I planted my last plot on Thanksgiving Day. Actually one half of the plot and I finished the other half a couple of days later on the following weekend. I had tilled the plot about two weeks earlier with the tractor. I planted the Pennington Fall mix. I planted the same mixture last year and it did very well and my deer had some dramatic antler growth in a one-year period. My spreader (as I posted below) gave up the ghost so I had no alternative but to broadcast the seed and fertilizer by hand off my ATV. That took some time to get that accomplished. Normally, I would drag the field with a chain link fence attached to an ATV weighted down with heavy board bolted to the chain link fence as shown in the picture.
This field I did it a little different. I notice when using the chain link fence there was quite a bit of seed not getting covered. I thought I would try covering the seed with the tiller. I raised the tiller until the tiller blades were cutting into the soil one half inch to one inch. I found that the seed was covered much better. In fact I did not see hardly any seed laying on the surface of the ground. I checked the plot this morning and it has the green cast color, so it appears the germination rate is good. Right now we are getting some good rain. I was concern that the tiller may plant the seeds too deep. But that does not appear to be the case. Another plus to using the tiller to cover the seeds is that the small weeds that were coming up from the prior tilling the two weeks before were tilled under giving the newly planted seeds a head start. I will post some pictures about 28 days after the planting date to show you all how it is doing.
This field I did it a little different. I notice when using the chain link fence there was quite a bit of seed not getting covered. I thought I would try covering the seed with the tiller. I raised the tiller until the tiller blades were cutting into the soil one half inch to one inch. I found that the seed was covered much better. In fact I did not see hardly any seed laying on the surface of the ground. I checked the plot this morning and it has the green cast color, so it appears the germination rate is good. Right now we are getting some good rain. I was concern that the tiller may plant the seeds too deep. But that does not appear to be the case. Another plus to using the tiller to cover the seeds is that the small weeds that were coming up from the prior tilling the two weeks before were tilled under giving the newly planted seeds a head start. I will post some pictures about 28 days after the planting date to show you all how it is doing.
