Newbie - Recommendations!
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Both he and mom are doing great! Thank you so much for asking.
Well I may have let enthusiasm overcome sound reasoning today. Got the boom sprayer out and sprayed down the big food plot in preparation for the expansion. It wasn’t nearly fully greened up but I’m sure I knocked down a bit of the early grasses. My logic was to kick it down once early so I can get a second spray in sooner rather than later & get seed in the ground this spring. I was half tempted to throw after the first spray today, but I’m afraid there’s too much germination under the thatch that hasn’t poked through yet and therefore dodged the first spraying.
I may end up with a weedy mess, I’m not sure. I suppose time will tell. In hindsight, this field probably could have been frost seeded & I would’ve had decent results for half the time and effort.
Below are a few photos before the first spraying. As always, I’m happy to hear critical feedback to improve.
I may end up with a weedy mess, I’m not sure. I suppose time will tell. In hindsight, this field probably could have been frost seeded & I would’ve had decent results for half the time and effort.
Below are a few photos before the first spraying. As always, I’m happy to hear critical feedback to improve.
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First food plot in for the year. This area is about 1.5 acre of overgrown grass. Before winter it was 5-6ft tall. Good exposure to soil underneath. Got it seeded, sprayed, and rolled today. Got a decent mat of thatch over the seeds with rain on the forecast for tomorrow. This one is primarily a mix of aslike, berseem, jumbo ladino, persist red, medium red, balsana clovers, and forage chicory. I also tossed in about 4lbs of YSC and a bag of sunflower seeds to hopefully get some height as this field edge is exposed to my garage. Planted Norway spruce along the edge but will be several years until that is an effective screen. I rolled and sprayed gly at the same time, I’m not sure how effective my kill will be but this field comes back year after year in just grasses so even if I didn’t get a great kill I’m confident a dose of cleth in a few weeks will take care of the remaining grasses.
A few photos attached below. Like I said, this was standing grass 5-6+ft in height most everywhere. The ol Honda rancher got a good workout pulling a ~500lb roller up and down the grade in soft soil.
A few photos attached below. Like I said, this was standing grass 5-6+ft in height most everywhere. The ol Honda rancher got a good workout pulling a ~500lb roller up and down the grade in soft soil.
That was one pass with the roller while I was spraying. I got a new roller that’s 950lbs when filled but didn’t fill it completely for fear that I’d fry my quad. It was prob 500lb roll. I wanted to hit it again once more but there was enough moisture in the ground I was worried it’d inhibit the gly spray. It was mucky in areas. If I get a decent kill I’ll leave it be, I think the rain tomorrow will knock it down further. If not, I’ll spray/roll once more when the weather is conducive.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Congrats on the new kid!
I tried something a little different this year at camp. I spread seed, then used my weighted tire drag in one direction. Then went the oppostie direction. Theory is to flip that dead stuff over to get the seed in lower. Seemed to work good. PRobably used 80lbs/acre of rye and 8-10 lbs /acre of clover seed. Seemed to work pretty good.
Your probably ok this time of year, but working an air cooled motor hard in low speed is torture on the motor. Pick up an electric fan up front. Looks like a recon. I had a 2004 and a 2020. Lubricants need a certain velocity to make an oil wedge. Working an ATV diff hard in low speeds is rough on that too. Consider annual oil changes. it's ok to use regular car diff oil of the same weight. Those diff's take like 3-10oz of oil. Cheap insurance.
No till is considered light tillage up to 30% soil disruption in the AG world. That mower and tractor up?Could spray, wait a few days, spread seed them mow low, then roll.
Turning up the soil will help seed contact for sure. That i a good bit of thatch. I haven't had good luck with that much thatch. Turning us soil will wake up a bunch of old seeds. I'd be tempted to say yes to a single pass of that 12ft disc. You can try this experiemnt without tillage, but if you don't get good results, turn to doing that in the fall. Definitely give it 2 sprays. Definietly spray 2-3 week of good warm weather after tilling it. IF you spray in the spring, the soil may not be warm enough to get warm season stuff to be out and germination. Running that roller after tillage might be too much for that honda 250 too.
I did not play too much with the recons in that regard. I also have a 420cc liquid cooled 4x4 rancher. I have the same roller, although mine is dented up pretty good from heavy clay with rocks in it.
Controlled burn would be awesome. Never did one myself. NY isn't a fun state in that regard.
I tried something a little different this year at camp. I spread seed, then used my weighted tire drag in one direction. Then went the oppostie direction. Theory is to flip that dead stuff over to get the seed in lower. Seemed to work good. PRobably used 80lbs/acre of rye and 8-10 lbs /acre of clover seed. Seemed to work pretty good.
Your probably ok this time of year, but working an air cooled motor hard in low speed is torture on the motor. Pick up an electric fan up front. Looks like a recon. I had a 2004 and a 2020. Lubricants need a certain velocity to make an oil wedge. Working an ATV diff hard in low speeds is rough on that too. Consider annual oil changes. it's ok to use regular car diff oil of the same weight. Those diff's take like 3-10oz of oil. Cheap insurance.
