New clover plots?

Catscratch

5 year old buck +
How are guys trying so many new clovers? Are ya adding a new plot every time you want to try the new kid on the block, or are you taking something out of rotation? If I was to open up a new spot every time I wanted to try something new I would run out of land. If I was to kill off a plot every time I wanted try try something I wouldn't have any clovers more than a year or 2 and waste some lifespan.

Where do you put it all?
 
I dont try anything new anymore. I have figured out what works at my place and I have pared down to make my job easier. As you said - it takes work to try something new - unless your last try didnt work and left you with an empty plot. All my plots have lush stands of wheat and durana clover and I dang sure aint killing it out to see if something else might work as good. But - I have had some failures that left empty plots in the past - ripe for trying something new. I am at the point in my food plotting career I dont need anything new.
 
I’m with you on that one. Of course I just don’t have that much space. I’ve had good luck with medium red in my main harvest plots and a blend of Ladino and Kopu 2 on my logging road trails. I just don’t have the extra space to experiment and I don’t want to change what works. If I had lots of different areas to plant and a lot more acreage I’m sure I’d be tempted to experiment just for experiment’s sake though.
 
I’m the same. Been using Paul Knox’s clover blend for over 10 years it works for me. As do beans and rye. Seems like when I try something new it’s a bust.

But I do want want to try one of these throw and grow mixes that get some traction around here. sorghum, clover peas, forage beans, sunflowers, gypsum and barley... may try that around and existing plot where there are just weeds, “mostly goldenrod”
 
The clover business is a funny one. It's a weed to most on earth. Don't get tunnel vision on seed. Manage the entire system - pH, sulfur, carbon, oxygen, moisture, diversity, bugs, soil biology, and green permanence. Every living thing relies on other living things to unlock their full potential. Foster natural biological chaos and let nature duke it out.

Take a look at these pics and think about what you see. Is it a load of weeds too complex to kill without killing everything, or an nearly complete system almost exclusively full of preferred deer forage? (There's still some tweeks to be made, but I'm getting very close)

This is jap millet broadcast into medium white clover.

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Flax and chicory

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Barley and some random flowers (still getting grass in here - need higher rate of barley)

barley 2.jpg


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What got this thread going is all the "new plot seed" questions I see on various habitat forums. Seems like there is something new popping up all the time that people are asking about. We only have so much room, I was just curious as to what you guys do when you find a new seed you want to try; kill out a current field, or break open a new plot.

Great looking plots sd! I'm big on diversity...
 
I have six plots. Some of them I split so I can have more diversity. I usually keep one plot for trying new things out. Generally that means TNM large seed plants.

As far as white clover goes, If you're in the North plant Alice. If you're in the South plant Durana. Most reds are either reseeding annuals or short lived so just over seed something. I think I planted marathon but cant remember. Oasis chicory gets pounded on my place. I have found that I can keep my plots cleaner just by mowing (this year i'm going to roll instead) if I keep the chicory component higher to use up the excess N produced by the clover.
 
Finally went down to the property and took some pics on 2/9/2020.

We did try some balansa clover this year that is supposed to do well in acidic soils, and so far I am less than impressed. Will be putting the rest of it out this spring to see if it does any better in the spring/summer. Did not get any pics of the balansa, or several of the other plots but hope to this weekend. The only thing I did not do that I had planned on was to add some medium red clover.

Here is the middle plot. Durana, oats and wheat.




Back hilltop plot. Durana, oats and wheat. (was a turnip plot in 2018, heavily impacted clay)




Small old pine trial plot from 2018 that we just sprayed and lightly over seeded with Durana.




The roadside plot that has way too many rocks. Was a 2018 trial plot of Champion clover. We lightly disked the plot and over seeded with Durana, oats and wheat.


Lower road going into the lower plot. Was lucky enough to slip in on some wildlife enjoying the protein. Unfortunately I was not prepared for sausage. This was Champion, oats, wheat and rye last year and we disked it all under then seeded with Durana, oats and wheat.


Will be moving trail cams to several plots this weekend, but the ones we had on plots have pigs in them every day, and filled with deer most nights.
 
I'll continue putting in small plots of Alice/Ladino, but observing bucks crushing medium red this year in places where I seeded it large and heavy, that'll definitely be what I use going forward as single year rotations with brassicas. Medium red and maybe a little chickory (probably a couple lbs of whites also as insurance), let a few weeds grow, mow it once in late summer to make trail cam pics look nice, seems to be working here.
 
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