Corn plots and seeding between rows
- Thread starter WImuzz
- Start date
j-bird
Moderator
I plant corn on 30" centers with my 2 row planter. This is a fairly standard dimension. Once the corn starts to dry down you will get sufficient sunlight to be able to broadcast turnips, wheat, oats and rye or even an annual clover if so desired. I simply walk every other row (roughly) with a hand-held or chest mounted broadcast spreader. The outer rows will do better, but it will grow. I do it all the time....it's not an ideal condition, but that seed is pretty cheap and what does grow is simply a "bonus" green forage. What works really well is doing this in areas closer to your stand location vs the entire corn planting.
I planted clover in with my corn this year as well. I did it right away, and seemed to work decent. The deer have been feeding on it, so good enough. I got a lot of weeds come up in my corn though. Not sure if that is attributed to getting it in so late based on the wet spring and summer, or if just not enough fertilizer. Worth a try though.
mikmaze
5 year old buck +
I did Winter rye inbetween standing corn, it germinated about 3 weeks before the field was harvested, a lot of it got burried in waste, but a lot of it came through and was weeks ahead of where it would have been if I planted after harvest. The field was harvested for kernals, had it been taken for silage it would have been better. No way there would have been any soil contact after kernel harvest.
j-bird
Moderator
What sort of corn/grain production did you get? I don't need a bushel per acre figure....do you get a nice big full ear or two on every stalk? I avoid planting ANYTHING with corn while it's growing. Corn hates competition and as such weed control is important as well as getting it all the soil nutrients, and at times soil moisture and the like you can. I want the high N fertilizer to go to the corn and not some other plant. I don't think clover would hurt the corn, but for weed control I would think you would be killing your clover in the process. Did you plant a perennial or an annual clover? I am simply curious..... I wait until the ears fill before I plant anything in the corn. I want bare dirt and corn to ensure the corn gets everything it needs before then. After that I simply broadcast a small cheap seed (because you may end up just feeding the birds if you don't get rain) of annual clovers (crimson), brassica (radish or turnips - typically turnips) and cereal grains (oats, wheat, rye - typically wheat or rye). I plant this as a "bonus" food source and realize that this method is NOT as productive as it would be if planted as an actual fall annual plot via more traditional methods. This is just me getting a little more use out of that piece of dirt.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
The best row spacing for planting between the rows is 36". This is a measurement used based for maximum yield in production agriculture. There were several trials done in Wis. where corn was no till planted into medium red clover and a 6" band application of gly at the time of planting was applied in the rows where the corn would grow. If it was me I would sacrifice the yield (of the corn) and go with a 40" row (which was a common row spacing in the old days). With the extra width your inter seeded fall crop will have more available sunlight to grow and put on more tonnage. In a food plot application (depending on how big your plot is) you're only going to sacrifice a couple of rows so no big deal.
If I only had a corn planter i would without a doubt do this.
If I only had a corn planter i would without a doubt do this.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Here is a technique I saw experimented with years ago. If you plan to let the corn stand for deer, it might be worth a look. First, they established a field of perennial clover. They planted it with a low growing perennial clover in the fall with a WR nurse crop and mowed the first spring as necessary to release it. The first year, the field had only clover. In spring of year 2, the rigged a no-till corn planter by adding a spray tank to it and placing nozzles above each row, so it only sprayed about 6". They then drilled with non-gmo corn and sprayed each row with gly. The idea was that the clover would for a weed mat for the corn so post emergent spraying with gly was not needed. The strip of gly would suppress the clover or even kill it depending on the amount of gly used in the 6" strip where each row of corn was planted. The corn would quickly get taller than the clover and clover would help fill some of the N requirement for the corn. I think the idea of this was for commercial use to reduce gly use and allow for the use of less expensive non-gmo seed. It was done quite a while ago when RR seed was more expensive and less ubiquitous and gly was more expensive. While I believe it worked, I'm not sure the economics supported it for commercial application as RR/Gly prices changed.
I've often thought this would be an interesting technique to apply for food plots. I've never tried it as I'm further south where summer is a greater stress period and corn is less beneficial at a higher cost than other options. So, I don't plant corn for deer food. The reason I like it conceptually for places where corn is important for deer is that the clover produces more months of deer food than anything else, and maximizing yield of corn is not a huge concern. It may not fit every application but it is worth consideration. Lower use of gly is always a good thing as well. Depending on the density you plant the corn, one could conceive not adding N. If you have sufficient land to plant more acreage, planting corn at a lower density could still make deer feel secure but allow hunters shooting opportunities into the corn field. It all depends on your objective, but I can see where this general technique could be used.
Thanks,
Jack
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
j-bird
Moderator
Your equipment is also going to dictate what you do. If your using a planter or drill, tire spacing of your tractor and the like all impact what works best for you. It really sucks busting your butt to get a good stand of corn growing only to find out later that if you need to spray once the corn is knee high or so that you have to destroy a full row (or more) each pass because of the tire width/spacing of you spraying rig. So keep that in mind as well.
