What type of food plot??

Yes, just try to get it as even as possible. I'd probably spread the clover and alfalfa mixed and then come back with the wheat. Oats or spring barley may be a better choice for spring planting than the wheat but any of them will serve the purpose.

 

When do I plant them? Also do I plow the food plot up with a hand plower?

 

What are you calling a "hand plower"? What is there now?
That blend can be planted in late summer, fall, late winter, spring or early summer. If there's not a ton of vegetation there, you can frost seed it. How to Frost-Seed Food Plots | Quality Deer Management Association

 

Do I need to till the land? I brush hogged it all down.

 

Just depends on how thick the vegetation or residue is. If you can see bare ground easily between pieces of plant residue then you're good, if you have a pretty solid blanket of vegetative mulch then you'd have a better stand if it's tilled. You want the seed to be able to get to the soil, it'll root down fairly well as long as it's touching the soil but not if it's laying on top of an inch of mowed and layered residue/mulch.

 

Thank you very much. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

 

I prefer to knock down the existing growth with a "Round-up" type weed killer. Then tilling can be done with anything from a garden rototiller to any type of harrows/discs behind a tractor, to even hand raking, depending on the size of the area. (and how much time/effort you want to put in to it)
My food plots I have always seeded by hand. The inexpensive hand seeders that Scott and other make work quite well. As has been said, I seed the clover and alfalfa seeds together and then top seed the oats, rye or wheat. I have had the most success in my crops when after seeding I pack it with a roller. Seem to get much better crops.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.

 

Those species are pretty darn aggressive and if anything is a "throw and grow" type deal, then I'd say clovers, alfalfa and wheat, rye and oats would be in that category. I've never done it but been told several times they can be sown on top of a good snow and have good results. I planted some clover/alfalfa in standing grass last spring and then mowed it, let it regrow and then sprayed it with clethodim and got an easy and outrageous stand of clover and alfalfa.

 

Grunt even ratios should be fine. What is your soil like? Sandy loam I expect but is is well drained? Oats mix is easy. Clover and alfalfa mix I like too but you need well drained soil for the alfalfa to do good. Ladino is a great clover and deer love it. If you can trim branches to make sure the soil gets light. The clover mix you can plant in late Feb or March but will do better with a fall planting most would say.

 

Don't believe everything you hear, the plot I was talking about is a little field that had all the top soil borrowed off it years ago and carried off for another project, all that's left there is clay and it's shaped like a cereal bowl and stays wet for long periods. Still got a good stand and it survived all year as wet as we were.

 

Here it is Copper. My little slice of heaven. Just trying to make it better.

 

Lots of potential there.

Soil test, fertilize/lime or whatever needed, plant and tip something over!

 

I hope so. I am thinking of tilling it. Than plant.

 

Let the fun begin.
I love watching/helping things grow.

 

I wouldn't bother tilling it myself, I'd throw the living crap worth of seed on it and let it go. It'll do it's thing.

 

CM is very experienced and knowledgeable and not to be disagreeable but I would till first if that was an option.

 

Lol, that's okay...everyone has their way of doing things. I don't always have time to till the plots here so I find ways to cut corners and make things work as minimalistic as possible. Besides I'm partial to zero-till and soil health but I will still turn soil over in certain circumsances. If a plot is new and rough or has some plant issue I can't solve with herbicide alone or sometimes it's just faster to disc and broadcast. Judging by how that plot looks to me, I'd just cover it with seed and let it go but that's my personal opinion.

 

Agree to a point CM. Don't know where this plot is and how much rainfall he gets for one issue.
Around here there is some no-til being done but the soils are not very conducive to that
so it makes it less successful than turning the soil first.

 

That's always a misnomer unless soil there is all rock. Grant woods operation is a good example, few places have worse soil than his proving grounds and he makes no-till work there. Gabe and Paul Brown in North Dakota only get an average of sixteen inches of precipitation per year and a lot of that is snow and they have been 100 percent no-till for 30 plus years.

 

Thanks for your time and input. I will keep you guys up to speed!!