This weekend I am planning to clear the briars and small trees for my food plot. It is in the middle of the woods but in a previously cleared out area that is now undergrowth. There is alot of weeds in it too. I was wondering once the plot is mowed down and the bigger stuff is cleared what is the exact way to go about killing everything off? Once the weed killer is applied how long is the typical wait to break up the soil and begin the liming and planting process? Does the weed killer affect the deer at all? Oh, and I did plant a small experimental plot in this spot two years ago and it came in very well. It was only like 15' by 15', but I just wanted to make sure that if I limed and did everything correctly that it would grow. The plot was chicory and that is what I am intending on planting for the bigger one now. Once the leafs got to about 6 to 8 inches the deer just mowed down the plot. It was nice to see and I am excited to plant another one that is roughly 10 times bigger than that one. Thanks for any input guys!!!
If you use Round Up Make sure the weeds and brush are green and growing not dormant, it takes effect in a matter of hours. You will see results in a few days usually and in a couple of weeks everything will be brown. I believe you could till in a few days and not have anything grow back, but you may have new seeds weed sprout. RU only kills vegetation not seeds. You can plant immidiately and not harm the seeds. I don't believe RU will harm your deer.
I would go through and brushhog what you can, give it a few days to die off and then go through and try to get as much of the cuttings cleared from the area you plan to till under. Make sure the weather is going to be warm and not raining for a good 4-5 days and spray your weed killer and give it a few days with the warm weather baking it in. Then go back in and use a drag or old set of mattress springs, drag over it to pull as much dead brush away again, and then your ready to use a tiller. Also wait a 5 or so days from liming and fertilizing before planting anything... If you want more help, check out the QDMA forums
If you spray with RU, yes. You can plant right after spraying or even spray after planting, RU WILL NOT hurt your seeds or stop them from germinating. RU only kills green growing plants.
Clear the area and spray Round Up or generic equivalent after about 6" of regrowth. Then wait at least 3-4 weeks (6 weeks is better) before tillage. This gives enough time to completely kill the roots and let them decompose to the point that your soil will break up nice and smooth instead of large lumps. The smoother and better the soil breaks up the more thorough your lime will mix into it and the easier it will be to get a nice smooth seed bed. Glyphosate (Round Up) is safe for the deer. Make sure to get the concentrated form (usually 41%). Not the premixed stuff. If you can get it with a surfactant premixed into it great. If not, don't worry about it. It's not that big a deal. Mix 1 quart Glyphosate with at least two cups Spray-able Ammonium Sulfate per acre (4 cups if you are using enough water to fully dissolve it). If possible spray it 24 hours or more before rain is expected and never spray it immediately before a rain unless you have a formulation specifically made for that purpose. Be advised that you might get quite a few weeds that come up later because when you turn up that soil you will be turning up new weed seeds. How you deal with that will depend on how you plant.
Thanks DEERSLAYER! Will be clearing this weekend and then waiting for some green growth from the existing weeds. Really lookin foward to it as this will be my first full-fledged attempt at a food plot. I want to get it right the first time around and these tips will go a long way!!!
If you want to get a good kill spray some round-up and 2-4D mix. Rain will not affect the chemical as long as it is applied 4 hours before a rain. Rain will actually soak the chemicals into the ground and kill off germinating seeds. Id give it a week then go in and do your tillage work and plant. But just to let you know you will get new weed growth throughtout the summer, so if you plant something that is round-up resistant you can go back in within a certain time frame and kill off the new weeds but remember theres restrictions to that, you will have to read up on what you plant and see when you can spray for the second time.
2-4D shouldn't be needed unless you have some problem weeds. Done at the rate I mentioned above with the ammonium sulfate Glysophate should kill off everything with no problem. Adding 2-4D is nice, but probably unnecessary. I don't know about rain soaking the 2-4D into the ground and killing any seed in the process of germinating. I have never heard of that. I see no reason to till in a week when breaking new ground. After only a week you will still have a thick strong sod that won't disk up very good.
Thanks DEERSLAYER I cleared the existing briars and weeds out last weekend, the 9th and 10th. I checked the area on Wednesday after work and it is greening up rather quickly. I would like to try and spray on Sunday the 17th, but the weekend weather looks like rain and cold. I might be spraying sometime around the 20th then. I found extra strength RU at walmart for $40.00. It is concentrate and has 50.2 % glysophate. This should be sufficent right??? Thanks for the help guys!!!
Yup, that will do it. That strength is usually a lot more expensive than the 41%. It's great to have, but I wouldn't pay a lot more for it. Also, if you have Green Brier you can expect to have to spray a few times because it has a large root system with huge energy reserves. The ammonium sulfate I mentioned will really help a lot on Green Brier because it breaks down the waxy protective coating on the leaves, allowing the Roundup to be absorbed much better.
