.

So the plan is to let the Rye grow tall. Kill it with Gly. Wait two weeks for the alleopathic effect to wear off (when rye dies it release compounds that prevent seed/weed germination) and then broadcast cowpeas and milo into the standing rye and then mow or cultipack the rye to the ground to cover the seed. Simple enough...even for me.

[texas bound]

That sounds like a great plan. Might have to do that next year

[birddoggin]

Unclefish, does that work best with rye? what if you just used what was growing over the plot, kill with gly , give it 10-14 days, and then broadcast and cultipack?

and by no till method, I am assuming that just means no discing up the ground correct?

that really is an amazing concept, a simple canopy to protect the ground from drying up. I like it.

Joseph

[unclefish]

You can certainly use other plants growing in the plot but they need to be tall and thick to get a good mulch later. I tried this last year and got mediocre results because it was not very tall when I mowed it and the mulch dried up pretty quickly.

I know a guy that had Johnson grass growing in his plot and used it as a mulch layer and got good results. As long as it's tall and thick it should be good.

I don't know of any other plants that have the alleopathic effect other than rye but there very well may be.

[ctburt0n]

This is a great thread. Im glad you have posted up all this info. I have planted wheat at the house every fall and they keep it down. I think I will do a spring plot this year though.

[jkelbe]

Unclefish, just got caught up reading all 11 pages. Great info.

I had some oats, radish and clover planted this fall (some premix from Dicks sporting goods), it was a small plot and the deer have turned it basically to dirt. I am looking to expand dramatically this spring. I am impressed enough with your clover that I just bought a bag from the amazon link you posted. Can I plant that clover now? (going to the lease next week)

I guess I would overseed my plot now, and have a few bare areas I can cover, nothing prepped yet. I am doing a soil test too, sending that off to Whitetail Institute. Planning on clearing and plating catjang peas this spring, plus this clover.

[unclefish]

Unclefish, just got caught up reading all 11 pages. Great info.

I had some oats, radish and clover planted this fall (some premix from Dicks sporting goods), it was a small plot and the deer have turned it basically to dirt. I am looking to expand dramatically this spring. I am impressed enough with your clover that I just bought a bag from the amazon link you posted. Can I plant that clover now? (going to the lease next week)

I guess I would overseed my plot now, and have a few bare areas I can cover, nothing prepped yet. I am doing a soil test too, sending that off to Whitetail Institute. Planning on clearing and plating catjang peas this spring, plus this clover.

You can plant clover in the spring but usually weeds/grass will overtake it (especially with a white clover like Durana...its pretty slow to establish and weeds are not in the spring). You could also plant something like Crimson Clover now and then Durana in the fall. Crimson is very fast growing and will spread quickly and will have a better chance to out-compete the weeds and grass. Its an annual so it won't last much past May but it will provide some great forage and fix Nitrogen in the soil if you inoculate for your fall crop.

Fall planting clover diminishes the weed problem big time and lets the roots establish all winter so it can explode the next spring.

If you send the soil test to TAMU then you will get it back quicker. I got mine back in 4 days one time. Good luck.

[unclefish]

This is a great thread. Im glad you have posted up all this info. I have planted wheat at the house every fall and they keep it down. I think I will do a spring plot this year though.

Thanks. If you've read this whole thread then you know that I've had alot of failures along with some successes......but to me the fun is trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

[unclefish]

I haven't been up to my place yet but I know it got pounded by the ice storm. Hopefully the ice did some hinge-cutting for me.

Although if it did it might be too much of a good thing.

[JeffK]

Interested in planting cowpeas this year. What are ya'll thoughts if I broadcasted in an oats/rye plot prior to turning cows in to graze and trump the seed in?

We caught a decent rain last week so got good moisture. I would imagine the cows will pack the soil and peas probably would not do so good if we have another dry year.

Also, the soil is black gumbo. Will the cow peas do okay in such soil?

[unclefish]

Interested in planting cowpeas this year. What are ya'll thoughts if I broadcasted in an oats/rye plot prior to turning cows in to graze and trump the seed in?

We caught a decent rain last week so got good moisture. I would imagine the cows will pack the soil and peas probably would not do so good if we have another dry year.

Also, the soil is black gumbo. Will the cow peas do okay in such soil?

Interesting idea Jeff. It should work but I wonder how much germination you would get. It would be interesting to see how it works.

I'm taking the other approach and broadcast seeds into the 3-4 foot tall rye and then mow over it for a good mulch layer.

[deer farmer]

With the long cold winter this year, I would suggest not planting till after Easter if u r in N or E Texas. Or u may have to plant twice