Dumb Question about planting in strips

[txbowman12]

Spring planting is only about 60 days away for those of us down south. My spring plots are always extremely hit or miss, but have had good luck with the green cover seed summer browse pressure blends. It has a tendency to create a jungle of cover and deer only really use the edges. In a perfect world I'd use a no-till seeder to create nice rows, but want to have more gaps in the planting that I fill with kobe lespedeza and buckwheat.

My initial thought was mow strip boundaries before broadcasting, then crimp down after. Wanted to see if there were other easier ways to handle. I broadcast with a shoulder bag, so easy to lose your way in the wheat and rye without some visual guide.

Anybody have a better / easier idea? Usually pretty constrained on time when planting, so open to any ideas.

 

[Brokenbear]

Well i am not sure exactly what all you are asking .. I have to make a large assumption that your basic equipment is a mower of some sort and a hand seeder ??
How large is your plot(s) and it's shape/dimensions
What is around your plots? woods?, CRP ground? Row crops?
Do you have a tractor?
Do you have a crimper?

You confused me when you talked of the Green cover summer blend then lead into losing your way thru the wheat and rye ??
So here is a poke in the dark:
On the assumption that your plot presently has some sort of cover currently in place I would take a tractor, side by side or 4 wheeler and grid it in 20 foot wide separation of each set of tracks
Then I would spray the rows you wish to plant Kobe and Buckwheat in with 4% roundup ..mark the end in between each tire track row so sprayed with a spray can of bright paint
Kill it now ..kill it again if the first kill is not complete the day before you wish to seed THEN mow only the strips that have roundup, Kobe and Buckwheat
The other areas you intend to use green cover on of course seed it first then crimp it when appropriate but I highly recommend a serious cutipacker be run through ALL broadcast seed areas
Broadcasting into serious biomass is very iffy and at least the heavy cultipaction will get you much greater seed to soil contact ..

Good luck and sorry if I missed your question

Bear

 

[txbowman12]

Well i am not sure exactly what all you are asking .. I have to make a large assumption that your basic equipment is a mower of some sort and a hand seeder ??
How large is your plot(s) and it's shape/dimensions
What is around your plots? woods?, CRP ground? Row crops?
Do you have a tractor?
Do you have a crimper?

You confused me when you talked of the Green cover summer blend then lead into losing your way thru the wheat and rye ??
So here is a poke in the dark:
On the assumption that your plot presently has some sort of cover currently in place I would take a tractor, side by side or 4 wheeler and grid it in 20 foot wide separation of each set of tracks
Then I would spray the rows you wish to plant Kobe and Buckwheat in with 4% roundup ..mark the end in between each tire track row so sprayed with a spray can of bright paint
Kill it now ..kill it again if the first kill is not complete the day before you wish to seed THEN mow only the strips that have roundup, Kobe and Buckwheat
The other areas you intend to use green cover on of course seed it first then crimp it when appropriate but I highly recommend a serious cutipacker be run through ALL broadcast seed areas
Broadcasting into serious biomass is very iffy and at least the heavy cultipaction will get you much greater seed to soil contact ..

Good luck and sorry if I missed your question

Bear

Sorry, shouldn't type and think at the same time, I'm already challenged doing them one at a time!

I have a sxs with a 4ft brush hog, and the packermaxx roller crimper. I've used the crimper before with great success, but I seeded prior to crimping, and everything got fairly mixed.

Planting two areas this spring, one has cereal grains in it currently, so it should crimp down well. The other area is not planted currently (I know spring food plots in new areas are low success, but will be out there anyway so might as well try). Will likely spray one and crimp the other. Around here spring plots are a crap shoot anyway, just want to work on creating better edges where I can.

Running the side by side through should work really well, that's the simple solution I had not thought of. Thanks!

Edit to add. Everything will be cultipacked. Someone on here said a cultipacker is the best tool they have for seed germination and I couldn't agree more.

 

[bigboreblr]

I use a tow behind mower with my ATV. I have a 12v spreader I use to spread seed. Sometimes while mowing, sometimes just by itself.

Im not that familiar with the blend of seed. How much seed per acre? Some spreaders can't go that low. Lerge seed throw farther than small ones. Some seeds like clover with grains waren't too horrible. But, fluffy grass seeds mixed in with harder seeds can effect the spread even more.

 

[bigboreblr]

Frogot to mention, some folks on here have had more success with cultipacking, then mowing.

I am using a buyer atvs100 spreader. Works ok, motor doesn't like lime or fertilizer. Use it for seed only now. Not many 12v spreaders last long on electric motor brush unfriendly materials, like lime, fertilizer, salt, etc...