It's time to just assume it's not going to rain

[SD51555]

I'm not planning to shift my plans much because they're already as drought focused as they can be. For how long this dry spell has gone on in parts of deer habitat country, has anyone made changes to their management plan to account for the near certainty that it will not rain during the growing season? I'm into my third year of drought, and I'm just planning on that not changing. That means no more plot resetting unless I get a good catch up on moisture first. I had one plot sit and cook for three months before any rain came. I'm damn lucky that plot didn't explode into a mess of chem resistant weeds.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I stopped planting radish and turnips, or any mid summer plots. Clover, and winter rye is about all I have gotten the last couple years. Although I have no problem growing ferns in the woods.

 

[Foggy47]

No more "summer release" seeds for me. I'm riding with what I plant in the fall to carry me into mid / late July (clover, winter rye, sweet clover, chicory). Tho....I want to plant some strips of a Milo mix into my clover late June / July. At that point likely try some brassica plots into nuked and discoed clover if the weather looks favorable. Rinse and repeat.
I am learning to not make concrete plans a year or so out.....as the current conditions are more reliable. lol

 

[Catscratch]

Yep. I documented some of my changes in the TnM thread. We'd gone somewhere over 400 days without a 2 inch rain, then got 2 rains in one week in July, then nothing until yesterday. I coach Cross Country and a lot of our Aug and Sept practices were spent inside due to 106 types of temps. I feel for ya. It's tough without moisture!

 

[SwampCat]

Been planting only wheat and clover in the fall for several years. It is a fools errand here to do much else. Fortunately - it is about as inexpensive as anything, one setting on the planter, and do it all mid Oct. I still mess around with some duck and dove plantings at other times of the year.

 

[Bill]

I'm planning on planting more rye this weekend. It's finally raining. It's going to get cold but I'm hoping we have a few warm afternoons left. I almost always get screwed on the brassica plantings the last few years but keep trying for some reason. Last couple years even my beans don't do much unless I can get them in before May.

We had dry few years like this a few years back, then we had a few really wet years. Not sure which is worse actually.

 

[Tree Spud]

The notion of planting brassicas in July has never worked for me. Unless you are in the south, we just don't have enough time for 2 growing seasons here in the north. It's not just rain (which is always a problem in july/aug), daylight hours also shorten. We now have temps at night to be in the low 20's Sun - Thur.

If you over seed while your primary crop is still green, you have a problem with light getting in.

I tend to now plant my primary crop and then will over seed with WR in Sept. If I have the time i will still over seed some brassicas in late June as they aren't that expensive.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I am not ready to throw in the towel, while I have been a doomsdayer lately! LOL It does suck as this was my 1st year that I could put in food plots and it was uphill most of the way. Unless non-irrigated Ag crops stop being grown in your area, then there is enough moisture, planting times just need to be adjusted. While obviously leaning towards those things that are more drought tolerant. Perennials obviously have an advantage, I have a friend down the road with alfalfa that still looks great right now. Its hard to beat natural food sources as obviously those are adapted to your local environment,

 

[bigboreblr]

Natural weeds have some seriously deep taproots, some are like 10 feet deep. Fallow might be a way o go. A coworker of mine does fallow plots. Just mows once or twice usually mid june just to keep the plants from getting too tall., and discs and limes every few years.

Having the complete opposite here in NY. Rain every weekend.

MR. Turkey Creek I've always wondered if you use an irrigation system on your trees? Got a few of your trees at home. Debating trenching in a system for about 25 or so to be mature trees, mostly M111.

 

[Foggy47]

Natural weeds have some seriously deep taproots, some are like 10 feet deep. Fallow might be a way o go. A coworker of mine does fallow plots. Just mows once or twice usually mid june just to keep the plants from getting too tall., and discs and limes every few years.

Having the complete opposite here in NY. Rain every weekend.

