Slayer Seed Crimson trail year 2

[BigHunt]

finnaly got some rain yesterday....hoping my slayer seed plot is coming up...rain hasn't been cooperating

How did you plant it BH? Till, pack, broadcast, drag and pack again? Rake it in and pack? Just broadcast it on top and let lay? ???

I tilled, tried to pack , broadcast, dragged then tried to pack again ....wile I was up there Saturday I never did get the chance to go look to see if it was growing....I will next weekend

[exojam]

I was only able to take up and clear some spots so the seed was raked in. Other areas were broadcasted over some existing but dying-dead winter rye. This is just out in the far back yard. I see some coming up but I am not sure how the stuff in the rye is doing. Put it out in a heat wave and hand watered what I could and than we got some rain finally.

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[DEERSLAYER]

finnaly got some rain yesterday....hoping my slayer seed plot is coming up...rain hasn't been cooperating

How did you plant it BH? Till, pack, broadcast, drag and pack again? Rake it in and pack? Just broadcast it on top and let lay? ???

I tilled, tried to pack , broadcast, dragged then tried to pack again ....wile I was up there Saturday I never did get the chance to go look to see if it was growing....I will next weekend

"tried to pack"? What did you do, use your feet? I have done that quite successfully btw.

As long as the soil was moist and you did a fairly good job of packing after dragging in the seed you stand a pretty decent chance of it doing well.

I was only able to take up and clear some spots so the seed was raked in. Other areas were broadcasted over some existing but dying-dead winter rye. This is just out in the far back yard. I see some coming up but I am not sure how the stuff in the rye is doing. Put it out in a heat wave and hand watered what I could and than we got some rain finally.

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Timing is everything when just broacasting and leaving it lay. Things dry out easily when laying there like that. It can rain and then dry out quickly when the sun comes out. It needs to stay moist for 7-10 days to get going. Dew from cool nights can help too though. Hopefully it will take off for you.

I don't remember sending any seed to you this year. If you are using old seed that I sent you in the past then the innoculant will no longer be good and should be added again unless you are planting somewhere that has had clover in the past couple years or so. You can either buy innoculant or buy a small amount of cheap clover to add to make sure the necessary bacteria is present in the soil. If you can't do that then make sure to use a fertilizer with nitrogen in it to make up for the clovers inability to fix the nitrogen it needs from the air.

I don't want to completely hijack kurts thread so if you have any questions just PM me.

[kurt]

Hijack away....any good food plot info is what thread is meant for.

I cultipack with atv tires. I try to drive over with as little turning as possible. A 3 wheeler with the bigger balloon tires would work really well.

I have atv sprayer, atv disc, hand sprayer and hand spreader. That's it. I also use my lawn mower and stihl weed Wacker with grass blade a lot. My normal food plot routine is once every thing is getting good and green for a week or 2 in spring I spray my potential spot. Then in summer I spot spray and mow tight. I come back mid Aug spot Spot spray and mow/mulch up dead weeds. Spread fert & lime. Disc everything really good. Pack dirt somewhat with atv tires. Spread seed. Pack seed in with atv tires. Pray for rain. My routine is different for second year perennial obviously. I put fert. And lime on in spring early. Late spring I mow then I keep tabs and mow as necessary. Maybe add a little fert. And lime again later but with rain in forecast so not to burn.

My tips for anyone starting is it takes a lot less seed then you think.

If you till it with a tractor and tiller it maybe way too soft to plant. Cultipack after tilling is a good thing. Alot of seeds like 1/8 to 1/4 depth. pack them in accordingly. But not exactly just on top.

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[exojam]

Kurt,

See that part is what kills me, about the amount of seed. I can never figure out how "open" to make the spreader slot on either the push style or hand style spreaders. That alway makes me feel like I am under seeding the area.

Also, thanks for letting us jump into your thread with questions and comments.

