Food plot help

i planted my food plot about 2 weeks ago, last week i went out and checked and the ryegrass was coming up very nice. They were about 3 inches tall kind of skinny and white. Today i went out to find that it was all laid over and brown. What happened to this plot? Anything i can do to fix this?

 

Was it ryegrass or winter rye? Has anything been sprayed on the area and if so, what? What are conditions like there?

If it was ryegrass, I would just be happy it died and replant with something useful. If it was due to a chemical carryover you'll have to go back with something broadleaf more than likely. Other causes could be dry weather/wet weather, bugs...though bugs I wouldn't think would be a big likely hood.

 

i think it was just plain ryegrass, i got a bag of the throw and grow extreme. Nothing has been sprayed since april. We have been getting a lot of water but the area is not over run with water. Rained for a bit yesterday and the soil is wet looking but no puddles or anything.

 

ryegrass as stated before is a weed in food plots. Other than that give it a few days what ever you planted may pop up and grow

 

Bag says forage tetraploid ryegrass

 

That is what it looked like a week ago, today is was brown, laid over, and dried up.

 

Looks okay to me, are you sure it's not just muddy from rain drop action?

 

That picture was from last week, this week its completely different. Nothing is green or standing. Its all laid down, brown, and felt dry and dead to the touch.

 

Ahh, hmm well that's a good question. May be a fungus problem. I think there are several and they love warm moist conditions. Should be able to look them up online. I would think bug pressure would not kill it to brown and crispy so I expect it's related to the moisture.

 

It might not be getting enough sunlight. Not sure when you took the picture but it looks like it might be shaded a lot. Also did you put down any fertilizer recently? Fertilizer in late summer can burn up the crop. Looking at a bag of throw and grow now and it is most certainly close to 80% rye grass.

Maybe overseeding it with some clover will help to fill in.

 

i put the fertilizer in the ground before i planted, so if was burnt from fertilizer i would have thought it would have done that from the beginning. The pic was taken on an overcast day and i know its getting 5-6 hours of sun. My season starts saturday so maybe while im there i will overseed it with something.

 

Does not sound like it would have been the fertilizer then and 5 hours of sunlight should be good enough for rye. Goos luck with the overseeding.

 

Go buy a bag of winter rye, not rye grass. Any local feedmill will have it, oats would work too

 

I like oats better. Deer mowed mine in Virginia and it kept coming and they kept coming back too. Small plot always had a deer in it every afternoon. No shooters but it was fun watching them.

 

ok thanks for the tips

 

I will second the oat recommendation.....everywhere i have planted them i see deer every sit

 

I like oats too but up here in Minnesota the frost would take oats out mid september

 

Same thing happened to the ryegrass in my Antler King mini max food plot. Green as green could be then died a week later.

 

I have better luck with ryegrass in shade. My small honey hole plot that included ryegrass only got maybe 1 hour of total sun (not constant) per day and it grew really well. The deer have since hammered it and it's time to plant brassicas.