I'm really curious how you end up liking the awnless wheat, keep me posted as I've been wanting to try incorporating it somewhere! Sounds like a solid plan...like the fact some of it has bounced back for you too!
Tacklbox: Sounds like it worked out, I like the plans for the beans. Tyi: I've preferred my awnless wheat this year over my bearded variety. I've not cut it yet but I'm pretty sure it's going to nearly double the yield of the bearded wheat. They had the same inputs, nearly the same plant date, same weather (wet). My only guess is it dealt with the wet conditions better but it's a pure guess. It all looks about the same, population wise but the awnless wheat filled the grain out better from what I can tell.
Went out and had a look last night and much to my amazement the clover has rebounded incredibly!!!! Where I expected to see nothing I had new clover growth and the whole spot was really greening back up and nothing but clover sooooo......... I'm pretty happy at the moment. Hopefully it continues
Ok, so early spring I frost seeded my clover. It had been a mix of clover with some strips of brassicas, winter peas etc in the middle. The clover was coming in fairly well. Then came rain after rain after rain. I wasn't able to get in there to mow the upcoming grass in the plot due to the moisture. It is now drying out some. BUT the grass has gone insane (some already seeding out) and at this point has mostly fallen over. The majority of the clover underneath looks good in about 70% of the plot. The middle where the grass got REALLY bad not so much. So, I made the call ( right or wrong ) to go ahead and spray the plot yesterday. I made an effort to not spray the areas where the clover was doing well but focused on the grass and other weeds. I assume at least a portion of the clover will take a hit but wishfully thinking maybe not all is lost. I plan to go in and mow later in the week and try to get the mess off the rest of the clover. I guess at this point I am wondering if I am just pissing in the wind..... Should I just go back to zero and start fresh? Any chance it can still rebound? Most people rely on chemicals to make their food plots look pretty. In the organic world, chemicals are not used and mechanical clippings are the norm. Before deciding on spraying and what products to use, i always ask people, are the weeds annuals or perennials. That is a factor. So, are you wasting your time on spot spraying? The economics is about $5-6 an acre for volunteer (a generic select/arrow/poast). If a person has some broadleaf issues on their clovers/alfalfas/legumes, one option is thunder(generic pursuit) and that is $6-8 an acre. So, it's relatively inexpensive. So, if one is looking for growing huge and healthy deer, sward density and forage yield per acre is important. If weed pressure reduces yield by 20%, that could be 600 lbs of dry matter per acre which would support 20 deer about 20 days of grazing. So, my answer is.....there is no right or wrong answer but healthy forages that aren't stressed are important and if weed pressures cause plant stress, then a solution is needed. I generally say that if a stand is less than 60-70% then consider overseeding, no tilling or ripping up and starting over. I have a couple trials going on that i'll be sharing pictures in a couple weeks. Mechanically clipping verses chemical usage. The pictures might surprise people.
tackle, I wish I would of caught this thread a little earlier. Once I started reading it I was pretty sure your outcome would be a good stand of clover. I found out ( on accident several years ago ) that clover is pretty hardy when it comes to low doses of gly. when it is growing fast. I had a plot several years ago that was getting overrun with grass and small broad leaves. I mixed 10 oz of what I thought was my select ultra jug into 15 gallons of water to spray my one acre patch of new clover. After I had sprayed it and was putting everything back in the shed I realized I had grabbed the wrong jug. At the end I was super happy with the results. It burnt the clover but It came out of it pretty quick and since the broad leaves and grass were so small the 10 oz of round up was enough to get the job done.
