bueller's blotter

[Bowsnbucks]

JP - Post #461. I wonder how many folks know what sweet fern is and recognize the pungent smell it gives off in the fall. We have it in northern Pa. and I wish I could bottle that smell - along with the smell of acorns on the ground and aspen leaves when they fall. Blindfolded I could tell if there were aspens in the area in the fall !!

It's funny how we get attached to the sights, sounds and smells of our favorite hunting grounds. Those things are what color the memories we stow away. :)

 

[bueller]

Thanks Whip..your posts on this thread are really helping to set the plan in my head. Other than when I clear the brush I plan to never break the ground. Was going the mowing route but I really like how the rolled stuff looks on all the sites (not sure where you buy a roller though?). I think someone else said how the rolling breaks down much slower than when mowed, that sounds like the ticket when trying to build OM in sand. I don't have all sand but only about 4 inches of decayed matter on top of the sand. I'm taking a soil sample in a few weeks, although Im sure it will say I need to build PH and OM. I'm not thinking of alfalfa, my plots will only total 1/2 acre spread out in several plots in an old cutover, maybe after a few years I might try brassicas if the OM and PH get built up. My thoughts right now are on the equipment I will need. Do you think a Stihl handlebar trimmer and bag seeder/spreader are sufficient for 1/2 acre or do I step up to a used garden tractor and pull behind spreader?? I was thinking of just trying the trimmer and bag for the first year and see how it goes....but i'm sure i'll have to spread a lot of lime.... Thanks again

I have a tow behind spreader and Solo 20 lb hand spreader. I use the Solo more often than not and could get by without the tow behind. I spread ag lime by the shovel full off a flat bed trailer. I have a sprayer for the back of my ATV. I wouldn't want to be without an ATV sprayer or a tow behind sprayer. Haven't mowed my plots in a couple years now. Rolling or dragging is all I really do. Lately I've been spraying and letting the vegetation fall at its own pace.

 

[jackpine]

I have a tow behind spreader and Solo 20 lb hand spreader. I use the Solo more often than not and could get by without the tow behind. I spread ag lime by the shovel full off a flat bed trailer. I have a sprayer for the back of my ATV. I wouldn't want to be without an ATV sprayer or a tow behind sprayer. Haven't mowed my plots in a couple years now. Rolling or dragging is all I really do. Lately I've been spraying and letting the vegetation fall at its own pace.

When do you spray Bueller? By the looks of it you don't have many weeds once your plots are established so I'm thinking you are spraying to terminate your clover to transition to buckwheat?

 

[bueller]

I spray in the spring before planting buckwheat. Usually spray and seed on Memorial Day weekend. Sometimes I will spray in the summer before planting brassicas and every once in awhile before planting rye and clover. There is a risk spraying on this dry soil. If you don't get good rains after spraying everything has a tough time germinating and getting established, especially during the warm summer months. After learning this the hard way I've been trending more towards just overseeding. My plots aren't as "clean" but I avoid any extended periods of a "dead" field.

More than once I sprayed a field that was still providing some forage and seeded brassicas. Lack of rain caused a failed planting. By the time I transitioned to rye and it got established I probably had two months of nothing growing on a field that would have still been productive had I just left it alone and overseeded. Not the end of the world if you have a number of plots that you rotate but on a place with only a plot or two it's a killer.

 

[wiscwhip]

My thoughts right now are on the equipment I will need. Do you think a Stihl handlebar trimmer and bag seeder/spreader are sufficient for 1/2 acre or do I step up to a used garden tractor and pull behind spreader?? I was thinking of just trying the trimmer and bag for the first year and see how it goes....but i'm sure i'll have to spread a lot of lime.... Thanks again

You can most certainly get by with minimal equipment. We started out with a hand rototiller and hand crank bag spreader many years ago, we graduated to a 23 hp Bolens garden tractor, then to a Farmall H, then finally downsized to a 4 wheeler. We had many different types of equipment over the years, everything from 3 bottom moldboard plow to a 8' double disc, a single gang disc, and many types of homemade drags. None of it was elaborate or expensive. We also had hand-held tank sprayers, a 25 gal Fimco tank sprayer, and an Earthway single row planter. Spreading lime is always a B!#(%.............that said, anything you want to plant right now can be done with just your bag spreader and trimmer and a little back labor, as bueller and many others on here can attest. You'll do fine, the initial plots may not be perfect, but they will provide more tonnage of food than what the native pine barren habitat would on it's own and your deer will thank you come January. BTW, don't be afraid to throw down a few pounds of brassica when you do you fall plots, which I'm assuming will be soon, they will surprise you even on newly plotted ground. Just throw in some PPT and radish when you seed your rye and you will be good to go.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

