today is the day I plant My new plot , heres a map of rainfall for the next 5 days, My plot is at the black dot in middle Georgia . It should get a good soaking in the next few days
More big rain coming here in Ohio, mowed my clover yesterday. It’s doing phenomenal. One half of the farm has beans 6” high and the other half hasn’t got them in yet (different farmers). It’s going to be a good summer for velvet watching. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
May be a good place to post. We are closing on a parcel end of month. Back acre was cleared about 10-15yrs ago...it's now a pretty thick mix of briars, some cedar, sweet gum. Adjacent is mature hardwood stands. A few years out this will be cleared for garden /fall food plot. In the short term (1-2 yrs) better to thin shooting lanes or push forward to clear it now?
I'd consider picking the best placed sweet gum for stands in that area and hinge the rest. Also keep strategic cedar and hinge those as well. This will open up light for natural forbs and give you an idea of movement. Observe the use of the area the first year or so. Sometimes natural browse with small fall target plots is better than a big planting. Only observation will give you this info Congrats!
Congrats @wl704 ! I'd tackle getting the briers killed off as soon as possible, hit them with some Crossbow herbicide. A lot of the time it does the job on the first dose, but some may need another shot of it about a month after the first one. I've not found anything better for brush/briers than Crossbow. I would also cut out the thin deer trails you find and make them wider, plus add some new ones going by your stand location possibilities. I have good luck with cutting new trails and having deer start using them. I weed eat out trails for my stand approaches, so I have easy and quiet entry, and many times the deer start using them. It doesn't sound like it has much browse for them if it's real thick right now, but they very well could be using it as bedding. Otherwise they are probably just crossing it. If they aren't living on it, then having nice established trails crossing it will be a huge plus when the rut hits, even this year. I also can steer them to cross fences where I want by cutting a trail to it and then taking the top wire and next one down and zip tying them together to create a low spot for them to cross. (If you have fencing and can do so without the neighbor having a problem with it) It's also amazing how much it opens things up just by cutting out the "ladder" trees. Depending on how big the property is you may want to just clear the inside of the property and leave the outside edges thick so they feel secure in the little oasis you create for them.
Made it up to the property today and was pleasantly surprised. The new clover plot mixed with misc left over seed is still doing well but really starting to dry out, I didn’t realize that all the old seed was going germinate that well..... the clover in there is doing well, jut short We are supposed get some rain on Sunday, fingers crossed. All the other clover is doing well and really should be mowed but it’s so dry it might do it more harm than good if I do mow it. The IMOX I spayed a few weeks ago to try and knock back the sedge pretty much did nothing which is quite disappointing. It may have stunted it but that’s it.
Seed is in the dirt , bring on the tropical rain!!! Planted a 50/50 mix of iron n clay peas and soybeans , mixed in some sorghum, millet , sunflower, corn and rye to create some bio mass to till in this fall .
We need rain bad. My beans are up, albeit a but thin, but that'll make it easier to broadcast brassica I guess. Myscanthus is growing, probably about 3/4 of what I planted. 9 of my 10 trees look good, one looks a bit rough. Clover is mostly coming up. Not gonna mean a thing if it doesn't rain more. We got an amazing 3/4 in a surprise rain 3 days ago, but it barely helped. Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk
Perhaps, though I'd wonder about depth and worms first.. Lots of time we worry so much about ph, weed control and fertilizers. , we do not consider the underground pest threat. I've seen corn/bean fields with untreated seed devastated by wire and other worms and grubs.
Speaking of...Thanks to rain and the TOTAL infestation of tent and gypsy moth caterpillars I can't kill them down with spray. Not to mention what I have sprayed did no good. Apple trees ,oaks,chestnut,peach,beech, completely deforiated. It's making me sick...Last time it was this bad they deforiated the pines and deciduous trees around the two lakes here and their massive amount of crap contaminated the Rochester drinking water,messed up the filtration water plant on the main lake, killed fish in both lakes. A.J. is now showing signs of allergies to it.. They are in my garden and the Demetrius Earth, seven dust are not touching them. Unfortunately it's probably only killing the earth worms I want. Today I got my BORAX to make my last attempt at the ants destroying my seedlings. Man how did we ever manage to find a place with the worst bug,fungi,bacteria,invasive issues around?!
Rain started early a.m. and was steady till about 4p.m. What a great soaker!!. 1" and badly needed. I can damn near here stuff growing?
Seriously We went to Son's after I wrote that and OMG the number of completely deforiated trees was scary. His in-laws were there and they live across the valley several miles away from us and they were complaining about the caterpillars and the amount of castings there as well.. I wish I wasn't driving and took pics but will post some from home tomorrow.
I know some here think I exaggerate. Ya know mother goose BS. Here are some pics just taken I sprayed small trees last week these trees had leaves 2 days ago. Apples oaks and chestnuts. Nearly all 200 oak are nearly stripped bare. We have winds now,I sprayed some but got face sprayed with swirling winds several times, had to stop. Beside more, storms moving in.
In for a break because Dang! I forgot how hard that first of the year Disc greasing was. Pretty sure it will be a month before I get all the grease out of my cuticles. But old grease cleaned out and new grease in. Last cup of coffee and the discing begins. ...FINALLY!
Got some of plots disced. Some areas way more difficult than other due to not spraying. I went in and de-rocked it some .
So...my hubby is a Saint no really a Saint. SOB! I broke the disc. Just made my last pass and was trying so hard to leave with out incident. Front lft tire hit a dip , disc swung hard left and I couldn't hit breaks fast enough, pop!!! snapped back row, lft end disc completely off on a,tree. I can't win. He called me from the drive where I parked the tractor. "So, had a boo boo with the disc today?" He had parts ordered within the hour. BTW, same one he replaced in 2019
