Min-till vs no-till

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Put in my foodplot at home this year. Plan A for this year is to not hunt at home this year. Figured I would experiment a bit. Roughly 1/2 acre foodplot. Far 1/3 I lightly disced, then spread seed, then rolled in. Middle I seeded, then disced, then rolled. Closest 1/3 near some spruce and apple trees I spread seed and rolled only.

The foodplot is 3 kinds in one this past year. Right side is 5-6 year old foodplot with wheat n rye in it last year and some clover and plantain. Sprayed it well last year to fight red aramath. Some weeds, but not horrible. Middle section has dense plantain n clover, small grains didnt take well. Left 1/3 was a newer foodplot expansion. Good amount of weeds in it. Was a mowed lawn for a number of years. Mixed in 2 or 3 loads of woodchips in it last year. Everything got sprayed with 2 quarts/ acre 41% gly and 5lbs/100 gal of AMS.

Put in 100lbs of rye 40 lbs of wheat 20lbs of oats 8lbs of berseem/med red.ladino and 2lbs of brassica maix per acre. Rolled it with a lawn roller. I have a large heavy 14" cultipacker. Figured I would use the roller instead. I should represent the average compaction. The cultipacker is quite heavy and does a good job. figured show what average no-till might produce. Tire drags, rollers, and lighter cultipackers....

See what it does in thecoming months....

 

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Thinking the till then seed is going to do the best. Hoping the spray went well. A week later thing have some yellow, but not shriveled dead. Could be dormant from the lack of rain a few weeks before this past few days.

 

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I put my omega plot in next to the lawn. That got gly, wait two weeks, tilled, limed, gypsum, spread big seeds, dragged, spread small seeds, packed.

Next to it, I had the guy till just to level it out. No other prep and spread the same seed. That one is patchy and behind. The one I did proper is thick, uniform, and way ahead.


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I forgot to add I limed afterward. Bought 10 bags of barn lime in Febuary thinking I would use it at camp. Had the Gandy set too low and only used 6 bags about 6-700 lbs /acre. Used the last 4 around my 2x11 row of 2 apple trees.

After seeding and tilling, it rained like crazy. Might help the no-till section to get the seed to the very bottom. Rolled with a 24" daimeter lawn roller filled with water. Only 1 pass.

Found a woodchuck hole in the middle of the plot. Got to fill that hole up. Woodchucks OK with me, but put a hole in my yard and not the edges, we got problems. Old timer at my last town's hunting club brought his pet woodchuck to meetings.