Need Biomass

[hilltopper]

I have a very sandy one acre plot that I've had trouble making productive. I soil tested and limed 1 1/2 yrs ago. First you should know: 1) it's adjacent to a pond so the geese clobber anything I plant; 2) I have to keep it somewhat mowed; 3) I need to make sure I don't get sand burrs; and 4) I can't grow buckwheat with my high deer numbers.

Here's the problem- if I till, it it's like planting in the Sahara desert. I use throw and mow generally on my plots, but this plot never seems to have enough growth to create sufficient mulch. Right now I have a very thin crop of winter rye heading out- no where near enough to consider using for a mulch. If I just mow it and wait for weeds and grasses to populate, I'm afraid the sand burrs will explode.

My question is: what could I plant in the next couple weeks just to get the soil covered and to create biomass for a fall throw and mow? (central Wisconsin sands). Could I plant winter rye right now?? Right now I'm not concerned about attracting deer to this plot.

 

[Someday isle]

I’m far from an expert and don’t have near the experience that others do but I planted buckwheat four weeks ago and it looks like this. It just might work for you. It sure was easy to grow.

 

[Diesel5610]

Yep, buckwheat.

 

[Barndog56]

Just keep throw and mowing the small seeded staples. Red clover works well for my sandy soil, it can take the heat and drought of summer. Radishes and turnips grow for me too, but it is early, bugs will hammer them if you plant now. No rule against putting rye in now. Whatever you broadcast, go heavy on the seedrate.

 

[Baker]

sunn hemp

 

[mglenn005]

Wildlife grain sorghum (3-4 ft tall variety) with millet is a winning combo. If you want to keep it mowed, just the Millet. Japanese and browntop millet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wiscwhip]

You most likely have soil very much like our old place in Juneau Co.(ours was mostly Plainfield/Friendship sands) and here is my advice after many years of fighting those conditions. As you may know, DON'T ever till it in any way...EVER! I cannot stress that enough, tilling it or turning that dirt over will only continue to break down that soil and make that ground worse and worse. By the time I talked my dad into not discing our plots, the sand was so friable and devoid of organic matter that I don't know how many years it would take to actually "repair" it. Thank goodness it was totally flat and had zero slope or we would have had major erosion issues. "Tillage" for you should be a drag, nothing more. Your friends will be a mower, sprayer, and cultipacker; your enemies are discs, plows, and lack of timely rains. Use rye and red clover with high seeding rates. If you have access to bigger equipment, use a grain drill(or even a no-till if you have access to one) to plant, if not just broadcast into the existing plot and roll it or mow it over the top to conserve as much moisture under the "mat" as you can. Get in touch with a local farmer, see if you can get some manure on that place, as much as possible to add to your organic matter. Check with the county to see if they have a "compost" pile that you can raid. Any extra organic matter you can add to that ground will only help to improve your water holding capacity. If you do not have luck with red clover, try birdsfoot trefoil or partridge pea. I can tell you that with proper application of P and K, soybeans will grow very well, the issue we had was too many deer and plots that were too small, so the deer would hammer them to the dirt once they reached about 6" to 8" tall. It would go from a nice green plot that looked like it was going to go to full canopy and a week later it was nothing but bare 1" tall stems, this essentially left us with bare dirt in the hottest time of the year, so it was either overseed with rye and clover or end up with a full plot of sandburs. Come back in mid-August and throw down some radish and turnip seed to give yourself some extra food for the fall season and extra OM for the next spring.

Buckwheat, seeded really heavy if your deer are killing it, would be another alternative, it worked great for us. As to the sunn hemp, it seemed like a good choice, although expensive. The old man sold the place before we ever had a chance to really try it, but it was next on our list to try. We did try some falcata alfalfa, and I think if we could have gotten the pH up, we would have done more of it, but it wouldn't thrive in the sub-6 native pH we were working with and the lime would leach right through our sand. Fighting low pH with no organic matter is a very futile and frustrating battle as well.

 

[yoderjac]

I have a very sandy one acre plot that I've had trouble making productive. I soil tested and limed 1 1/2 yrs ago. First you should know: 1) it's adjacent to a pond so the geese clobber anything I plant; 2) I have to keep it somewhat mowed; 3) I need to make sure I don't get sand burrs; and 4) I can't grow buckwheat with my high deer numbers.

Here's the problem- if I till, it it's like planting in the Sahara desert. I use throw and mow generally on my plots, but this plot never seems to have enough growth to create sufficient mulch. Right now I have a very thin crop of winter rye heading out- no where near enough to consider using for a mulch. If I just mow it and wait for weeds and grasses to populate, I'm afraid the sand burrs will explode.

My question is: what could I plant in the next couple weeks just to get the soil covered and to create biomass for a fall throw and mow? (central Wisconsin sands). Could I plant winter rye right now?? Right now I'm not concerned about attracting deer to this plot.

If you can't grow Buckwheat, I doubt you can grow much without issues. Deer do use buckwheat but they generally don't abuse it unless the plot is tiny or the numbers are very high given the habitat. Keep in mind that just because deer are eating buckwheat doesn't mean you are not getting the biomass benefit. Much of the biomass is under ground. As someone mentioned, deer generally don't mess with sorghum (milo) until the grain heads mature. You might consider mixing it with an annual clover like berseem or crimson. I found corn had some what of a protective effect on soybeans. When deer were keeping my Eagle beans naked all summer, when I mixed with corn, I found the individual plants growing close to the corn got much bigger. I wonder if the sorghum would have a similar effect on the clover. I'm guessing they didn't like getting hit in the face with the corn leaves when they could eat the soybeans a few feet away without that inconvenience.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Tree Spud]

I have a very sandy one acre plot that I've had trouble making productive. I soil tested and limed 1 1/2 yrs ago. First you should know: 1) it's adjacent to a pond so the geese clobber anything I plant; 2) I have to keep it somewhat mowed; 3) I need to make sure I don't get sand burrs; and 4) I can't grow buckwheat with my high deer numbers.

