Okay guys so this will be my second go around of food plots. I am going to do 1/4 to 1/2 acre of the clover and brassica mix known as "Intro" that pastorandrew is selling. I am tucking it in the bottom of a ravine where I had a stand last year and had an encounter with a 130" 8 point. Most of my time will be spent weed wacking down the weeds because i can't get a brush hog in there to mow everything down. I am going to try and get everything weed wacked down tonight and go back tomorrow and remove the trees and rose bushes. Hopefully by thursday i can get some lime on it so that it takes some effect by late august and then i will burn it with round up next week. I will keep this updated throughout the summer and hopefully by fall i will be taking a picture behind a buck in it.
UPDATE #1 6-6-2014 The entire plot is clear now. I am going to run the lawn dethatcher over it tomorrow to remove some of the dead grass and loose grass that remains. The farthest shot will be 60 yards across the plot. I am also going to burn the plot tomorrow with round up. Mid week next week i am going to put down about 400 lbs of lime since i did not do a soil test.
The best time to plant your perennials, in opinion...in the fall. Way less weed pressure to contend with. I love using brassicas as a cover crop in the fall for establishing clovers. But, in the Midwest shoot for august 10-sept 1 to establish.
Yep. I've been talking with pastorandrew about the best time to plant his seeds and he said 3rd week of July through end of August. I wanted to get the plot mowed down early so I could get some lime on it. My tentative plant time right now is the 2nd week of August before I go back to school august 25. Probably sent from a boring lecture using Tapatalk
Another tip.... One of the reasons so many of the pictures people have been sending me of their spring perennials looking so good is a unique product many don't know about. PREVAIL for Alfalfa/True Clover Combination Forage Crops - Combination Products PRE-VAIL is a ready to use, clay based, pre-inoculant designed to improve early seedling vigor through increased root development and excellent nodulation. The new PRE-VAIL not only contains high levels of rhizobium for nitrogen fixation, but it's also infused with Azospirillum bacteria, an organic biological plant growth promoter unlike any other on the market today. Prevail is not just organic but also OMRI approved and i'm involved with some trails using azo. I used a couple companies products in the past and I have some incredible stories I share at my seminars i conduct. All of the clovers and alfalfas sold by a Midwest Seed Distributor.....Homepage | Deer Creek Seed contain Prevail and it's why some of their products handle drought and other stresses so well. 3 years ago i had Deer Creek Seed, "the orange bag company", the country comedienne backed company and another midwest company in test plots and they all aligned as expected based on what i know about the seed industry and reading germ counts and testing dates on tags.
Update #2 6-12-2014 Today after work I finished spraying the plot with roundup. I was actually surprised at how brown the brush was just after mowing it. It probably had to do with all the dead grass on top of it. After finishing spraying the plot i waited about an hour for the roundup to soak in and then and went and spread about 400 lbs. of lime on the plot. I also hung a stand that overlooks the plot, checked cameras, and freshened my mineral site. Here is the view of the plot from the treestand. I will have to cut down two limbs on the left and one of the limbs on the right. This is one of the deer trails that meets right at the stand. The plot is 10 yards to the left of this trail. And this is another trail that comes from the alfalfa field that is about 40 yards from my stand. Next up will be tilling the plot and planting. I have been talking to pastorandrew about his seed and he said to plant it from the third week of July to the end of August.
Well, today i got my seed in the mail. It came really fast from pastorandrew. I put a few different seeds in two cups just to see germination and plant growth. This weekend i am going to disk up my plot and spot spray any weeds that have come up.
Update #4 7-6-2014 Today was the day. I got the food plot planted. A buddy of mine brought his disk up and we tilled it under yesterday. It was a little wet so we let it sit until mid day today and disked it again. I also created a ditch through it to funnel the water through it. I had to plant it a few weeks early because my schedule gets a little tight the next few weekends so i decided that it was the best time for it. While i was down there i moved my stand about 10 yards to the east into a bigger oak. Now it will be about a 35-40 yard shot across the plot.
Update #5 7-17-2014 Went to check on the food plot today and had a few surprises, some good and some bad. First the good. I was very pleased at the amount of growth in 10 days. Most of the brassicas were about 4". Now for the bad. When I was planting the plot instead of using a hand planter I was using a push spreader. The spreader acted like a sifter and pushed out the brassicas first and the clovers last. Also I didn't have the spreader set just right so I put the seed down a little too heavy in a few spots. This was no big deal since I didn't use all the seed when I first spread it. A few days after the seed started to germinate I went back down and broadcast the remaining seed in the thinner spots.
Yeah it is thick in some spots but I am very pleased with the seed. Have you thought about expanding your seed inventory to stuff like oats, chicory, or even winter peas and beans?
Have considered it, put together some really sweet mixes with oats, winter peas, winter red wheat, and sweet blue lupine before. It would be hard to market because of the cost to ship. oat seed at like fifty pounds an acre, which would be 30-40 dollars in shipping alone. someday I hope to figure a way how to!
I checked my Covert MPe-5 that I have overlooking the food plot and got two good bucks in it. I posted these pics in a thread in the Trail Camera section but since they were taken in the food plot I figured I would put them in here as well.
UPDATE #6 7-27-2014 Checking cameras today I decided to take some pics of the food plot for an update. It has been three weeks since I planted the plot and it is growing great. I forgot to take pics of individual plants but the broad leaf plants are about 10-11". The plot has grown in also since the last update. There is one bare spot in the middle of the plot but that is because it is pretty wet there.
Update #7 8-3-2014 Checked cameras and took some pictures of the plot. For reference my laptop is about a foot across...
Update #8 8-9-2014 This is 55 days of growth. Brassicas and radishes are starting to get some good tap root length to grow the bulbs. Clover is coming in really good. I just posted a thread with some bucks and does and fawns in the plot. This was one of the bigger brassicas and an average clover. The more bare spots are starting to come in now because it has dried out and the seed can germinate now.
