Once this mess is out of here, looks like several days of sunny days & freezing nights. Picked up clover mix yesterday to do 11 acres in next few days.
Food Plots Frost Seeding Opportunity LooksGood
- Thread starter tellico4x4
- Start date
Quailman
Well-Known Member
We'll be doing the same this weekend! Good luck.
trout
Well-Known Member
You convinced me to do the same on my five acres this week. I brush hogged last week. I am planning to frost seed both clover and cereal rye.
Never tried it any seed bigger than clover. Also my experience has been that you need exposed dirt for good seed contact so the thawing & freezing process can work the seed in. Would imagine with just mowing that there's quite a bit of debris on top of dirt.
Last edited:
What kind of mix are you planning on planting if you don't mind me asking? I'm wanting to try this and I'm curious what everyone uses. Thanks!
Landino/Arrowleaf/Crimson
Split Brow
Well-Known Member
Can you frost seed crimson clover. I have done with ladino clover with success.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
How many pounds of each per acre if starting from scratch? I'm thinking about converting our 4 smallest fields into clover (1-1.5 acres).
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
I've not done much frost seeding, and have tried to do it into snow, but that seems unlikely now in the next few weeks.
How cold should the morning low be before one should expect good results?
How cold should the morning low be before one should expect good results?
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
dont need snow, what you really want is decent moisture in the soil, then the ground itself to freeze causing surface cracks overnight so the tiny seed falls down in the cracks, then as the day goes on and the ground thaws, the cracks seal back up covering the seed. The more freeze-thaw-refreeze cycles, the better.
It works fairly well, I used to do 3lbs ladino per acre in my fescue hayfields several years ago. got pretty good stands in areas of the field had partial shade, but the ladino just didn't survive through the hot summers in the middle of the fields.
Im NOT a clover food plot expert, but I would imagine prepping a seedbed, planting clover with a cover crop such as wheat in the fall, then frost seeding bare areas the following Feb would work much better to establish a clover only plot than just frost seeding in February.
Clemmons & Hamner does me a mix of 30% Advantage Landino, 30% Dixie Reseeding Crimson & 40% Yucci Arrowleaf. 16# acre when starting from scratch & 8# acre when overseeding existing plots. Have used this for 15 years & have better success with frost seeding than sowing in fall. With this mix, the Crimson comes on early, then Arrowleaf which will last until July & actually acts as cover crop for the landino. 34 out of 41 of our plots are clover.
Past weekend & this week is absolutely perfect conditions. Wound up doing 14 acres this past Saturday & I'm still sore from all the walking & cranking a 150#
Last edited:
Yes
Just need freezing temps at night & sunny days enough to melt frost. BTW, I've had success before by seeding in front of heavy rain as well during late Jan or February.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Thanks!Clemmons & Hamner does me a mix of 30% Advantage Landino, 30% Dixie Reseeding Crimson & 40% Yucci Arrowleaf. 16# acre when starting from scratch & 8# acre when overseeding existing plots. Have used this for 15 years & have better success with frost seeding than sowing in fall. With this mix, the Crimson comes in early, then Arrowleaf which will last until July & actually acts as cover crop for the landino. 34 out of 41 of our plots are clover.
Past weekend & this week is absolutely perfect conditions. Wound up doing 14 acres this past Saturday & I'm still sore from all the walking & cranking
Quailman
Well-Known Member
Sounds like a good mix! What is the seed price per acre?Clemmons & Hamner does me a mix of 30% Advantage Landino, 30% Dixie Reseeding Crimson & 40% Yucci Arrowleaf. 16# acre when starting from scratch & 8# acre when overseeding existing plots. Have used this for 15 years & have better success with frost seeding than sowing in fall. With this mix, the Crimson comes on early, then Arrowleaf which will last until July & actually acts as cover crop for the landino. 34 out of 41 of our plots are clover.
Past weekend & this week is absolutely perfect conditions. Wound up doing 14 acres this past Saturday & I'm still sore from all the walking & cranking a 150#
Last year it worked out to $2.08#. Had a buddy pick it up for me last week & I'm going by today to pay for it, have no idea what I'll cost this year....
Quailman
Well-Known Member
That's definitely a good price. I picked up Will Ladino at $4/lb. and crimson at $1.86/lb. at the Co-Op this past weekend. Pretty much about the same prices as last year, which is pretty encouraging considering everything else has increased in price dramatically (herbicide, fertilizer, etc.).
It was $2.35 lb & they blend it for me, tickled that it hadn't gone up anymore.
On the other hand I ordered 2.5 gal ea. Clethodim & Basagran today from Keystone as they have a 5% discount this week which just about paid for shipping, and it was $389.00! You can bet I'll be doing spot spraying this year ...
Last edited:
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Not bad
Split Brow
Well-Known Member
Thanks, going to give this a try!
