planting in drought??

[paoharcher]

here in my part of pa. we are suffering a major drought,its hard to get excited about planting with these conditions.its always nice to plant right before a rain but there is no rain in the forecast except hit and miss thunderstorms,five miles up the road last evening they got good rain and we were supposed to but nothing.so im doing WR,oats,GHR,PTT and DER and they are calling for a slight chance of storms on wednesday,should i get it done tomorrow evening or wait for a better chance of rain? how late is too late to plant? im worried also that it gets a shot of rain then nothing for days or maybe weeks.any thoughts?? thanks!!!

 

[Peplin Creek]

If the forecast is looking good for Wednesday go ahead and get it in the ground. You don't need a lot of rain to get things germinating and then you probably have week to 14 days where it will be fine without rain until you need more.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

It for sure wont grow sitting in the bag!

 

[bueller]

Save the rape and turnips. Plant the rye, oats, and radishes if you wish.

 

[chummer]

I struck out big time this year. I planted everything end of July. I got good rain day after I planted then nothing for three weeks. Everything but WR is toast. I think you just have to roll the dice. I will be planting again this weekend to fill in the holes, clover, oats and more WR. Brassicas are to late for my area but I might throw a couple pounds in to try.

 

[yoderjac]

here in my part of pa. we are suffering a major drought,its hard to get excited about planting with these conditions.its always nice to plant right before a rain but there is no rain in the forecast except hit and miss thunderstorms,five miles up the road last evening they got good rain and we were supposed to but nothing.so im doing WR,oats,GHR,PTT and DER and they are calling for a slight chance of storms on wednesday,should i get it done tomorrow evening or wait for a better chance of rain? how late is too late to plant? im worried also that it gets a shot of rain then nothing for days or maybe weeks.any thoughts?? thanks!!!

One thing that can be helpful is a no-till drill. One of the things that tillage does is allows soil to dry out. Using a no-till drill tends to conserve the moisture you do have. We get fairly reliable rain in the spring and fall in my area but summers can be hot and dry. I got a little used Kasco no-till Versadrill a while back. I mostly use it for drilling beans and corn in the spring, but there have been a few cases when I used it for fall when we have had a dry spell.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[H20fwler]

We went through an extremely dry June through July also. I planted third week of July here, got a couple tenths of rain and about 10% of the sugar beets and turnips came up. Then last week we had some really good rain and the rest popped right up.

 

[Tap]

One thing that can be helpful is a no-till drill. One of the things that tillage does is allows soil to dry out. Using a no-till drill tends to conserve the moisture you do have. We get fairly reliable rain in the spring and fall in my area but summers can be hot and dry. I got a little used Kasco no-till Versadrill a while back. I mostly use it for drilling beans and corn in the spring, but there have been a few cases when I used it for fall when we have had a dry spell.

Thanks,

Jack

What Jack said.
The more I read about tillage and soil health, the less tilling I want to do. It's amazing how fast soil dries after it's broken.
We all don't own no-till planters but we can still get fair results by spraying, broadcasting, then mowing.
Check out CnC's excellent thread "The Throw and Mow Method".

 

[yoderjac]

What Jack said.
The more I read about tillage and soil health, the less tilling I want to do. It's amazing how fast soil dries after it's broken.
We all don't own no-till planters but we can still get fair results by spraying, broadcasting, then mowing.
Check out CnC's excellent thread "The Throw and Mow Method".

Tap,

You are spot on. I'm sure you've checked out Ray the soil Guy, but for those who have not, this video is a good place to start: https://vimeo.com/channels/raythesoilguy/23850878 As you look at some of this other videos, you will see that his target is primarily large scale commercial farmers with big expensive equipment. CnC has done a fabulous job of taking the underlying principles Ray demonstrates and applying them to food plotters with small equipment.

One note of interest, we food plotters have a real advantage here because we don't harvest a crop. It allows us to smartly mix crops when appropriate because we don't need to worry about harvest. That means anything wildlife doesn't eat (or poop back) doesn't leave the field and can continue in the nutrient cycle. My inputs and associated cost have been cut back over time and my results have improved.

Then as deer managers, we can take one more step and use the native seed bank smartly with our planted seed. That was the discussion I tried to start on the evolving thread concerning thoughtful weed management: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/an-evolving-approach-to-wildilfe-management.5975/

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Buckly]

I struck out big time this year. I planted everything end of July. I got good rain day after I planted then nothing for three weeks. Everything but WR is toast. I think you just have to roll the dice. I will be planting again this weekend to fill in the holes, clover, oats and more WR. Brassicas are to late for my area but I might throw a couple pounds in to try.

