Food Plots Should I fertilize now?

[Bgoodman30]

First pic is cover crop with rye, wheat and crimson. It was fertilized last month and is 5 foot tall. It will be burned down soon and planted in corn/beans.

2nd pic below is different farm, different soil (needs lime). The mix is oats, wheat, crimson no fertilizer applied. You can see totally doing ok but not really getting any height and I am afraid will get taken over by weeds soon. I won't plant anything else until fall. Should I fertilize it now?

 

[Popcorn]

Everything there will complete its life in the next 30 days. I wouldn't fertilize unless I was planting a summer cover crop. Sow some sorghum, throw in a couple handfuls of feed corn, old garden seed, anything to cover the ground and build matter.

 

[Bucket]

I would address the lime now though.

 

[Fire_Medic890]

Everything there will complete its life in the next 30 days. I wouldn't fertilize unless I was planting a summer cover crop. Sow some sorghum, throw in a couple handfuls of feed corn, old garden seed, anything to cover the ground and build matter.

Popcorn is on it.

Do you have an exclusion cage on that food plot? If so, how does it look? That will answer a lot of questions.
You can't judge the success or health of a food plot simply off the height of grass in the field.
Is it much shorter because of grazing pressure? Only way to tell is have exclusion cage. A lot of things play a huge role here but this is the tip of the iceberg.

I would get a soil sample immediately, that will also help answer a lot of questions and save a lot of money and headache.

Best thing to do would be go in and drill a summer blend right into the existing crop.

Hope this helps
Matt

 

[Bgoodman30]

Popcorn is on it.

Do you have an exclusion cage on that food plot? If so, how does it look? That will answer a lot of questions.
You can't judge the success or health of a food plot simply off the height of grass in the field.
Is it much shorter because of grazing pressure? Only way to tell is have exclusion cage. A lot of things play a huge role here but this is the tip of the iceberg.

I would get a soil sample immediately, that will also help answer a lot of questions and save a lot of money and headache.

Best thing to do would be go in and drill a summer blend right into the existing crop.

Hope this helps
Matt

Yeah I have a soil sample. Needs lime for sure. Just tough access I plant all my plots with an ATV disk, sprayer and hand spreader.

 

[Fire_Medic890]

Yeah I have a soil sample. Needs lime for sure. Just tough access I plant all my plots with an ATV disk, sprayer and hand spreader.

What size is the food plot? What did the soil test say?
You could lime now, I would not fertilize until you plant.

 

[Popcorn]

Yeah I have a soil sample. Needs lime for sure. Just tough access I plant all my plots with an ATV disk, sprayer and hand spreader.

Pelletized lime comes in 40 pound bags and can be thrown / hand spread.
It has an improved exchange rate, claims range from 4X to 8X more reactive than pulverized lime in the short term. It's also a Tennessee product!!!

 

[megalomaniac]

I don't fertilize often, but when I do...

It's 2-3 weeks AFTER planting and ONLY if I got a good stand started. Otherwise you are just pissing money away.

 

[Fire_Medic890]

I haven't had to buy fertilizer or lime in 5 years. One of the many wonderful things of going no-till.

 

[Bgoodman30]

 

[megalomaniac]

Really not bad at all. I'd be more focused on putting down 20 bags of pelletized lime per acre to start with. Recheck soil samples this fall, and add another 10 bags per acre more than likely

 

[Popcorn]

I don't fertilize often, but when I do...

It's 2-3 weeks AFTER planting and ONLY if I got a good stand started. Otherwise you are just pissing money away.

This ^^^

I haven't had to buy fertilizer or lime in 5 years. One of the many wonderful things of going no-till.

and this ^^^

Solid advice when they can be applied. With soil building crops even better!

 

[Popcorn]

WOW!!!
Y'all look at this! "Organic matter"!!! 8.7% !!!!

I'm jealous! Seriously!
I work with soils that range from 0 to 3% a lot! Dr. Woods converted his sw Missouri rock farm into a 5% OM and that was awesome. It has taken years of soil building crops to take a 0 to a 3%!

That much organic matter if recently decayed would explain the ph! I'm with @megalomaniac lime it retest later don't fertilize till your crop has germinated.

I avoid adding any more nitrogen than what I can't get away from when establishing clover. I buy 6/24/24 from the coop because they don't offer a 0/24/24. Nitrogen just encourages everything you don't want and the clover needs almost none to start and none afterwards.

 

[redblood]

Yep. Lime and patience.