Here's the problem- if I till, it it's like planting in the Sahara desert. I use throw and mow generally on my plots, but this plot never seems to have enough growth to create sufficient mulch. Right now I have a very thin crop of winter rye heading out- no where near enough to consider using for a mulch. If I just mow it and wait for weeds and grasses to populate, I'm afraid the sand burrs will explode.

My question is: what could I plant in the next couple weeks just to get the soil covered and to create biomass for a fall throw and mow? (central Wisconsin sands). Could I plant winter rye right now?? Right now I'm not concerned about attracting deer to this plot.

Hilltopper ... you are in my neck of the woods. A good approach would be to plant Hybrid Forage Sorghum. This is a tall growing stalk plant. Fertilize the heck out of it with 46-0-0 just before the 1st rain. When it gets to 2-3' high mow, then repeat the mowing at that height again. then let the plant grow out to it's tallest height and die back in the winter. Then till everything thing in before freeze up or in spring. This will add the biomass that you need to hold the nitrogen in the sandy soil. learned this from one of the larger green house managers who works in the central sands area.

Buckwheat & WR are nice, but they won't produce the volume of biomass that Hybrid Forage Sorghum will it also really has little food value to the deer. If you sacrifice one year of a fall food plot to do this, you will be way better off a year from and and won't be repeating the cycle you are in.

 

[BobinCt]

Like Wiscwip said, raid a compost pile.

 

[yoderjac]

One more thing to consider is that the long term solution is building OM from the top down. It takes time, and biomass is part of the equation. The other part is balancing N and C. It is just like composting. Dgallow had a good thread about this on the old QDMA forum. So, while sorghum (choose your type) will deliver C, adding a legume will help with the N. You are clearly taking the right approach with throw and mow to preserve any OM that you build.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Like mentioned a couple of time above, sorgum sudan grass. It WILL be your best bet when it comes to producing tons of biomass quickly. It will als keep the weeds down. Mix it with cow peas for the free N and also for the fact that it can grow well in almost pure sand with little moisture.. Fertilizing with urea may be a bit of wasted money with leaching in your sand. Foliar application would be another option.

More than one way to skin a cat but building from the top down will produce the highest percentage of pure organic topsoil. It will work but plan on doing it multiple years in a row.

 

[hilltopper]

Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning towards spraying the plot and hiring someone to no-till plant forage sorghum. Then I would mow down anything still standing. If it grows well, this fall I could do a late T&M seeding with rye and clover, using the biomass created by the sorghum.

If something about this is wrong please reply. I'm inclined to never till again, as many suggested.

 

[wiscwhip]

Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning towards spraying the plot and hiring someone to no-till plant forage sorghum. Then I would mow down anything still standing. If it grows well, this fall I could do a late T&M seeding with rye and clover, using the biomass created by the sorghum.

If something about this is wrong please reply. I'm inclined to never till again, as many suggested.

Please do yourself a favor and do not take steel to that ground(other than a drill for planting) unless you cover the whole acre with about 2" of compost or manure, then you could use a tiller to turn it under about a inch or two deep just to mix it with the top few inches of sand. If you want to put in a fall planting, broadcast the seed, then mow the sorghum down over it to shade it and keep the moisture under the mat of clippings. Otherwise your plan is solid enough, take notes for future reference, and good luck. Keep everyone posted on your progress.

 

[BobinCt]

Just was reading up on soils because I want to add boron to my soil since I’m planting alfalfa in Aug and had a S3M test done to show the micronutrients. However, my boron was borderline low. In my reading, I read fresh Seaweed to your soil will add humus and micronutrients. Never new that , but this may be beneficial to you. FWIW

 

[hilltopper]

God knows the ponds next to this field have plenty of weeds and algae. Not sure I've got the means/patience/determination to harvest them!! But you got me thinking!

 

[BobinCt]

Here is the article;
BRYANT REDHAWK
JUNIOR MEMBER
If you can add some small amounts of clay to your sandy soil it will improve faster because the humus you are adding will be able to hold in the building soil.
I have been amazed at how many countries have bought into the Monsanto type thinking, just keep killing the soil and it will get better is not a viable methodology.
Any time you add any chemical fertilizer you kill the microbiology of the soil. Do it enough and all you have is DIRT.

If you can get it fresh, seaweed (just about any species) will do wonders, it will raise the micro nutrient levels, it will add trace minerals and it will add humus.
Your on the right track, just keep plugging away at it and you will see the turnaround.

 

[hilltopper]

Two guys carry the small drag out in to the pond and have the UTV or tractor pull it out? Wonder what kind of weed haul I'd get...

 

[SD51555]

Barley. 2 bu/ac. Of the grains, it's the shortest life cycle, and most water thrifty, and you could mow-kill it in six weeks. Just in time for fall planting.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

just shooting my mouth off here without looking into it but... I believe somewhere I read that gypsum works well on sandy soil to help retain moisture. If that is the case and If you know anybody in construction it shouldn't be hard to get as many pieces of scrap drywall as you want.