oats for the first time?-how to?

[Derek Reese 29]

Hello everyone,
Getting my spring plans firmed up and I had a question about planting oats as a nurse crop for a new clover field.
I was thinking of waiting and doing a late frost seed/early overseed in late March with a mix of annual/perennial clovers (frost seeding here in PA can be started almost any day now if the snow melts).
I have never planted oats before and didn't know if I should wait till later in April (last frost here is usually late April, though it snowed last year in May).
Also, should I hit the oats with a cultipacker after broadcasting or can I just let them sit? Are there advantages to hitting any frost seeded/late frost seeded areas with the cultipacker?
Thanks in advance for all the help-Derek

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Oats like to get covered by an inch or two of dirt, so you likely will would need to disk up your plot to have a decent oat stand (unless you have a no-till drill). frost seeding oats will make your neighborhood turkeys happy, but you likely won't end up with much oat growth!

Here's what has worked for me
1) spray field to kill off vegetation after existing plot is actively growing in the spring
2) wait 2-3 weeks and then disk up field
3) immediately after disking broadcast 1 - 1.5 bushels oats/acre
4) immediately after broadcasting oats run a drag over the field to cover the oats
5) Immediately after dragging the field broadcast clover seed
6) immediately after broadcasting clover cultipack field (You could also cultipack before broadcasting the clover seed)

 

[Bill]

I’ve had decent luck spring planting rye as a nurse crop without tillage. Killed the fired early with gly then broadcast clover and rye. I didn’t cultipack but it couldn’t hurt.

I just came back later that summer and mowed, and hit it with buytrac and 2,4 D-B.

 

[buckdeer1]

I planted real world oats late summer and it was one of the best food plots I have had,it had deer using every day

 

[yoderjac]

Hello everyone,
Getting my spring plans firmed up and I had a question about planting oats as a nurse crop for a new clover field.
I was thinking of waiting and doing a late frost seed/early overseed in late March with a mix of annual/perennial clovers (frost seeding here in PA can be started almost any day now if the snow melts).
I have never planted oats before and didn't know if I should wait till later in April (last frost here is usually late April, though it snowed last year in May).
Also, should I hit the oats with a cultipacker after broadcasting or can I just let them sit? Are there advantages to hitting any frost seeded/late frost seeded areas with the cultipacker?
Thanks in advance for all the help-Derek

Most annual clovers like Crimson don't frost seed well. Perennial clovers are slow to establish and do much better if planted in the fall. WR is m preferred nurse crop as it does better and retarding weeds. I'm not saying that it is impossible to frost seed perennial clover, you just won't get the same results.

 

[35-acre]

My experience with oats is that they will grow anywhere, including in a truck bed with a little moisture. Given that, I would not be too concerned about tilling them in. I almost always plant horse oats (yeah - the bag of rolled oats that you feed to horses - but it's got to be the rolled oats). I use a hand spreader and broadcast them into my plot a few times each year. The deer in my area hammer them in the fall when I've planted them late summer as they are still green.



So do their friends:

 

[Derek Reese 29]

thanks for all the replies...i am on the fence about spraying with gly first...this is a brush hogged weed field (cut to 2-3") with a good amount of dirt visible, but I feel like getting the seeds in and growing is most important as most of the competition would be from grasses (to be taken care of with Cleth hopefully) and the few broadleaf weeds could be mowed in the summer....i am leaning towards haring, planting the oats, running the hare again, then broadcasting the clover and cultipacking...that way the oats get a couple rounds of getting pushed in and the clover will hopefully have good seed to soil contact..im going to use 2 kinds of red clover (gallant and mammoth) along with aberlasting and alsike as the clovers...thoughts on those varieties are appreciated also

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I like Marathon Red and Alice White for perennials. ALWAYS plant chicory with clover. I like Oasis.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I like Marathon Red and Alice White for perennials. ALWAYS plant chicory with clover. I like Oasis.

thanks for the suggestions...i was waiting on doing a soil test before adding chicory to the list...i cannot get it to grow at our place without the pH being above 6....it should be close to if not above 6 in this spot but I wanted to wait ..(I do plan on liming as well but with 15" of snow still on the ground that hasn't yet occurred

 

[roymunson]

I thoughts oats were oats. Have used Oats Plus in the past but this year I put in jerry oats from the seed shop. Not the same deer use at all. It may have been I planted too early, but im in a high density area and they didn't eat them and a lot went to head.

