My first go at the “Throw and Mow “ method

[Wny Hunter]

Well I’ve been reading Alot about the “T & M” method and decided to give it a go. I was always one of the people that thought you had to disc up your spot to get good seed to soil contact. I have very few open areas (all hardwoods) , most of my spots I refer to them as “Micro food plots” ( I think they are old log dumps). I have 5 areas that range from 3k square feet to at most 5k square feet. And getting a atv discer to the plot was always a pain. 4 weeks ago I was able to get some gly down and it appeared I was able to kill most of the “weeds”. 2 weeks ago I put down the seeds and some lime, then went ahead and weed whacked it as best as I could. Once the thatch was down , I was worried about the amount of dead leaves underneath , so I tried disturbing them with the weed whacker. I Came back from the plot this weekend, and I am pretty excited . It looks like I have decent-good germination, although I’m worried about overcrowding the brassicas (I put down “Rut time tubers” Appin and Pasja Turnips,Groundhog Radishes and Chicory). I also followed your guys suggestions about getting some fert down with high N. Thanx for the info and if u guys have any suggestions, feel free to comment

 

[scott44]

Well I’ve been reading Alot about the “T & M” method and decided to give it a go. I was always one of the people that thought you had to disc up your spot to get good seed to soil contact. I have very few open areas (all hardwoods) , most of my spots I refer to them as “Micro food plots” ( I think they are old log dumps). I have 5 areas that range from 3k square feet to at most 5k square feet. And getting a atv discer to the plot was always a pain. 4 weeks ago I was able to get some gly down and it appeared I was able to kill most of the “weeds”. 2 weeks ago I put down the seeds and some lime, then went ahead and weed whacked it as best as I could. Once the thatch was down , I was worried about the amount of dead leaves underneath , so I tried disturbing them with the weed whacker. I Came back from the plot this weekend, and I am pretty excited . It looks like I have decent-good germination, although I’m worried about overcrowding the brassicas (I put down “Rut time tubers” Appin and Pasja Turnips,Groundhog Radishes and Chicory). I also followed your guys suggestions about getting some fert down with high N. Thanx for the info and if u guys have any suggestions, feel free to comment

Looks good, you got a good kill on everything and plenty of thatch. It looks like you have plenty of moisture so things should start filling in pretty quick.

 

[eclipseman]

Looks good, you got a good kill on everything and plenty of thatch. It looks like you have plenty of moisture so things should start filling in pretty quick.

Too hard to tell if they are over crowded yet. Yes brassica can choke themselves out and die, but it takes a good bit of crowding for that too happen. Typically you just end up with smaller/stunted plants which guess what...will still attract deer! I think your problem will be how fast the plots could possibly be wiped out by the deer. 90% of deer will not touch brassica until they have a good frost which turns them from being bitter to sweet (some deer are an exception to the rule, my deer eat them as soon as they are about 8inches tall). Once you get a hard frost, a small deer heard could wipe those plots out in a day or two which for those two days would be great hunting but then you have nothing for the rest of the season. It is recommended to plant 1/2-1 full acre of brassica to assure it will not be wiped out quickly as an FYI. For the future I would highly suggest you do a perennial clover instead. They handle browsing pressure and grow back.

 

[Wny Hunter]

Thanx. I agree 100% about the potential for deer to wipe them out pretty quickly . Next fall I plan on doing a planting of clover in that spot.