Planting next weekend -still no rain

[Someday isle]

I had planned all summer for a food plot planting weekend over the Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately we’ve had heat indexes into the 110s the last week or so and not enough rain to do anything. So, I didn’t plant this weekend or do any other work either. Next weekend is September 7th and 8th - and while there’s no rain in the long range forecast I think I’m planting regardless. I’ll disc, seed my cereal grains, cultipack, then seed the clover and radish seeds over the top - maybe cultipack it again just to hopefully bury the cereal grains and let them sit until we do get a rain. I feel like I’m almost at a now or never timing since our first frost date is usually October 15th.

I basically follow the lickcreek mix recommendations although instead of the winter peas I’m adding winter wheat instead. It’ll be Rye, Oats, Wheat, clover, and peas this year. I’ve got a few clover strips hanging In There in spite of the heat so hopefully there’s at least something there to eat if we don’t get any rain soon. I think I’ll grab and extra couple bags of rye in case I need to over seed later if there’s a complete failure.

 

[356]

I am in the same boat (and same state). My August plots are not doing well as it rained about after planting on August 11, but since then we've had no measurable rainfall. I too planning on planting next weekend (I may take Friday off) to put in my last two plots. I may drill a forage oat/cereal rye mix into the food plots that are failing.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I had planned all summer for a food plot planting weekend over the Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately we’ve had heat indexes into the 110s the last week or so and not enough rain to do anything. So, I didn’t plant this weekend or do any other work either. Next weekend is September 7th and 8th - and while there’s no rain in the long range forecast I think I’m planting regardless. I’ll disc, seed my cereal grains, cultipack, then seed the clover and radish seeds over the top - maybe cultipack it again just to hopefully bury the cereal grains and let them sit until we do get a rain. I feel like I’m almost at a now or never timing since our first frost date is usually October 15th.

I basically follow the lickcreek mix recommendations although instead of the winter peas I’m adding winter wheat instead. It’ll be Rye, Oats, Wheat, clover, and peas this year. I’ve got a few clover strips hanging In There in spite of the heat so hopefully there’s at least something there to eat if we don’t get any rain soon. I think I’ll grab and extra couple bags of rye in case I need to over seed later if there’s a complete failure.

Probably best to get the small seed in the ground but you have plenty of time for cereals.


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[Bill]

I planted brassicas in July and probably had enough rain to germinate them and then have them die on the vine. None showing on the camera I have nearby. September cereal grains again.....

 

[swat1018]

I'd throw the radish down before you cultipack. They do better deeper than the turnips.

 

[Someday isle]

I planted brassicas in July and probably had enough rain to germinate them and then have them die on the vine. None showing on the camera I have nearby. September cereal grains again.....

Other than radishes mixed in with my cereal grains I’ve never had much luck with brassicas. It seems every time I plant them we get rain and then a month of heat and no more rain. My visions of a tall, full, brassica plants end up doing nothing - but silly me, I keep trying. Maybe it’s just the Missouri weather isn’t conducive to growing good brassica plots or my timing is just always bad. This year I expanded my plots so I’ve got about 3 acres of total plots now. Next year I’m going to take a more serious approach to a warm season plot system and maybe that’ll help with a brassica planting.

 

[Someday isle]

Well I got everything planted today. I have three acres of plots now. I had a forestry mulcher come out this summer and expand them. There was about an acre and half before. I just have a compact tractor with four foot implements (Kubota b2601) so three acres was more than enough work for one day.

I did 150 lbs per acre of cereal grains, equal parts Rye, oats, and wheat, 4 lbs per acre of GHFR, and a mix of medium red , Ladino, and Durana clover at 7 lbs per acre.

I disced, sowed the cereal grains, cultipacked, sowed the radish and clover and called it a day - we’ve got a 53% percent chance of rain next Friday - of course it was 60% yesterday until they called it off.

Hopefully cultipacking it will keep most of it viable until we get some rain. The turkeys and crows will get the rest I guess.

Definitely the conditions right now are not conducive to plotting but it kind of felt like now or never - I did buy an hold onto an extra 100 pounds of rye to throw out in front of a real strong chance of rain.

 

[Someday isle]

FINALLY!
We’ve had a couple different rains move through Missouri since I planted but we just missed in our location each time. We had. Great rain come through Saturday and it slid just north of our property. With rain in the forecast again I went out yesterday and broadcast 100 pounds of rye over the existing seed. Hopefully a combination of that and whatever viable seed was still there will save most of the plots. We got an inch of rain today so yesterday’s fortunate timing appears to have worked out. We’ve got more rain forecast for later in the week too.

 

[Someday isle]

It’s been two weeks since we got our rain and I couldn’t be more happy with the results. The pictures below are of the newer area that was cleared by the forestry mulcher this year. Our property is 36 acres and there are now about 3 acres of food plots. I harvested a nice little forkhorn last weekend. It was a quartering shot, Hit him a little high and a little too far back, not a great shot, don’t know if he dropped a little causing the high shot but I did feel like I rushed it a little bit, but it still worked out. Next week is the antlerless firearms season for us so I’ll probably take a rifle next weekend since I can’t shoot a buck until the regular firearms season.

 

[TreeDaddy]

View attachment 69340View attachment 69341View attachment 69342View attachment 69343View attachment 69344View attachment 69345View attachment 69346View attachment 69347It’s been two weeks since we got our rain and I couldn’t be more happy with the results. The pictures below are of the newer area that was cleared by the forestry mulcher this year. Our property is 36 acres and there are now about 3 acres of food plots. I harvested a nice little forkhorn last weekend. It was a quartering shot, Hit him a little high and a little too far back, not a great shot, don’t know if he dropped a little causing the high shot but I did feel like I rushed it a little bit, but it still worked out. Next week is the antlerless firearms season for us so I’ll probably take a rifle next weekend since I can’t shoot a buck until the regular firearms season.

Any preparation to the ground in mulched area before planting?

bill

 

[Someday isle]

Yes! Mulching was done in June. In early July I added 800 pounds per acre of pellets end lime and disced that in. In September I added another 600 lbs of lime and 300 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer. I disced that in and broadcast my big seeds, cultipacked, and broadcast the radish and clover. Two weeks later I added the extra cereal rye. Kyle from Missouri Brush control said to expect not much to grow the first year but I think the combination of dishing it twice helped break it down a little bit and then I actually think the mulch helped retain some moisture. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much germination I ended up with. Between the discing and cultipacking I think a lot of seeds were protected from the drought, the birds, turkeys, raccoons, and squirrels.

I’ve obviously done a lot of reading about it but Kyle said the mulch adds a lot of carbon and he always recommends legumes for the first couple of years because the nitrogen it’s important to building the soil and maybe breaking down the carbon. Next spring I the rye will do its thing and the clover should take off. My plan is to in late spring get a soil test, leave some clover strips but then disc under the rye and winter wheat, amend the soil accordingly, and plant a mix of buckwheat and cowpeas. Then next fall repeat the process all over again.

I’m in east central Missouri so we’re going to have heat and drought so I think I’m going to frost seed some chicory into my clover strips and try and drought proof at least a portion of the plots while still amending the soil in the new areas.

It’s a lot of work but that’s half the fun of habitat work isn’t it!