Food Plot Prep.

[BoonerBucks]

I have never put lime on my fields, but i do fertilize them some. I have heard that puting lime down and fertilizing will kill alot of unwanted weeds. Is this true?? I have the devilish johnson grass growing in my plots and it ticks me off real bad. I spray it, it dies, it comes back...every year.

 

[deerchaser007]

food plots are useless without lime and fertilizer. BUT,.. it will not help with grass and weeds. Only spraying and more spraying will control that.

 

[BoonerBucks]

Thanks for the advice deerchaser. I know lime and fertilizer is a must, but my plots always produce pretty well. I have a nice thick stand of clover and chicory, but there are many grasses(mostly johnson grass) mixed in there as well. Next year I am planting corn and soybeans and I definately need to lime and fertilize...and spray.

 

[JohnnyDollar]

you need to put the lime out asap becuase it takes about 6mos. to gain the full effect of the lime.If you wait untill you plant to put the lime down it wont have the ground right untill fall.

 

[JohnnyDollar]

dc-I wasn't trying to step on yur toes

 

[TAS]

dc-I wasn't trying to step on yur toes

Me neither but lime and fertilizer will help eliminate broom straw if you have that problem as I do. It does better in low PH soils.

 

[TAS]

Johnson grass does not produce it's own nitrogen and is a royal pain to get rid of. Spray, Spray, Spray. The reason it keeps coming back is the seeds can lie dormant for up to 20 years!

 

[deerchaser007]

Check to see if johnson grass produces it's own nitrogen or not. If it does not use a fertilizer with little or no nitrogen in it. Clover produces it's own and therefore does not need it as a fertilizer. Also your soil must be fairly acid neutrol if the plot does well without lime.

The only problem with this is,.. clover produces its own nitrogen for itself and whatever else is growing in with it spring thru fall. Chicory is a very popular plant that is mixed with clover. Chicory requires high amount of nitrogen,.. but in a mix with clover you don't add nitrogen in the fertilizer. WHY,... clovers produce enough for the both of them. AND,. all the weedy stuff that comes in a plot also.

As TAS said,. johnson grass is very avasive. All you can do is plow , cultivate, break the hardpan, and keep plowing and cultivating every year. Then,. spray and spray.

 

[Superduty Guy]

almost impossible to get rid of johnson grass, u can spray to your blue in face but it will grow back next year.

 

[ffffffffffffffffffff]

one thing that might help is to add some arrow herbiside at a rate of 8 oz to the acre. I had the same problem and I found that for 60 gallons of water I add 1 gallon of Gly4 or Round-up, 1 gallon of concentrated crop oil and 48 oz of Arrow. That mix is good for 6 acres and burns everything down to bare dirt in a week or so if applied to 6inch weeds or less. Should help knock down johnson grass.