Food Plots Learn something new every year

[BSK]

I swear, when it comes to food plotting, I learn something new and valuable every year.

This year, I did not till my plots when planting in spring. I waited until the wheat and crimson clover had bloomed and died, and then broadcast my summer seed and mowed all the standing dead wheat and crimson clover down on top the seed. Apparently, not tilling the ground left a lot of that crimson clover seed lying on the surface. This fall, I had planned to plant my plots in two phases, to reduce the chance of a total crop failure due to drought and/or Army Worms. However, I was never able to plant the first half of the plots due to drought. They were mowed August 9 and sprayed right afterwards, but never tilled. Well low and behold, all that crimson clover seed lying on the ground, under the duff, has germinated in those early-mowed plots. In fact, it's one of the thickest stands I've seen for this time of year. Definitely thicker than if I had planted.

All the "green" in the below picture is volunteer crimson clover. I don't want to disturb it, so at the last minute I decided NOT to till the ground for fall planting. I've just broadcast wheat seed into the clover. We shall see how this works, but I may have found my new "planting technique" for fall plots.

And by the way, I've got a camera pointed across that plot, and the deer are in the young Crimson Clover every day. They're really hammering it.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

This, for whatever reason, was a great year for crimson. We have volunteer crimson coming up everywhere! We will spray a field, come back a week or 2 later and I see tons of green - I'm scratching my head wondering why did all these weeds not die? When you go look at it, it's all crimson. I'm ok with it

 

[Popcorn]

Likewise with balansa clover.
About 8 acres of it I have not planted back for 3 years now

 

[Redfox]

That approach works well. We do wheat/crimson (first year)and let it go until the wheat is done and the weeds start to break through. At that point we mow everything and fertilize. The plot will keep itself up for several years like this with minimal spot spraying.

 

[wildlifefarmer]

I've done that the last four years with drilling corn into the matured crimson(brown heads). I feel like it hides the corn from crows and turkeys as it matures. As the corn melts in the fall, the CC will takeoff again without reseeding.

 

[Ski]

Dang looks great! I could sure use some of that luck. Only thing volunteering for me is stiltgrass.

 

[lafn96]

Likewise with balansa clover.
About 8 acres of it I have not planted back for 3 years now

Good to hear; as I just planted 2 acres of balansa in some low lying wet ground I have

 

[lafn96]

I waited until the wheat and crimson clover had bloomed and died, and then broadcast my summer seed and mowed all the standing dead wheat and crimson clover down on top the seed.

What are you spreading for your summer seed, and around when are you shooting for?

 

[BSK]

What are you spreading for your summer seed, and around when are you shooting for?

Last year it was a mixture of buckwheat, soybeans and sorghum. This coming spring I'm thinking about Mung Beans and sorghum. Mung Beans are supposed to be heat and drought tolerant, and dry soil is the big limiter for my plots (all thin-soiled ridge-top plots).

My timing is driven by the crimson clover blooms. I wait until they seed out and die, which is usually mid-May.

 

[BSK]

...but I do believe the timing of mowing those summer plots is critical. The plots I waited until September to mow did NOT sprout all the crimson clover seed. No idea why the difference, but it is a drastic difference in volunteer crimson germination between early to mid-August mowed plots and mid-September mowed plots.

 

[megalomaniac]

It will be interesting to see how the cereal grains come up broadcast in the clover..

I've had great success drilling winter blend into standing summer clover

 

[eyeseeker]

I have noticed this too. If I wait until the crimson has bloomed and the seed heads have dried to brown and then mow( late June) I will have a large amount of volunteer Crimson In the fall. My whole procedure has been to continue to mow throughout summer to keep grasses low and hit the plot with Gly in early August and finish with a light discing. I then spread my brassica seeds and later broadcast my cereal grains just before a rain.
On one of these plots I have a large amount of crimson already growing this year and haven't spread any crimson on that plot in four years. My brassica do well planted early and relying only on whatever N The clover adds to the soil as I haven't spread any fertilizer in this plot in a long time (Over 7 years)

 

[TRIGGER]

I sprayed late July and tilled August 15th

September 6th it looked like this before I planted anything. I kept an eye on it with the trail cams and it looked like this. I went down there in full expectations of tilling again to get rid of everything that started growing but to my surprise it was 90% crimson clover.

 

[BSK]

Great pictures!

 

[BigAl]

At least you got something. I'm scared to even look at my plots.

 

[BSK]

Can't believe how well the volunteer Crimson Clover is doing despite the lack of rain. Below is a picture from Wednesday. Deer are hammering it day and night, even with all the acorns on the ground.

 

[Split Brow]

Can't believe how well the volunteer Crimson Clover is doing despite the lack of rain. Below is a picture from Wednesday. Deer are hammering it day and night, even with all the acorns on the ground.

That's awesome!!

 

[BSK]

Best stand of Crimson Clover I've ever had and I didn't plant it! Just seed from the natural seed heads last spring.

 

[megalomaniac]

Can't believe how well the volunteer Crimson Clover is doing despite the lack of rain. Below is a picture from Wednesday. Deer are hammering it day and night, even with all the acorns on the ground.

That's exactly why you need access to a drill! I'm on my 3rd year of a volunteer clover plot that I just drill my fall blend right through. The wheat and radishes come right up through the clover. I think my half acre clover plot was feeding 16 deer daily while my large plot was killed and waiting on rain to replant.

 

[BSK]

That's exactly why you need access to a drill! I'm on my 3rd year of a volunteer clover plot that I just drill my fall blend right through. The wheat and radishes come right up through the clover. I think my half acre clover plot was feeding 16 deer daily while my large plot was killed and waiting on rain to replant.

Have to admit, I'm going to try and recreate this next year by mowing and spraying all my plots in early August to see if I can get all the spring clover seed heads to germinate. But for now, a drill would never penetrate the ground, and would most likely be damaged by all the rock. Mu "soil" is still concrete hard in all my new plots. But give mowing a few years and I might develop an inch or so of actual soil.

For now, it will just be broadcasting way too much wheat seed hoping some of it will germinate. So far, the only real germination is in the volunteer clover plots, because they're holding what little moisture we've received since I broadcast the wheat. The rest of the plots are just dirt.