The oats plus were a putting green the year before.

Throw N Mow is a great option for the oats if you don't have a drill. Beats re opening that seed bank.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I thoughts oats were oats. Have used Oats Plus in the past but this year I put in jerry oats from the seed shop. Not the same deer use at all. It may have been I planted too early, but im in a high density area and they didn't eat them and a lot went to head.

The oats plus were a putting green the year before.

Throw N Mow is a great option for the oats if you don't have a drill. Beats re opening that seed bank.

do you think putting them down thicker would help? i was thinking 100 lbs an acre in addition to the clover but if i went 125 or 150 would that help get them established before the turkeys find them?-thanks!

 

[roymunson]

Oats are generally cheap by comparison to other seed. I was talking deer density. 2019 saw WAY more deer using my Oats + than 2020 did on my seed shop oats. Strictly anecdotal, but that's how it shook out for me.

This is a bomber of an early season spot. I want deer in there the first 2 weeks of the season. Oats+ did better for me.

Throw N Mow requires more seed to start with than tillage or drilling. But, I don't think you're gonna do too badly if you happen to go a little heavy on cereal grains. Just don't do what I did and go heavy on your turnips, that works against ya.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Oats are generally cheap by comparison to other seed. I was talking deer density. 2019 saw WAY more deer using my Oats + than 2020 did on my seed shop oats. Strictly anecdotal, but that's how it shook out for me.

This is a bomber of an early season spot. I want deer in there the first 2 weeks of the season. Oats+ did better for me.

Throw N Mow requires more seed to start with than tillage or drilling. But, I don't think you're gonna do too badly if you happen to go a little heavy on cereal grains. Just don't do what I did and go heavy on your turnips, that works against ya.

good call on the less turnips..im really using the oats to nurse the clover along so I dont really care if they eat it ...but there is a little fence row nearby where I think I could set up for turkeys if the oats/clover started attracting...

 

[Kooch]

The oats in this video were simply broadcast last Spring after the threat of frost was gone. We had an early Spring last year in my area. This was mid-July I think. Hidden under this thick stand of oats, was also a thickly broadcast layer of Frosty Berseem. I added some turnips, then mowed the oats. The plot was just OK. I think the oats were actually too thick, and the thatch was too heavy. The bears sure did like the oats before I mowed them though. If I ever decide to hunt bear at my place, I'll do another thick planting of oats in the Spring to keep them around all Summer.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

The oats in this video were simply broadcast last Spring after the threat of frost was gone. We had an early Spring last year in my area. This was mid-July I think. Hidden under this thick stand of oats, was also a thickly broadcast layer of Frosty Berseem. I added some turnips, then mowed the oats. The plot was just OK. I think the oats were actually too thick, and the thatch was too heavy. The bears sure did like the oats before I mowed them though. If I ever decide to hunt bear at my place, I'll do another thick planting of oats in the Spring to keep them around all Summer.

what was the rate for those oats? I think a little less than that would be what I am shooting for..thanks for the video super cool!

 

[Kooch]

It was heavy, like embarassing heavy..... ~200LS/acre.

 

[SD51555]

The oats in this video were simply broadcast last Spring after the threat of frost was gone. We had an early Spring last year in my area. This was mid-July I think. Hidden under this thick stand of oats, was also a thickly broadcast layer of Frosty Berseem. I added some turnips, then mowed the oats. The plot was just OK. I think the oats were actually too thick, and the thatch was too heavy. The bears sure did like the oats before I mowed them though. If I ever decide to hunt bear at my place, I'll do another thick planting of oats in the Spring to keep them around all Summer.

Just think, there’s and equal amount of root mass below ground. I’m a fan of the oat.


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[Kooch]

Just think, there’s and equal amount of root mass below ground. I’m a fan of the oat.


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About this time of year, putting that video on loop and watching it for a half hour at a time makes me happy. I mean, the oats are cool. But, that mower, that mower can eat.