Need some plot advice.

[trampledbyturtles]

Hope everyone is doing well.

Got a food plot I'd like a bit of advice on.

Last year had a fall mix of rye, red clover and brassica. Did well.

This spring we were blessed with some great rains. And the red clover came in thick. Late may I mowed the rye/clover in the boot stage to terminate the rye.

That has left me with a knee high stand of red clover.

Time is short with a new kid in the house.

Anyone think I can get away with leaving it as is. And maybe broadcasting some radish into it around mid Aug?

Would rather not have to go borrow a tractor and tiller and start over if possible.

Know the clover is probably loosing a bit of palatablility and protien as it gets older. And will die out quickly after the first frost. So was hoping to have something coming in behind.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Tree Spud]

With as tall as the clover is, will be hard for seed you spread to germinate. Can you mow again and then spread seed?

You can always frost seed in the spring to rejuvenate the clover.

 

[Bill]

Man that is a lot of food right now. I never have much luck broadcasting rye into clover. But often my clover is green well into October. Can you mow it?

 

[swat1018]

I usually use MRC in mixes like yours. I've never had a stand-alone plot of it. Not sure how it would react to being scalped, but that's the only way radish would have a chance.

 

[Barndog56]

That sure looks pretty.

I would broadcast radish and winter rye, and mow down on top of it. Looks like you'll have plenty of thatch.

 

[SD51555]

I've got a lot of red clover that came up from the seed bank in my YSC plot. I've been googling to try to find any intel on what's come of late summer rolling red clover. I've come up empty handed. I'm going to try it anyway. Mowing didn't do anything to slow down the clover last year. And frankly, until I mowed off the YSC and rye, I didn't even know I had red clover (and balansa). The mowing just seemed to either release what was waiting, or restart what was already growing.

I'm crossing my fingers hoping that because the plot was very legume heavy this year, that it will be a good environment for oats and jap millet to punch up through it. It might be too much biomass, and it just smothers. I really don't know what's gonna happen. I'm also going to wait until it gets cold enough and the deer get mowing it down hard enough to spread winter trit in mid October. That showed a little effectiveness last year that I'm gonna try again.

 

[birdog]

That looks pretty darn good! What other types of clover would do well in that mix?