decided not to do summer plots this year, gearing up to hit em hard late summer.

the pea seed, looked a bit old, wondering how it is going to do, did not do a germ test, planted the weekend that it arrived.
 
well its been a few days, but I was up at my place in NY building a sled shed. I did however get a look at my plots Thursday night, and I gotta say, I am happy. Peas are coming up like mad, can already tell the lupine by its leaf shape, quail haven soybeans and sun hemp are doing well, alfalfa is off and running, yellow clover is moving......
 
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hemp and quail haven
lupine
peas
 
well the weekends plot work is done, rebuilt my sprayer Saturday, pump was shot, and changed up to t jet fittings with ss nozzles, and ss strainers in the tips. Man what a difference, the norther tool 4060 pump moves some fluid I tell you what. I sprayed my 3 plots of clover that are still clover, with too many weeds and grass for mine or the deers liking, sprayed my plot that is to be hsg w med red clover, sprayed my big plot which is to be brassica and cc, sprayed another big plot which is to be another brassica and cc. all in all about 6 acres sprayed, went through some gly, but hey, I know what happens if I skip this step and thats not a pretty sight. Next two weekends I am not going to be around, so 3 weeks till I see what I have killed, hope all but the clover.

..... my little sprayer setup works great, pull up to the creek, plug in to my inverter on the tractor and bingo, 120 volt pump fills my tank. Pull to the plot and throw a switch, and 12 volt pump pushes the sprayer.

stopped on the way home at a new brewery not too far from me and checked out the tasting room, took a tour.......... tasty beers for sure, Demented brewing middlesex NJ
 
plots already in are geting hammered, browsed hard on what looks to be to often of a basis, worked three other pots up yesterday. terminated all three that were loaded with foxtail grass with diesel, and my disc. took about 8 passes but got it chopped enough to get good soil seed contact. Threw down my big n beasty as a try, and over top of that hit one of them with jumbo ladino, which will become the permanent plot plant, one of the other plots will get med red, the other crimson as it is best utilized as an annual plot.
 
Well new plan, picked up a new to me plow, screw fixing the old one, got another double 14 but this one has shares that will rip. Not sure of brand but it's heavy, and only cost me 150 bucks. Pics later.
 
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put tha told girl to work today, wore the rust right off the plows, did about two and a half acres, tried a few changes, drop down on furrow side, level, nose up, nose down. and got er diggin pretty good. Had trouble with weeds plugging under the cut wheel, so that is off. Had some spots with a lot of gly dead grass, and it still plugged but not near as often. I will be hiting another 2 acres with it tomorrow, then swap to the disc, seed, and possibly finish fall planting till its time to toss some winter wheat. Looking over plots, alfalfa , and yellow sweet plots both need cleth, damn foxtail grass, another tricky one in the alfalfa is horse nettle, a LOT of it in there.
 
A testament to plowing, this 3/4 acre field was 3 to 5 feet high in weeds, I gly'd it two weeks ago, and found it to be effective, but no way anything could have simply disced this field to get soil to seed contact. Heading down today to disc 2 more plots, and seed the 4 that I soil worked this weekend. getting late but 2 are getting a brasica, CC, WW blend, One is getting hsg/ med red clover, third will get Jumbo Ladino. Soil moisture all over the place yesterday, but the new to me plow did a nice job, except in super dry spots where if barely got 2 inch penetration. Once hit with the disc it will all look the same. I had one spot where thistle was about 10 feet tall, gly got it done even with only hitting the bottom half of the plant. interesting finds, 2 different snapping turtle egg nests, and one ground hornet nest, cut it right in half with the disc, lucky I didn't get stung as my epi pen was 1/4 mile away in the truck.

I have some fert I might spread, but it has a broad leaf herbicide included, anyone have experience with it for broad leaf crops? I imagine it is a leaf contact item, so soil application at time of seeding should be safe?

Last question, do you guys leave a cedar tree in a plot like this? or get rid of the beast as it is just annoying to work around. Yeah, under all that grape and bittersweet there is a cedar.