It might be too late to get good brassica growth however deer love the young radish plants. They will get a few inches high and be a great attractant so I would throw some in to whatever you're planting

 

[paoharcher]

Well i planted today and we are getting a pretty descent rain right now.praise the Lord!!

 

[yoderjac]

Well i planted today and we are getting a pretty descent rain right now.praise the Lord!!

Good for you. I just did a few throw-n-mow fields early this week. They say a hurricane is coming up the cost that should bring us good rain by the weekend. I've really had some bad tractor luck this year. A couple weeks ago I was mowing with my big Kioti DK45. I made a turn and "BOOM!" the front right wheel fell off when I was making a tight turn. The axel broke. One of my partners has a small Ford 1300 that I love for small field tasks. At any rate, it was all I had. I hooked up my 55 gal Fimco boom sprayer to it and started to spray my throw-n-mow fields. Just as I finished and got back to the barn, I got off the tractor to clean the sprayer and noticed the tractor was cockeyed. One of the rear tires was shredded. I think it was old and had started to dry rot. I can't believe I didn't notice it in the field when it happened unless it gave out just as I got back to the barn. So, I was stuck with no tractor. Last week, my partner replaced the tire while I was teaching Hunter Ed. So I headed to the farm this week to work on the plant. I got the seed broadcast and had just finished mowing the fields when I smelled antifreeze and "BOOM!". I got sprayed with hot antifreeze. He lost the radiator screen for it. Enough debris had clogged the radiator fins for it to overheat. For some reason, instead of a little antifreeze coming out the overflow (which lets me know there is an issue since there is no gauge), the collar that holds the radiator cap failed. The cap with collar still attached blew completely through the access door on the hood. So, once again, we are without a tractor. I sounds like mine might be done by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[bbcoach]

Would LOVE to send you some moisture. As of today, I have received 50.23 inches of rain for the year, August graced us with 6.03 inches and Tropical Storm Hermine is projected to start September off with between 4 to 6 inches of rain Friday night into Saturday. Rain is normally a make or break commodity for our fields and food plots and for some of us it sounds as if it'll be a BUST. Corn is being harvested here so I hope all this rain doesn't cause the corn to mold in the field and drown the cotton and beans.

 

[Mahindra3016]

here in my part of pa. we are suffering a major drought,its hard to get excited about planting with these conditions.its always nice to plant right before a rain but there is no rain in the forecast except hit and miss thunderstorms,five miles up the road last evening they got good rain and we were supposed to but nothing.so im doing WR,oats,GHR,PTT and DER and they are calling for a slight chance of storms on wednesday,should i get it done tomorrow evening or wait for a better chance of rain? how late is too late to plant? im worried also that it gets a shot of rain then nothing for days or maybe weeks.any thoughts?? thanks!!!

I am in Northern Bedford county, and my hunt plot is pretty much a fail, One end of my plot that is in the shade has decent growth with radish turnip and rape, but the big open part of the plot is very spotty, we have been having just enough rain to keep it alive. I do throw and mow in a small portion in the center of the plot where it is rocky and has lots of stumps, that section is slow to germinate, but it is coming on and i look for it to surpass the rest of the plot in a few weeks unless we get more frequent rain, i got a bag a rye just waiting for a rainy day!!

 

[paoharcher]

Small world mahindra,I'm from Bedford county also

 

[Mahindra3016]

Yeah it is, I am from the New Enterprise area.

 

[yoderjac]

I grew up further north, but Bedford county was my stompin' ground for huntin' & fishin' when I was a kid.

 

[Fall's Legend]

Guys, I feel for you. Planted my fall plots last year and did not get any rain for 6 weeks, but less than 1 mile away they got over 4 inches during the same time frame. It sure challenges your faith at times. This year, I planted some 2 weeks ago and we had a 4" rainfall, but it looks like enough did not float away to have a decent plot. Planted my last 2 acres this past weekend and we are expecting rain for 3 days in a row starting tomorrow. The other plot is not even dried out yet, so it is funny how I will be dreading too much and possibly too little rain at the same time. Sure makes you appreciate the folks who do this for a living.

I was thinking of asking the USDA if they would start an insurance fund for plotters:)

 

[Tap]

All the more reason to reduce tillage and thatch destruction.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

My camp did the spray / plow / disc / harrow / culti-pack process for our corn plots, WR plot and the brassica plot. Some of our other plots we just over-seeded. We had some really bad foxtail and we sprayed gly to kill it before plowing. It was good and brown before mowing then plowing. We want to minimize tillage in the future for building better soil. How do you beat back foxtail and other weedy crap so you have a decent chance of getting good plot results ?? Spray only ??

Can you guys give a recommendation on a good brand of no-till drill ?? - no experience with one. ( would it work in stony ground ?? ) Camp members would not want a cheapy piece-of-crap that needs repairing all the time. Thanks.