All I can say is wow! I know what products I will be using from now on. I planted this plot about 6 weeks ago, no till, no starter fertilizer, and it gets maybe an hour of sunlight at most now that the canopy has filled in. All I did was rake away the leaves, spread the seeds with a seed spreader and then raked over them again. The soil was loose and just years of decomposed leaves. It's a highly traveled lane that the deer use so I doubled the size of it from last year. It weaves through the trees and branches out in a few spots and it's almost ankle high. Now I'm thinking of expanding it even more, it's hard to argue with the results with such little effort.
I planted a 1/2 acre of that last fall and it sprouted good but didn't look promising. This spring I went out and it blew up, I fertilizered with 6/24/24 waited a week then mowed it all and it's very lush and tall. Prob gonna mow again in s few week. The mowing helped with the weed competition also. Great product for sure.
Yeah, I've read in many reviews that the second year yield makes tremendous gains. This clover mix is supposed to last 5-6 years and get about 30 inches high. If it gets shin high for me and they eat it I will be happy. No till, no starter fertilizer, and minimal sunlight and it's doing fairly well thus far so I can't complain. I added some 10-10-10 granular because it's what I could find on sale. If it does anything promising by summer then I plan on using the liquid Jolt fertilizer made by Antler King next spring and see how it goes.
Thanks for the post. Ya clover on its second year really takes off. You guys got the right ideas with mowing and fertilizer. Ideally if you could find a 0-0-60. Keep us updated and any questions drop me a message or post back. Thanks, Jake
How low should I mow it and when? I've never planted a perennial plot before and getting even a push mower back there will be a task so any tips you can provide will be much appreciated.
How big is the plot? Push mower might be too low. I would sooner use a weed Wacker over a push mower. I seen push mowers modified to be higher but safety is a big concern then. Mow it when it gets 12-16 inch's high. I like to mow my clover plot in strips as then it is always at different stages of growth and attractiveness. I only got my zero turn mower set all the way up(6inchs). My clover plot lasted 6 years. Could have kept it going this year but I wanted to put brassicas there to take advantage of the nitrogen clover fixates. I frost seeded my clover plot every year, regular mowing, few pellitized lime bags a year, some 0-0-60 fertilizer and hi it twice with some grass killer(product called bonide, 20$ at fleet farm and same stuff as whitetail institutes arrest but 10$ less.) But anything else let me know
Since I don't expect it to get too tall because of the lack of sunlight, I will have to see how tall it gets before I cut anything back. I can certainly use a weed whacker back there so as of now. So my tentative plan will be to cut it back if/when gets knee high, frost seed just before winter, and a few treatments of 0-0-60 fertilizer per year. Sound like a solid plan?
Generally, you want to frost seed in late winter. Right when you're getting a good freeze/thaw cycle going. For me, this is often in early to mid March.
Thanks! It's actually bigger than the picture really shows. It weaves back into the trees a bit on the far side but I'm excited. It's by far the best I've managed to grow in this spot. I was amazed at how full it was with such little sunlight. I will update in a month or two now that we got some rain and I put fertilizer down.
I can't say if it's better than all of them but it was better than all the other bags of clover seed I checked at my local Tractor Supply. Their bag had more clover content and less filler content than all the other clover plot seed I compared them to. No complaints on their seed coating either, like I said, I didn't till or fertilize and it barely gets any sunlight and it's ankle high at 6 weeks with minimal rain.
Gotcha. I was thinking about getting lazy and just buying AK brassicas this year instead of mixing my own.
I can only vouch for the AK Trophy Clover Mix and my experience so far. If reinventing the wheel then I wouldn't call that lazy, I'd say you're making value of your time . Just compare the contents of their product (I believe their brassica plot seed is called "Honey Hole") with what you mix yourself and go from there. I guess cost may also come into play too, no idea how big of a plot you are making so there's that too.
Trophy clover was the first plot that I ever planted 5 years ago and the deer hammered it. Last year I put on a plot of honey hole and deer loved it also. This year I am trying slam dunk and red zone by antler king. I love their products. Scoot
All products have pluses and minuses..... Look at a tag....see what is on that tag. Coated seed is where the industry is moving towards and for 1 reason...PRICE POINT.... if one has 1/3 coating on seed, i'd want to crank up the seeding rate by 10%. Sure you will get some enhanced germination with coating but you best give some fudge factor. #2....Check the seed and testing date on all seed bought. Some companies don't replace seed/take it off shelves. Legally it's needing to be retested every year. Slapping a new sticker over an old label doesn't lead seed to germ any better. Note, i use to work for a distributor that had 3 big name companies in their portfolio. I ran a test plot with 4 companies seed a few years back. Again, to achieve success, look closely at what your buying as successful food plots shouldn't be like going to the race track, hoping you find a winner.
I'll be out at the property this weekend, I hope to have updated pictures. That will put the plot at about 9 weeks when I get out there. I don't want to jinx myself but because I added some fertilizer the day I took the initial pictures in this post and we've been having some good rain, I have a feeling it will be thriving.