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A testament to plowing, this 3/4 acre field was 3 to 5 feet high in weeds, I gly'd it two weeks ago, and found it to be effective, but no way anything could have simply disced this field to get soil to seed contact. Heading down today to disc 2 more plots, and seed the 4 that I soil worked this weekend. getting late but 2 are getting a brasica, CC, WW blend, One is getting hsg/ med red clover, third will get Jumbo Ladino. Soil moisture all over the place yesterday, but the new to me plow did a nice job, except in super dry spots where if barely got 2 inch penetration. Once hit with the disc it will all look the same. I had one spot where thistle was about 10 feet tall, gly got it done even with only hitting the bottom half of the plant. interesting finds, 2 different snapping turtle egg nests, and one ground hornet nest, cut it right in half with the disc, lucky I didn't get stung as my epi pen was 1/4 mile away in the truck.

I have some fert I might spread, but it has a broad leaf herbicide included, anyone have experience with it for broad leaf crops? I imagine it is a leaf contact item, so soil application at time of seeding should be safe?

Last question, do you guys leave a cedar tree in a plot like this? or get rid of the beast as it is just annoying to work around. Yeah, under all that grape and bittersweet there is a cedar.

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Cedar Tree would be gone on mine, Oak tree would stay.
 
I work around some trees now. And in some instances it seems to provide enough cover for the deer to enter the plots in the daytime. Many others have proven to be too hard to farm around.....and they are now gone. I do have some small oaks that I will keep. They grow pretty fast with the rest of the trees gone around them.
 
guy that hunts near this plot like the cedar tree, if it is gonna go, I might have to be sneaky, copper nails anyone?
 
two days of rain after five weeks of dust dry conditions, hope the seed didn't miss this wake up call, and the plants get their buts moving. Might get some pics tomorrow.
 
well, it rained like a sonofa.... Friday, and into Saturday morning a bit....... figured though, with all the wind I might chance plowing the freshly harvested cornfield, and what do you know, had enough traction to get er done. I got there at 10 am, already had plow hooked up, plowing by 10:05. I plowed till 2 pm, did a start row at front and rear, then a pass each direction down center, then one pass each way till I was done. Had a TON of trash, corn was about 10 feet tall when cut. Had a fit adjusting the plow, front up, front down, tightened sway chain,. then dropped left side 3 inches and started to adjust front rear tilt again., got that set and plowed for about 3 hours in 6th gear, still had trouble burying trash, with it wadding up in plow, so I said why not try 7th gear, and bingo, hit the sweet spot. Only fouled the plow once after that, ground speed is king, as it also buried the trash a lot better. The moisture content being about perfect, left a good crumbled level surface, opted not to disc, and hooked up the spreader and tossed out 6 bushels of winter wheat, should rain in the next three days to soak it in, and give me a killer stand in the next two months till gun opener. I figure I did 6 acres, this should be enough to draw them down in from the houses, and get em bedding on the bottom of the property, instead of in and around the houses.
what it looked like when I got there
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what it looked like half way through.
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You don't have near enough rocks. Almost forgot what dirt looks like.
 
I can personally attest to that field being under cultivation for 45 years. edges have all the rocks.

rye vs wheat, Ican get rye now for a lot less than wheat, is it worth planting?
 
got about a third to half an inch of rain today, should have pictures of a green plot in a matter of days, if I wasn't heading out of state for the weekend I might have gotten a couple/ few more acres of wheat or rye in.
 
picked up 6 bushels of winter rye yesterday, should get me enough seed to finish out the year.

\also spotted an interesting apple in NY today, medium in size, mild flavor, but a nice surprising red flesh, pretty cool.
 
well, I busted my butt yesterday, sat a few hours and bow hunted, saw one year and a half old buck, feeding away in the ptt, cc, ghr plot. Hopped in the tractor at 10 and hooked up the 2 bottom and went to work. Plowed under failed canadian peas plot, as well as the sun hemp/ quail haven soybeans plot. Then headed up to the big cut cornfield and put in three more plots that are more kill plots than feed plots as they are placed near stands. All in all 5 acres plowed under. Swapped on the disc and gave each section a single pass just to knock the clods apart here and there. Popped on the cone spreader and put 6 full bushels of winter rye down in total. that is it, plotting is done for the season. damn close to 25 acres in total plots right now, on a 300 acre chunk of heaven. I would not want to do more, as I only have a 40 hp tractor, and only so much time to dedicate to it. If I were to even attempt more, weeds would take over. Too rushed yesterday for pictures, I;ll have to get a few in a couple weeks when it is up and green. Who else is done for the season? Only thing I could ask for is a fly over by google sats for an updated picture of all the plots.
 
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