DJN
5 year old buck +
Just wrapping up my first season of food plots, and am happy so far, but trying to figure out the best route from here. Our NE Ohio (Zone 5) property is in an agricultural area (mainly corn that the farmers tend to leave up late - as in still currently standing, along with some soybeans that normally come off in Sept/Oct.) along with small woodlots. I put in two small plots on Aug 15. One plot was Winfred brassicas, kale, rape, and barkant turnips. Other plot was Winter peas, winter wheat, and diakon radishes. I added crimson clover to both plots as well. Fall drought didn’t help things, and both plots definitely suffered. In parts of both, the clover was the only thing to come in, but had 8-12” of growth in other parts. Deer are utilizing them nonetheless.
Moving forward, my plan is to frost seed one of them into a Ladino/Alice/Frosty berseem/chicory mix, but the other I’m planning to do brassicas again in Aug, so what to do until then? My thought is to frost seed a Frosty berseem/Fixation Balsana/Arrowleaf/Crimson clover mix (figuring the crimson might not do much but hopefully the others will?) and disc under to plant the brassicas. Most of the information I can find about these clovers all deal with using them in southern areas as a fall though spring crop and I’m just wondering how these may do for us up north. Or should I go a different direction all together? Any insight/direction/thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!
Moving forward, my plan is to frost seed one of them into a Ladino/Alice/Frosty berseem/chicory mix, but the other I’m planning to do brassicas again in Aug, so what to do until then? My thought is to frost seed a Frosty berseem/Fixation Balsana/Arrowleaf/Crimson clover mix (figuring the crimson might not do much but hopefully the others will?) and disc under to plant the brassicas. Most of the information I can find about these clovers all deal with using them in southern areas as a fall though spring crop and I’m just wondering how these may do for us up north. Or should I go a different direction all together? Any insight/direction/thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!