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[DEERSLAYER]

That's a pretty good post by kurt. I usually use a homemade drag after spreading the seed and then pack it again with a roller, but by using the atv tires like kurt dose you are also lightly covering the seed like you would with a drag. When he packs the soil the first time the knobbies leave thousands of indentations in the soil that the seed lands in. When he packs it again those indentations don't line back up with the knobbies on the tires so the knobbies crush the high points between indentations which covers the seed that is in the indentations.

A lot of people just give one through spraying and then wait about a month for the weeds to die and the roots to break down fairly well. As long as they got a good kill they then till or disk and the ground turns up nicely. A lot of people have good luck this way, but I like multiple spraying's like kurt dose. If your not doing tillage multiple spraying's the year prior to seeding is the way to go.

Splitting his fertilizer into more than one application is good too. One application a year will get you by, but doing at least two applications is much better. A shot of urea (ideally right before a good rain) about two weeks before you want maximum plot activity is good too. The growth spurt from the urea makes the plot more attractive similar to what mowing dose.

Here is my favorite broadcast seeder for small seeds like clover and most brassica's. If the smallest opening isn't big enough to let seed through I set it to #2 then keep pulling the trigger and releasing it as I go. If your not used to seeding these seeds then try to cover the whole area with a half rate. Most people will run out much sooner than expected and still having half the seed left works out great. If you do pull off getting the whole thing covered with the half rate then just go over the whole plot a second time with the other half and your golden.

[exojam]

Just sitting in my office looking out the window at two does having breakfast in my backyard food plot. I love just watching them.

Took this from inside the house looking out the sliding glass door.



From my office window.

Sorry for the bad pics but they were from my phone.

[Stanley]

The nicest looking clover plot I have ever seen was a good friend of mine's. He clear cut the big trees, bush hogged the brush, then used roundup to kill the vegetation. He broadcast the seed and that was it. He did put lime on it also. He put on 10-12 lbs of clover seed per acre.

So it really doesn't take a lot of tillage equipment. He also mows just over the top of the clover to keep the weeds down. He put this plot right in the middle of his timber. I wish I could hunt the ground but he leases it out.

[exojam]

Man does that look good. How many acres did he do?

What height do people cut their food plots? I can only get my little push mover down to mine and I think it only goes to about 4" high which seems like it would be cutting to much.

[DEERSLAYER]

That's pretty cool that you can watch deer right in your back yard like that exojam. In that second pic you tell that is a nice mature old doe. It looks like she has it pretty good there.

You can cut your clover down to 4" once in a while if it really needs mowing, but unless you have some weeds that are starting to go to seed then I doubt if you will need to mow it. The critters should keep it mowed for you. Especially if your ground is in good shape which improve's the palatability. If you need to mow you want to get any weeds before they produce mature seed. I try not to mow brassicas if possible because you loose so much forage and they don't grow back as well as plants like clover. Some don't grow back at all after cutting.

Like Stanley pointed out, some seeds like clover only need basic tools and minimal prep work as long as the soil is in fairly good shape like your typical Iowa soil often is. The main concern you need to address once you have good soil is to get good seed to soil contact and eliminate competition so the seedlings can take right off. As long as there is some exposed soil the dead weeds are actually helpful because they helps hold in moisture and protects the young seedlings from too much hot sun that can burn them up. So good soil + good seed to soil contact + no competition = success. The wild card can be getting good moisture. Whether that be through good weather conditions (especially important with dry sandy soil) or simply through very moist soil conditions. This is where covering and packing the seed can often make a big difference.

[exojam]

Thanks Deerslayer.

And yes it very cool to just in the house and watch them cruise around back their. The one in the picture has a little one that is usually with her and was today but I lost sight of her.

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[Stanley]

Man does that look good. How many acres did he do?

What height do people cut their food plots? I can only get my little push mover down to mine and I think it only goes to about 4" high which seems like it would be cutting to much.

He did 3 acres but only one per year. The plot in the timber is the clover field pictured.