Despite a good start......

Foggy47

5 year old buck +
I thought I got a good start with some clover and a great stand of Rye from last fall. I planted green into the rye and later rolled the rye. Then bam.....weeds overtook these two areas......which are some of my poorest soils and I was trying to develop into new food plots (Expansion acres). I have put very little in the way of lime or fertilizer on these plots and they have not put out any decent crop in the past....just new raw land. My other stuff is going pretty well.

I am getting lots of hawkweed and grasses are overtaking the buckwheat I had planted here. The rye mulch is not preventing weeds. Time to start anew I think. I plan to flail mow....then nuke these plots and follow with some buckwheat ASAP. Then again drill rye in early September. (Just maybe I will get a load of lime and spread it late summer?....dunno). No....I do not have a soil test on these two acres.

Any other ideas? Kinda feel as I "wasted" a year here.....was looking promising......then boom. Pics follow.
 

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If it makes you feel any better, im having about a 95% fail too. We had so much flooding, I couldnt get to my plots. I finally planted June 4th... and weve had 2 rains both under 1/10" since then.
Nothing has really even germinated yet. I dont really even have weeds... just dry dirt. Ive been excited to try some new seed mixes and use my drill! But nothing grows without water it seems!

Just a bummer of a year so far. At least we have the late summer/fall planting to salvage the year.
 
mow right before a rain and then spray grass if needed
 
I'm thinking I need to get a load of lime pretty soon....and do what I did with the rest of my land....LIME, Lime, Lime. Get the PH up and stuff grows. May try to do this first. I am overdue. A trailer load would certainly give me things to do.
 
It's definitely not a wasted year from a soil building perspective unless you nuke what's growing and end up growing nothing. Those "weeds" build soil too and are usually the best ones suited for the current conditions you're trying to grow in...... especially when its poor conditions. You likely have some soil issues that need correcting.
 
I'm thinking I need to get a load of lime pretty soon....and do what I did with the rest of my land....LIME, Lime, Lime. Get the PH up and stuff grows. May try to do this first. I am overdue. A trailer load would certainly give me things to do.
Just make sure you're not liming for the sake of liming. Get a soil test to know that the lime is needed.
 
I thought I got a good start with some clover and a great stand of Rye from last fall. I planted green into the rye and later rolled the rye. Then bam.....weeds overtook these two areas......which are some of my poorest soils and I was trying to develop into new food plots (Expansion acres). I have put very little in the way of lime or fertilizer on these plots and they have not put out any decent crop in the past....just new raw land. My other stuff is going pretty well.

I am getting lots of hawkweed and grasses are overtaking the buckwheat I had planted here. The rye mulch is not preventing weeds. Time to start anew I think. I plan to flail mow....then nuke these plots and follow with some buckwheat ASAP. Then again drill rye in early September. (Just maybe I will get a load of lime and spread it late summer?....dunno). No....I do not have a soil test on these two acres.

Any other ideas? Kinda feel as I "wasted" a year here.....was looking promising......then boom. Pics follow.


That's the problem I am having, explosion of weeds & grasses that compete for water & nutrients. If you don't kill 'em they build a bigger soil bank for next year.

Not all weeds are good. 😠
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Just make sure you're not liming for the sake of liming. Get a soil test to know that the lime is needed.
Growing up a farmer and doing crops, I think people over lime or lime when they really don't need to. People lime because some outdoor writer said you have to lime, I don't mean to ruffle feathers just my opinion.
 
Growing up a farmer and doing crops, I think people over lime or lime when they really don't need to. People lime because some outdoor writer said you have to lime, I don't mean to ruffle feathers just my opinion.


If it is “virgin ground” the ph is probably really close to what all the land was around it, before it was amended. If there was never line on it, or if it was woods, you can pretty much follow the us ag chart, it is rather accurate.

When I was farming, soil test and liming was done seldomly after the grounds first few treatments. Once you got the soils in the sweet spot, you knew from the other soils how much, and how often you would need to add for maintenance lime. For me, it was 500 pounds per 5 years. But we would do it about every 10 years. But I am in the Midwest, and had really good soils.
 
I see clover in there. I’d mow this summer.
 
If it is “virgin ground” the ph is probably really close to what all the land was around it, before it was amended. If there was never line on it, or if it was woods, you can pretty much follow the us ag chart, it is rather accurate.

When I was farming, soil test and liming was done seldomly after the grounds first few treatments. Once you got the soils in the sweet spot, you knew from the other soils how much, and how often you would need to add for maintenance lime. For me, it was 500 pounds per 5 years. But we would do it about every 10 years. But I am in the Midwest, and had really good soils.

I got to agree, and foggy knows what the pH was on that type of ground when he started.

A soil test would be good, but foggy knows he needs lime.


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Foggy, I remember Bob Hunt telling me that he grew some great red clover on light soil about 25 miles west of you. He felt the key was sulfur.

I have a few spots where I tried for foodplots and have just given up on them. It is not worth the effort in very light soil.

As you know, I plant very few foodplots anymore. Just not my thing.


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I see clover in there. I’d mow this summer.Yep
I got to agree, and foggy knows what the pH was on that type of ground when he started.

A soil test would be good, but foggy knows he needs lime.


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Yep. It's gonna be in the low 4's to 5. Great for weeds.....not so much for what I want. I have measured some nearby ground in the. past.....so.....it is what it is.

Edit: Yep....Bob Hunt stressed the importance of sulfur to me as well. I have spread. some in the past.....I feel it really helped. It smells like a book of matches....lol. Kept thinking a spark would ignite my spreader. ;). If I buy fertilizer from the local feed store....they can add sulfur to the fertile.....and I do that.
 
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I see clover in there. I’d mow this summer.
I did mow another section of a plot that was overtaken with weeds....and spayed it with cleth about ten days ago. Rained since then.. Then, Just yesterday......I had a look and that plot appeared to be coming around quite nicely. I may give that a shot on the lands said above here. Worth a try.
 
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