Recent content by Ben.MN/WI

I would definitely plant some winter rye later this summer or early fall. You could drill it in or just broadcast ut prior to some rain. That will give you some serious tonnage next year that should shade your soil and give your next summer planting an opportunity to grow.

I've only used granular form since the cost is much lower (or at least it was when I looked years ago).

I can't tell for sure, but that may be waterhemp and not pigweed in your clover plot. Either way, I'd mow it right away before it chokes out your clover. The residue might smother some of the clover, but the clover might fill back in once it gets sunlight. I mowed some 6' tall rye that left a...

I have half a dozen Franklin's growing in Minnesota and they are a great wildlife tree. They produce annually and the fruit drops from late fall through mid winter. The fruit tastes bad and it is pretty ugly, but the deer don't care. I'll be planting more in the future as a late season draw.

My Fimco sprayer is probably about 15 years old and I hated the thing for the first 10 years. I lost count on the number of pumps I replaced in that time - it seems like I was fixing something on that sprayer every other time I used it. But I was only running a partial tank of water through...

Do you ever go out fishing for water snakes? I think you have too many water snakes and they should be thinned out. Those things look mean.

That's a big apple tree. You could certainly graft a shoot on that tree as I don't see any downsides to that. When you say the tree is going downhill, what do you mean? I wouldn't take a chainsaw to a 50+ year old apple tree unless it was dead.

I have a 25 gallon fimco with a boom and used to have all types of problems with the pump and valves. All the problems went away when started rinsing the tank well after each use and then running a full tank of cold, clean water through the sprayer. Whatever brand you select, make sure you do...

I also get pissed when my food plots or tree plantings don't go as planned, but my hunting success doesn't seem to be tied to how good my food plots and trees do that year. My worst food plot years sometimes match with some great hunting, and the opposite is also true. I'm betting you will see...

Did you plant any ROD at the same time in areas that weren't sprayed or in areas not close to walnuts? I'm just wondering how those shrubs are faring compared to the ones that are sprayed or are closer to walnuts.

What did the vet do once you brought her in? That seems like something they should see occasionally and be able to treat, but perhaps it was lodged in a bad location and was difficult to remove.

Tell me more about that pond plan - that looks really cool. How long did it take to build that dam and do you know approximately how much that cost? I'm always looking into pond options and building one with a scraper like that seems like a really efficient method.

That looks really good - do the deer like that new food yet?

Could you drill some other type of food plot seed into all of your areas, including the switchgrass areas? My switchgrass from my CRP blend was planted with a mix of other grasses, clovers and an oat nurse crop. Eventually the switchgrass and a couple other grass types took over, but in the...

Man, that's just really bad luck. Do you know what kind of bone she was eating and how could you tell that something was wrong? We have two golden retrievers that really like chewing on bones, but this makes me rethink that.