Buckwheat planting

[Bowsnbucks]

I THINK our turkeys were using our plowed, disced, naked soil in the fields for dusting themselves. We'd seen dusting sites in the fields. After we broadcast BW seed (and didn't cultipack it), the seed was in the open, and easily seen by turkeys while there dusting. Once they found it, they got it all. The following year - even though we cultipacked the BW seed that time - the turkeys must have remembered the prior year and they scratched up all the seed again!!! Zero BW emerged.

We'll try the thatch method, since our deer really love the BW. Maybe try the grain rye ahead of the BW for a good batch of thatch & roll it down.

 

[Brian662]

When broadcasting buckwheat I've never had success unless I covered the seed or cultipacked it after seeding.

 

[yoderjac]

I'll add this about planting things wildlife really enjoy's eating,
a while back I was trying to plant a sunflower plot, little over a 1/2 acre in size
I killed site, disc'd the plot, added fertilizer as needed(PH was good)
seeded plot, did a light disc and ran a cultipacker over it
had rain the following evening, perfect timing on rain(thought I was golden) , and more light rain mid week!
a full week goes by NOTHING, BUT entire plot was full of turkey tracks
HUMM
another week, nothing, but some weeds coming up
re spray site, re seed and cultipack, as soil still rather soft
again get lucky rained a day later!
week goes by NOTHING growing, again plot full of turkey tracks
me and farmer that owned the land agree, the dam turkey's must have ate all the seeds as you could see all there scratching up of the soil!

OK< # 3,, re disc site lightly, added a little more fertilizer, re seeded, and rolled again,, and THIS time, me and the farmer took a few dozen hay bales down and with his hay spreader we covered the whole plot with hay
figuring this would slow the turkeys down, allowing for seeds to start growing
we again got lucky, had god light rain , and good weather for a good take!

3 days later go check on plot, the entire plot was just dirt, them turkey's raked all the hay completely off the plot site !
a 1/2 acre of hay was now piled up in a row all around where we planted??
just amazing what they did!

and well, I gave up trying tom plant sunflowers there after that!
Back to clover and it grew just fine, seems turkeys' didn't like clover seeds! HAHA! or too fine to find once rolled in good!

SO< wildlife can have a LOT to do with what your trying to plant, more than many think I bet!


t

Humm... I wonder if the difference between your place and mine is habitat and food availability...

 

[MRBB]

Humm... I wonder if the difference between your place and mine is habitat and food availability...

the property the above was about I no longer am a part of
I managed it for almost 20 yrs for some elderly farmers, that have since passed away and once there family took possession of the land left to them, they stopped having it farmed , was a wonderful place, had a 5 acre pond, a 1/2 mile of a trout unlimited stream on one side, a swamp on another side and a native brook, spring feed running along the other side, and was mostly flat land(rest of area very hilly up and down like ) and was the only farm in about 5 miles, surrounded by mostly all large tract of forested land,

but the property was 200 acres or so, with a 60 acre crop field and 20 acres of food plots, in an extremely high deer density area, as a fact it held a lot of all wildlife
it was very challenging to get food plots to last, in the 20+ yrs I was there, I never had to mow a food plot, critters kept them mowed for me!
I didnl;t ,live on the property( about 2 hrs away) and I also had many other properties I worked on and managed
but it sure had a lot of wildlife, of all species, was , I attempted to buy it, but it never worked out
a shame what the family that got it do letting it go to hell, but they were not farmers or hunters and didnl;t need the money or want to sell it, now its just over run by trespassers hunting it, they broke into the buildings and homes on the land and stole all the pipes out of it as they left them empty(still are)
always strikes me as odd how some folks can have $$ and still let things worth $$ go to hell like that, all the more so when the farm made good money as well, and just didn;t want any of it, or as of now, even care how trespassers are running wild on the land
I'm sure your land is different then this place is now HAHA!
at least they didn;t develop it as so many people do to farm land any more when they inherit it!
so guess thats a good thing!