Is it bad to plant a clover/rye grain/oats plot now? Next week is more than promising for ideal growth for these plants to germinate and take off. Is there any cons to planting around this time of year? Why wait until August when I can plant now?
It is past the window here in IN that we like to try to establish clover. Spring or Fall are best and we like to frost seed each year too until no longer going to keep plot in clover.
It's probably best to plant your combination in late July, early August. The idea of planting a cover crop of forage oats or what ever you are using is to plant it then so it only gets around a foot high or so by fall and not grow to maturity. You want it to provide enough cover so it holds moisture down for the clover to get established. The winter then kills off the cover crop and the clover is all that's left to grow in the spring, provided you killed off the weeds good enough. Like tynimiller said, then frost seeding also comes in to play say in March or so.
So the term "better late than never" wouldn't exactly apply? I guess my ignorance in the matter of the "planting-window" plays into my overall question of planting now. If I plant these clover and oats outside of the window, meaning not spring and not fall but in between those times, will it not successfully grow to maturity? Will it have to fight more with weeds? Or is it just the "window" a general time that everyone plants?
I believe the biggest reason people like to avoid spring planting clover is that you usually get a nice bullrush of weeds in may and june. If you plant late July there is not alot of new weeds seeds coming up in August to battle. I have had good luck with a May planted straight clover patch but its not super weedy we hit it pretty heavy with seed and have the ability to mow to knock back weeds when needed. Oats and Clover now would not worry me at all. I have heard that Rye planted now will basically overmature and by fall will not be very palatable to deer. I have nothing to back that up besides the word of other people. What you could do right now then is plant your clover and oats, and overseed rye August 1. I have succesfully overseeded rye on terrible soil with no plowing or packing before a decent rain and the stuff just finds a way to get itself lodged in the dirt. Oats will do better will a little dirt on top of it or at least broadcast on a nice fluffy seedbed. Good luck whatever you do.
I am new to the planting food plots and missed the VA spring planting date for clover if you switch to a annual seed mix the soil needs to be 65 or better I just ordered a bunch of seed that will go in next week.next spring (early March) I will seed the perineal clover for the long term. Just my back up plan I will let you know if I am throwing away good seed and money
With clovers, weeds tend be be an issue this time of year. Many people are going to fall seeding your legumes to avoid this issue. That being said.....I actually shot some video and planted a "kill plot" inside an old road inside a woods today. There was plenty of moisture and the mix i planted should explode out of the ground. You can plant now as i did but i also prepped it pretty well to try to keep the weed growth at bay. Oats and rye are cool season crops and aren't a very good choice to plant in June or July...clovers in early June one still might be ok depending on the type of clovers. I'd rather plant your annual clovers this time of year if you want to set up the plot. I'd use berseem clover as your cover crop, and get down a good solid, high germ count/fresh mix , if your going to plant now. One can also look at adding 2-4 lbs per acre of italian ryegrass as a annual cover crop to help suppress weeds.
Clover here planted this late doesn't appreciate the really hot July and early august temps and low moisture.
I forgot to mention this will be a plot within the edge of a wood line. I'm hoping the indirect sunlight of the morning will help moisture to stay in the grown and direct sunlight of afternoon to help the plot grow. I'll have to read more up about annual clover. This might be a route I would experiment with. That is, if white clover wouldn't be a good try this time of year.
Just go through with roundup and kill all vegetation in your food plot. Then a week later go and disc the crap out of it then plant it. Then when weeds start coming back, you can use 24d to hold back all other growth.
In NC the summer heat and weeds will stifle it out. If you could water it everyday and had the ability to control the weeds it might be ok but the heat will still cause the growth not to be optimal. Best time to plant here will be September or maybe last week of August. That will cut a little into the first week of bow season though,
Haha that could have been a disaster, thankfully I double checked as well thanks for the head up. What is a "broad leafed weed" considered. If I have brassicas throughout my clover plot, will it kill that?
Yes, brassicas will be killed by most broadleaf killers Broadleaf Weeds ? Center for Turfgrass Science ? Penn State University
