Early season plot to plant in June?
- VaBowKill5
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Early season plot to plant in June?
I just got permission to bow hunt a piece of property I’ve been after for a while. It’s a cattle farm but it’s a peninsula with a nice size creek around it. The back 10 acres is a thick bedding timbered island and the place usually holds a good buck early season(I can glass the field from the road). There is the perfect spot for about a 1/2 acre food plot just off the transition from timber to field. I’m wondering what is the best thing to plant in June to reap the benefits in early October? If I had permission earlier I would’ve planted clover/alfalfa but I’m afraid I’m too late now. Thinking maybe soy beans?
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
Where are you located (generally) and when is your typical first frost date?
- cspot
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
If you have much of a deer population soybeans will get killed in a half acre plot unless you put up an electric fence for a while to let them get established. If you are in the Northern part of the country then you could plant clover now. As long as you get rain to get established it should be fine. I would probably wait and plant an annual in August like brassicas, winter rye, turnips, etc. Then next year you could try clover if you wish. Is this an established field already? Good soil? Can you spray with gly to kill weeds?
I would probably pull a soil sample to see what you have now. Then in late July I would spray and then plant in August along with putting on fertilizer. Lime could go on ASAP after the soil test. If your soil isn't the best, then I would go with winter rye as that stuff will grow about anywhere.
I would probably pull a soil sample to see what you have now. Then in late July I would spray and then plant in August along with putting on fertilizer. Lime could go on ASAP after the soil test. If your soil isn't the best, then I would go with winter rye as that stuff will grow about anywhere.
- Hawthorne
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
You could do clover. White Dutch or crimson. Or wait till late August and do oats, rye , and radishes. Kill the vegetation now with round up. What state are you in?
- VaBowKill5
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
I’m in Virginia and there are several big pastures and hay fields to the south of the timber and they have lots of clover scattered in them. The part I’m thinking of making a food plot is a grown up hay field with some volunteer trees and bushes. I’d say it hasn’t been cut for 3-4 years. The soil I know is good and fertile but will have to do a soil test to see what to add. There is a good number of deer in the area and I do wonder if the beans would ever have a chance to get established
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
ccfutball1 wrote:I’m in Virginia and there are several big pastures and hay fields to the south of the timber and they have lots of clover scattered in them. The part I’m thinking of making a food plot is a grown up hay field with some volunteer trees and bushes. I’d say it hasn’t been cut for 3-4 years. The soil I know is good and fertile but will have to do a soil test to see what to add. There is a good number of deer in the area and I do wonder if the beans would ever have a chance to get established
Since it hasn't been cultivated for several years I would definitely do a soil test. Apply appropriate nutrients accordingly. Then plant a nurse crop of buckwheat, Sunn Hemp and/or sunflowers (you can buy oilseed sunflowers that are intended for birds i.e. birdseed). Even if you spray the area there will probably be a lot of residual weed seed. Thus the buckwheat recommendation. It can out-compete weeds because it establishes quickly. Sunn hemp will grow rapidly and add organic matter to your soil once you cut it. It also fixes a huge amount of nitrogen for the soil. Sunflowers grow a long tap root which will break into the subsoil for you. I would plant all of those as soon as possible. Your intention is not to allow them to get mature but simply to add the correct bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms into the soil that may be missing since it hasn't been cultivated lately. They will also condition your soil for cultivated crops. In August, depending on where you're at in Virginia, I would plant a combination of chicory and turnips. I would sow them together right into the stubble that you've mowed down from the other crops that nursed the soil for the last few months. This will give you excellent food with high nutrient levels that will last well into the late part of the hunting season.
Then hunt the travel corridors and bedding that are adjacent to the food. I would highly recommend not hunting over the plot.
- VaBowKill5
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
That sounds like a really good plan. I’m gonna try this and see what happens. ThanksDouble Draw for your help I will keep you posted.
- 218er
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Re: Early season plot to plant in June?
If it hasn’t been planted recently I’d hit it with
Round up kill all, come back in two weeks and till it, come back in two more weeks hit it again with round up kill all, come back in two weeks and plant oats. The number of dormant seeds in the soil can overwhelm a lot of plantings. I usually do 2-3 rounds of round up or a similar total vegetation killer to get a blank canvas to work with. Oats don’t need more then a few weeks to be like candy for deer in the fall.
Round up kill all, come back in two weeks and till it, come back in two more weeks hit it again with round up kill all, come back in two weeks and plant oats. The number of dormant seeds in the soil can overwhelm a lot of plantings. I usually do 2-3 rounds of round up or a similar total vegetation killer to get a blank canvas to work with. Oats don’t need more then a few weeks to be like candy for deer in the fall.
Persistence is undefeated.
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