Planted an acre of WTI Power plant back on the last weekend of April. I won't be able to get back down to our place for a few more weeks but I am pretty excited to see how its doing. I purchased this seed last year but the slip clutch went out in our tiller so by the time I got it fixed I missed my window of when I wanted to plant. WTI told me to just freeze the seed until this spring. After I got done celebrating killing my first turkey that Saturday it was time to get down to business. I tilled the plot spread the seed then applied some fertilizer and finished it off by dragging it. The only issue I had was getting my spreader dialed in for the seed size. I started spreading the seed a little to thick but got it under control so some areas may be thicker and some may be a little thin but we will see. The last couple years it seems like only a few does stay on our property in the late winter and spring so I am hoping the plants will get a chance to actually grow before the deer more back in. When I go back down in June I will take some pics
I have never planted Power Plant, but my a friend of mine does every year. I always work his plots up for him with my tiller before he plants it. He plants just slightly over an acre of it and it always turns out well. He's got a pretty sweet setup. He has this in a fairly long strip along the edge of the timber on one side and on the other side he has another 2 acres of clover. The deer seem to use both heavily. I noticed some very heavy trails heading right into the heart of the Power Plant plot when I was tilling it a couple weeks ago.
I have had great luck with power plant in the past.....but I haven't planted any in a while because it doesn't fit my plans on my properties. Looking forward to seeing how it does for you
Our plot is in a 2.25 acre pasture in the middle of timber. I planted about an acre of power plant and we already have 3/4 acre of clover in the same field. The rest is just tall waist high grasses that we leave alone for cover bedding turkeys etc.... unless the results compel me to keep planting it this will probably be my only year doing so because of the cost of the seed. I have access to soybeans so I may just broadcast soybeans next year.
I've been broadcasting soybeans for the last 4 season. It works just fine, but I do think there's something to be said about how some of the plots with mixed seeds breaks up and provides a bit more cover for the deer. Seem like my deer tend to hold to the timber until the very last light to move into the soybeans. I'm thinking about mixing in some milo this year to help with that.
Sky...using the broadcasting method to soybeans how heavy seed rate do you use per acre? You do anything after broadcast? We may attempt some soys this year on one spot about an acre (perhaps touch shy) and will be using a broadcast method not a planter.
I till the ground to a pretty fine consistency, broadcast roughly 1 bag per acre using a bag seeder. I generally seed at a pretty low rate so that I can make two passes. Then I use a cultipacker to press the seed into the soil. It also leaves ridges to help collect water from dew and rain. This has worked beautifully the last two seasons. Before that, I actually just used a homemade drag to cover the seed. It consisted of a piece of ladder stand about 5' long with a log chain wrapped around it and hooked to the back of the tractor. I threw a couple tires on top to add the needed weight and dragged the whole field. That worked fine too. My plot is about 3.5 acres.
1 bag to an acre seems to be the concensus from others that broadcast as well....we expect it won't get lush and huge due to browsing but probably give it a shot maybe and then seed rye and some light brassicas in later fall for when the leaves die and just stems stay standing on the beans.
I think it all depends on your deer density and also other agriculture that is around you. I have a 200+ acre ag field on my south border. It's literally less than 100 yards from this plot. I have another huge ag field that borders me to the north, and a 40 acre ag field on my west border. They use my plot, but during the spring and summer, there's just so much food, they don't really concentrate on it, so they hardly have any impact on it. Once it dries down, and the farmers have all picked their fields, I tend to get a bit more action on the plot, but there was still tons of beans left when I brush hogged it back in April. One acre could get hammered pretty hard in the early stages if you don't have any other ag close. I'm only going to have about 1.5 acres of soybeans this year. I've converted the plot into a 3 section plot. 1.5 acres will now be in clover, then 1.5 in Soybeans and the last .5 will be in Egyptian Wheat to screen the rest of the field from the road and open field on the other side of my creek.
Good stuff here. I used a lawn roller last here to help cover my forage oats I planted and it worked well you just have to make sure it is rolling and not just pushing dirt. Has anyone broadcast brassicas in like Ty is talking about? do you seem to get good growth out of that method?
Broadcasting brassicas works very well...BUT...Make sure the soil is either pretty firm or don't drag it in. The seeds are really small and if the soil is worked up and loose, dragging or rolling will put many of them too deep. I roll mine before planting and again after.
I have never broadcast them into the standing soybeans. I've planned on doing it in the past, just never gotten around to it. I have personally not had much luck with Brassicas so I've decided to drop it from my plots.
I have numerous clients that do it and habitat friends...especially guys like Jim Brauker and Jake Ehlinger both utilize this method a lot with awesome results.