No till is considered light tillage up to 30% soil disruption in the AG world. That mower and tractor up?Could spray, wait a few days, spread seed them mow low, then roll.
Turning up the soil will help seed contact for sure. That i a good bit of thatch. I haven't had good luck with that much thatch. Turning us soil will wake up a bunch of old seeds. I'd be tempted to say yes to a single pass of that 12ft disc. You can try this experiemnt without tillage, but if you don't get good results, turn to doing that in the fall. Definitely give it 2 sprays. Definietly spray 2-3 week of good warm weather after tilling it. IF you spray in the spring, the soil may not be warm enough to get warm season stuff to be out and germination. Running that roller after tillage might be too much for that honda 250 too.
I did not play too much with the recons in that regard. I also have a 420cc liquid cooled 4x4 rancher. I have the same roller, although mine is dented up pretty good from heavy clay with rocks in it.
Controlled burn would be awesome. Never did one myself. NY isn't a fun state in that regard.
All very good points, thank you!
The ATV is a 420 rancher, I only had the roller partially filled (in future likely even less filled) but thank you for the advice. I knew it would be work for the ol quad but I’ll def keep up on the fluids.
I’m using this little 1.5acre area as an experiment to try just seed, spray, roll. I won’t be too upset or surprised if it doesn’t work but I wanted to give it a try. The thatch is thick in some areas but thinner in others. A portion was mowed a little and has little thatch at all. Some areas are a little wetter and some dry. Some gets full sun where others is partially shaded. There’s a good variety of seed spread on the plot and good bit of variability of the ground itself so I’m treating it as a bit of an experiment to see what works here (if anything at all).
I’m confident in getting seed/soil contact though because under that thatch is exposed dirt, the grasses got so tall there is essentially 0 growth under.
My main plot is 3 acres and going to go by the book on that one to hopefully get a predictable outcome but I’m looking forward to seeing how this little one turns out.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
IF you get some 1/2" PVC pipe and put rebar iniside of it, you can extend that sprayer so it goes behind the roller. 2 birds one stone.
MAke a good effort this year to ID the grass/grasses. Might be able to do a late summer clethodim spray to kill the grass, but keep clover n broadleaves alive. Alot of sedges out there that look like grass. Clethodim does nothing to them.
MAke a good effort this year to ID the grass/grasses. Might be able to do a late summer clethodim spray to kill the grass, but keep clover n broadleaves alive. Alot of sedges out there that look like grass. Clethodim does nothing to them.
Will do. Thank you!
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Dont be in a huge hurry to get a cultipacker. That roller does a pretty decent job. Especially if you have that much cover for the seed to stay moist.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
I forgot how many acres you have. I got 8 at home. I have been debating whether 40 trees is too many. Thinking I'll have a ground mess to deal with. 1/2 mile away used to be a 100+ acre apple orchard. Dozer has been knocking them down, both new and old ones. Probably by vacation homes for bankers n lawyers in NYC soon. So, I might get some more 4 legged mouths to feed.
30-06 is great one to have. Growth has been great at camp. You're plots are much bigger than mine at camp. However, been limiting myself to 8 trees per location. I'm not in control of the loggers, so spreading them out may help them survive long term.
Local big box home improvement stores have been having sales on mulch (5) 2 cubic foot bags for $10 at lowes. I got voles pretty bad so I put about 5 gallons of driveway stone around the tree between 1 and 2 inch thick. Then pour a bag of the mulch past the stone in a bigger circle. I also drill a 3/16" or 1/4" hole in a 5 gallon bucket to slow water them. Made a good difference, especially when you're limited on how much water you can get to them. Drill from the inside of the bucket out, so grass n stuff doesn't get as stuck in the hole. They love a scoop of miracle grow per 5 gallons too like every 2 weeks or so.
Thank you for the tips! It's a shame to hear they're bulldozing the orchard.
I've got 50 acres. My lower food plot is about 4 acres but is pretty close to my house, it is separated by a pond and small section of woods, but geographically close. I'm converting the corner of the field closest to my house to small orchard to provide some food/variety but also will offer a little more buffer zone between the field and the house. I'll let it grow up with NWSG and maybe fell a few tree tops along the edge to soften it up some. I'm doing some designing and selective cutting to improve some corridors/funnels to and from areas with better cover for bedding to food sources. My property isn't particularly large, and it is rather long and skinny, AND my house is in the middle(ish) of the property. So, I am trying to be mindful about the the design choices I make and providing dedicated locations for cover/bedding, feeding, and comfortable corridors between. I have no delusions that I am going to keep deer on my property, but I want to make it so they spend as much time on it as possible. Plus I think developing a thoughtful design and going out and trying to put it into action is a whole lot of fun.
I checked on the the field I sprayed/seed and rolled next to my driveway as a little trial run and was happy to see that I've got some seedlings poking through the thatch. Might hit the field with a round of cleth to kill off some of the grasses that dodged the first spraying but I'm hopeful this acre will turn out okay. I think it is showing some promise.
