Frost Seeding Cereal Grains

[farmlegend]

In my 25 years of foodplotting, the most foolproof planting tactic I’ve ever employed has been the frostseeding of clovers. I’m talking 100% success and zero disappointments. And that’s a really good thing, because my dirt loves clover and my deer have a high preference for clover, to the point of aggressively digging through snow to eat it every damn winter(and these are the same fussy deer that will not eat any type of rape, turnip, winter pea, and are generally quite picky about some other common deer plantings). I frostseed some clover someplace, every year.

This year, I plan on doing some experiments on some recent clover plots I established on plots of winter wheat by broadcasting my seed last March. There will be plenty of exposed dirt on these plots by the time my deer get through with them this winter. Some of the seeds I will be frost seeding soon include forage collard, Boston plantain, Korean lespedeza, and Endure chicory (which is purportedly more tolerant of wettish soils than all three other varieties of chicory I’ve tried, which have not done very well).

I’d like to also throw some cereal grains down with this year’s experimental frostseed mix. Having experienced allelopathic issues with cereal rye I’ve planted coexisting with other things I’ve seeded, I’m considering using oats, wheat(a historically great performer for me when planted in the fall), or spring triticale.

I’m also interested in getting some carbon-producing plants(grains, chicory, plantain, collard, and cereals) growing in these food plots to hopefully keep my clover plot enemies at bay for a couple years, the usual culprits being coolseason grasses.

Anyone here with any experience frostseeding cereals?

 

[SD51555]

Anyone here with any experience frostseeding cereals?

I got it to work once. Every other time it did not work, less than 0.01% success.

Have you ever planted your clovers in the fall? I'm curious if anyone has seen better stand formation from frost seeding vs fall seeding with a winter cereal. I'm open to change, but that's the bar.

 

[farmlegend]

I got it to work once. Every other time it did not work, less than 0.01% success.

Have you ever planted your clovers in the fall? I'm curious if anyone has seen better stand formation from frost seeding vs fall seeding with a winter cereal. I'm open to change, but that's the bar.

Yes indeed. Always along with wheat or oats. Success was usually pretty good.

Frostseeding into wheat(usually in March or early April in my area) has performed better, all in all. My #1 clover of choice these days is Alice White that I've been buying from Welter, it outperforms the various varieties of ladinos I used to go with. Wetter spots, alsike - I've literally spread alsike seed on iced-over spots that were ponded when the ice melted and still had pretty good stands of it.

Granted, it may not happen that often, but fall plantings are vulnerable to occurring concurrent with a year of 50 year August-September drought (like 2024 at my place).

I'm a fan of plain old medium red as well.

 

[bigboreblr]

done a few times, none successful. Try it as late as you can. Also done it with tillage, no luck there either.

Some seeds dont like frosts in their early growth life. Even some clovers are like that.

 

[farmlegend]

done a few times, none successful. Try it as late as you can. Also done it with tillage, no luck there either.

Some seeds dont like frosts in their early growth life. Even some clovers are like that.

I can believe it. Alfalfa didn't do so well the times I tried frostseeding it. If I throw some cereals down, I'll wait until April. I believe Kroll mentioned frostseeding oats at a property he helped manage in my state. I may try some of it, though every time I planted oats conventionally in the spring they got a bad case of rust.

All the clovers I've frostseeded have been boffo. In my decades of foodplotting, I've had countless things go wrong - and I'd have to say(at the risk of jinxing myself) that frostseeding clover is the only tactic that has never failed me. It just seems to work well on my dirt, YMMV.