JP - Post #461. I wonder how many folks know what sweet fern is and recognize the pungent smell it gives off in the fall. We have it in northern Pa. and I wish I could bottle that smell - along with the smell of acorns on the ground and aspen leaves when they fall. Blindfolded I could tell if there were aspens in the area in the fall !!

It's funny how we get attached to the sights, sounds and smells of our favorite hunting grounds. Those things are what color the memories we stow away. :)

LOL, I know what you mean, kind of. I have no idea about sweet fern, but here, when the nights finally turn cool the cotton fields get a smell to them that can take me back to being a kid again. I'm back listening to my Papaw Emery telling his hunting stories the night before we go. I'd question him over and over about what we might get and how many we'd see till he would have to tel me I better get to sleep or we wouldn't get a thing. A smell like that can really awaken old memories. Its as close to a time machine as you can get.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Merle - You nailed it with the " time machine " comparison. Those sights and smells were burned into me when I was 6 yrs. old. My Dad and Uncle Howard took me along on a scouting trip to the mountains at the peak of the October foliage colors. Besides seeing many deer & a few turkeys, the sights, sounds and smells stuck with me and I felt like King Tut because they took me along to their favorite deer hunting spot. That experience went all the way into my bone marrow - because here I sit today, posting on a site jawing with other guys cut from the same wood !! The outdoor life has made my free time rich beyond words - and it all started with that one trip at age 6. Each fall, when I see the colors, absorb the smell of the leaves, sweet fern, and acorns - it's all fresh and new again.

 

[bueller]

Buckwheat field is nearing maturity. Trail cam shows feeding activity is still high though.

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[wiscwhip]

Are you going to let that seed out and roll it over brassicas and rye? That worked wonders on our sandbox.

 

[bueller]

I tossed some turnips in for a treat and they are now forming bulbs.

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[wiscwhip]

;)Nevermind....

 

[bueller]

This is a new plot (2nd year) and there is still a lot of grass that I'm fighting in it. While a few turnips are doing well, many have been choked by the grass. Because of that I may broadcast rye and then spray and roll/drag. I did that last year and had very good results.

 

[bueller]

My clover plot is doing well. The rye is beginning to fall over. I don't see any turnips seedlings from when I overseeded 3 weeks ago. Maybe they will come up now with all the rain we got this week.

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[bueller]

I've got a good one (for our area) that likes to fill up on the buckwheat.

 

[CrazyEd]

Looking good bueller. I am going to dump a boatload of winter rye on my sand pile tomorrow with some radish and turnips mixed in. I'll follow up with a heavy covering of medium red clover late fall.

Hopefully we get rain wed-thurs-friday like the forecast is calling for.

 

[bueller]

Looking good bueller. I am going to dump a boatload of winter rye on my sand pile tomorrow with some radish and turnips mixed in. I'll follow up with a heavy covering of medium red clover late fall.

Hopefully we get rain wed-thurs-friday like the forecast is calling for.

Did you get the winter rye already? I usually get mine from a local coop but they usually don't have it for a couple weeks yet.

 

[CrazyEd]

Yeah I picked it up today down here in Southeastern WI. I have 200lbs. I am seeding twice as heavy as I normally do. I normally do one 56# bag per plot, this year double.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Bueller - The deer are hammering our BW too. One of our members has a cam on the BW and has 6 bucks in it eating at one time. We love BW - plant some every year.

 

[bueller]

Bueller - The deer are hammering our BW too. One of our members has a cam on the BW and has 6 bucks in it eating at one time. We love BW - plant some every year.

Buckwheat receives way more activity than our clover does during the summer months. It's a very good fit for us as we plant it right at the time when winter rye is losing attractiveness.

 

[bueller]

Deer hammer our clover in the summer. One of these years I'm going to try a patch of buckwheat just for the hell of it.

Interesting. Our clover starts to get heavy usage late summer and into fall. Perfect for bow season.