What to Plant in South Georgia Right now

[hilltopper]

Is it too late to put in a clover/wheat or rye planting right now in south Georgia? The goal is simply to provide some attraction in December and in to the future. I have to till an area because it is so rough, so T&M isn't in the cards. Crimson clover or some sort of white? What is the best forage- I love WR up north but not sure they use it here. Wheat?

 

[bbcoach]

Find out when your first frost date is for your zip code. South Georgia may have another month so I would say plant. Durana clover does real well in your area but dutch white, crimson and red clover would be options as well. I normally plant a mixture of oats and winter rye here in Eastern NC and winter wheat has done well. I would say pick a clover, add a cover crop of WR, WW and or oats and you'll have a Great green plot in a couple of weeks and some Great clover come spring time. Good Luck.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Not too late... my place is only about 30 or so miles south of Thomas county and I planted 5 acres worth of small plots over the past 3 weeks or so. Think your issue will be less the threat of an immediate hard frost (barring really unusual weather) than it will be getting lucky with timely rain. By the grace of God I got a few good rains along the way as I did my plots so they're all greening up now (though first planted is far greener than last planted). If you plant in the coming week and we get rain again quickly and / OR you can run water to the area and get it going with a sprinkler (I've done this several years) you should be good to go.

I really like crimson for our area. Also like Durana but it's going to do more for you in the coming spring versus the crimson helping you in December. I mix things up in the plots I do often mixing coker oats, wrens abruzzi winter rye, along with crimson clover, while in other plots I'll do triticale with crimson. For kicks and giggles I also throw austrian winter peas and essex rape in some plots as well.

Due to our extreme heat and intense sun I tend to put clover spots in slightly more shady, thin sliver plots that lie close to woods... deer really love to use them as staging area before entering primary bigger plots, and does and fawns absolutely LOVE them in the spring. Think the extra moisture of such spots helps the clover do much better as well.

Linking article from UF put out for North Florida recommendations / useful info. Towards the bottom you can see some blends they recommend. I find a bit more time I might make one more post showing in picture form what I planted this year in specific spots.

http://jefferson.ifas.ufl.edu/environment/wildlife_cool_forage.shtml

 

[bigbendmarine]

By they way, promise not to tell on me I'll give you some good scoop that may be very useful and save money if you've got much area to plant and want to put down any white clover variant. Durana is fairly expensive and most places want to sell it by 5 pound bag.

There's a white ladino clover variant called "Ocoee" clover developed for our area that's supposed to be better at nematode resistance than other white clovers. Southern States seed chain (actually in process of changing name to Crop Production Services) in Moultrie GA, Cairo GA, and Marianna FL (all within hour or so of you) have had year old seed in inventory when I've checked and Marianna agreed to sell it to me near wholesale price of approximately $110 versus list price of $215 for a 50 pound bag. Moultrie promised to get back to me with a price but never did, so you might call asking if they have year old seed / offer to pay wholesale price.

50 pounds of white clover seed will go a LONG way (use 4 to 6 pounds per acre) so again, just throwing it out there if you have need for that much / want to hold on to some for future years as clover holds pretty well if kept dry and somewhat cool.

http://www.ffsp.net/varieties/clover/ocoee-ufwc5/

https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-9856-southern-states-ocoee-ladino-clover-50lb.aspx
http://www.ffsp.net/varieties/clover/ocoee-ufwc5/

 

[hilltopper]

Thanks for the advice. The site is slightly shady and definitely damp so it should be perfect for a clover mix. I’ll check on the ocoee clover.