So I planted a clover alfalfa and chicory blend a month ago in a wooded kill plot and it is only about 1/8th of an acre and this is what it looks like. But now I am getting pine needles and leaves in it. also I have not fertilized it.....should I remove all the deb re and fertilize it? probably a dumb question but this is my first plot.
How tall is it? It might be an exercise of futility to try and keep it clean. Did you by chance drop any lime in the plot. Alfalfa can be finicky with the pH. Pine needles are acidic in nature so you might need some lime. if it gets tall enough mowing might help with the debris. If the plant is already exposed in hot summer days fertilIzing can cause it to burn so you have to be careful.
The tallest it is I would say is three inches. it is also not thick it is in clusters throughout the plot. I put lime down when I first seeded it.
Clover takes a long time to come up. You should have planted something like rye or oats with it. You won't see a good clover plot till next Spring more then likely. This is especially true if it doesn't get a lot of sun. Put lime over it might help it from the acidic pine but you still may not see nothing good till next Spring. Plant rye and oates in August so you have something to hunt over.
I know you guys aren't that far north of us so planting it in May should've been just fine. We planted a clover plot down in one part of our bottoms along the bluff on May 13th. It is doing great. It don't get the most sun on our property but I didn't want it to burn up since we planted it fairly late. Anyways, I have a couple of questions. I looked back about a month to see if I could find your original post but I don't think I found it. Did you take a soil sample to see what your pH was? The reason I ask is that most timber, especially with pines and oaks, based on the leaves in the pic's, are going to tend to be acidic. Did you work the ground before you planted or did you just throw it on top of the ground? If you did work the ground, did you cultipack the ground then plant the seed and cultipack again once you planted it? The reason I ask is, you don't want these little seeds very deep. I had some other questions but our 9 year old just got out of bed and asked to play chess. If I remember them I'll put them on here. Hope I'm not beating a dead horse by asking these questions. Good Luck!!
I didn't do a Ph test but I spread lime, as for working the ground I raked away the top layer of leaves to the organic matter underneath then broad casted the seeds and tried to role it the best I could
No doubt, I remember when we first started doing food plots. It was so frustrating! I posted pics of 2 of our plots on our place in the "how are your plots looking" thread. We've come a long way since we first starting planting plots.