MR. Turkey Creek I've always wondered if you use an irrigation system on your trees? Got a few of your trees at home. Debating trenching in a system for about 25 or so to be mature trees, mostly M111.

^ Just considering what you say here about irrigation.....and thought I would share how they do irrigation in Arizona. Basically, every growing plant in AZ has a water line to it....or it will die. They have a main water line of 1" tube which is pressurized and controlled for a run time of perhaps an hour each day. This line runs around the perimeter of your property. Connected to the 1" main tube.....they have small feeder lines which are just 1/8" "speggetti" lines. The size of the plant will determine how many of these feeder lines are used. A small lantana plant will get one line.....a bigger fire bush may get two Ines.....and a small tree may get two lines while a larger Orange Tree may get three lines, etc. I think they usually max out at three. None of the water is sprayed in the air.....all the lines are under some rocks in the yard or mulch etc and end near the base of the plant. Thus loss to evaporation is quite low.

After a big tornado tipped many of the trees in my hood some years back....we had a neighbor that replanted about an acre of white pine trees. these were mostly about 12 feet high and he put in an irrigation system similar to what I told above.....using water from the lake and a timer. Today those white pines are huge and growing fast.

Ive thought this would be a good way to irrigate an orchard or a garden. My 2 cents.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Natural weeds have some seriously deep taproots, some are like 10 feet deep. Fallow might be a way o go. A coworker of mine does fallow plots. Just mows once or twice usually mid june just to keep the plants from getting too tall., and discs and limes every few years.

Having the complete opposite here in NY. Rain every weekend.

MR. Turkey Creek I've always wondered if you use an irrigation system on your trees? Got a few of your trees at home. Debating trenching in a system for about 25 or so to be mature trees, mostly M111.

Trees in the nursery are on drip tape for irrigation when necessary. We go by the same rule as we recommend for all trees. If they aren't getting a 1" of rain/ week then water them once a week thoroughly. Older trees are more drought tolerant than younger trees. You can probably go 2-3 weeks on trees that have been in the ground for 3-4 years. Fully mature trees would only need supplement water in very dry conditions (several weeks of no rain) .

There are crop fields that are drip tape irrigated like you mentioned. Heavy gauge drip tape is buried 18" under ground. That isnt all that common though and I would never go to that extreme for food plots. We did get an 1" of rain last night finally, thank you Lord. Temps might be too cold to get any germination now though, we will see.

 

[Tree Spud]

I have always wondered if too much watering can be an issue with root development? If the tree relies too much on artificial watering, does that reduces the root systems effort to seek farther and deeper for water?

At some point, the root system needs to develop so it can withstand poor conditions every now and then.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I have always wondered if too much watering can be an issue with root development? If the tree relies too much on artificial watering, does that reduces the root systems effort to seek farther and deeper for water?

At some point, the root system needs to develop so it can withstand poor conditions every now and then.

Yes over watering can cause that. Shallow roots develop and lack of deep rooting.

 

[Telemark]

I have always wondered if too much watering can be an issue with root development? If the tree relies too much on artificial watering, does that reduces the root systems effort to seek farther and deeper for water?

At some point, the root system needs to develop so it can withstand poor conditions every now and then.

My understanding is it depends on how you water. If you water less often, but with larger volumes, the water migrates down through the soil, causing the roots to "chase" the water down.

However, if you water more frequently with smaller volumes, you tend to keep the surface of the soil moist without enough water to migrate deep into the subsoil. This causes shallow root growth which can potentially cause a lot of problems in the future.

 

[Native Hunter]

Yes, fall droughts started happening almost without fail in our area a few years ago. What I do now is put my eggs in 2 baskets rather than just 1. We generally have a really rainy spell during July or early August. If I see one of those forecasted I will go ahead and plant 1/2 of my fall plots. It's really too early at that time, but if the fall drought comes, I will at least have something. Clover and chicory planted early like that are just as palatable as they are planted at the right time.