Plot Pics and Updates

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I have been very active with my own plots and helping out on 2 other properties this year planting some plots.
Here are some pics of growth throughout the season.
This is my pond plot. This was meant to be straight buckwheat just for a week killer and soil builder. Its good soil 6.8 ph but is a little spotty on sunlight in some areas. I got some free beans and ended up planting about 15 lbs of buckwheat and 10 lbs of soybeans on this 1/4 acre with plans to til it under around July 15th and plant something else. I ended up leaving it standing.
We disced with the old case, smooth out with a drag, broadcast seeds, and dragged again.
Overall germ was pretty good with a few washout spots from a 3 inch overnight blaster of a rain.



I took some pics but I had a trailcam there for a bit and they can tell the story just as well.




T

This was at its peak I would guess around 8/1 when the deer found the beans.
The beans surprisingly did not get pounded on to begin with and about a month about the browsing began on the tops. Most the beans that are still there have made pods.
I decided to leave the field as is for the season and just overseed some rape and vivant forage brassicas into the field and let that fill in the gaps as the deer pounded the beans and bwheat from the top down. We again received a ton of rain and just about nothing took. I am not sure if it is worth trying again.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

"Figure 8" last season.

This is 2 circles with a bunch of trash and a pinch point at 15 yards. Roughly the 6th year on this plot and where I learned what to do and what not to do. Last year it was the cereal Lickcreek mix in oats, peas, rye, clover and a touch of radish. It did well even in drought. During the early bow season (September) I overseeded 10 lbs of rye during a rain and man did that fill it in well where the dry conditions made it look sad. We kept this field in hopes of getting a perennial clover field. I overseeded about a lb each of medium red, ladino and white dutch clover on the first of April and it filled in nicely. I was shocked to see the rye actually get 3 or 4 feet high and head out and tip over later in summer. First time using it for me.

This is June 1

Since then the traffic and browse have made it look a little sad again. Still a lot of nice clover but not the thick carpet I was hoping for.
First week of August I overseed 10 lbs of rye again and this time it just didn't take. We had a solid week of rain. Yes everyday for a week and I am not sure if it rotted out of the ground was so compacted from the record rains we got or what.

I just did another 20 lbs of rye yesterday with "normal" rains coming this weekend.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

"The Shed"
This was seeded in Ladino clover last may and this April I cleared it with a leaf blower and overseeded with again Red, Ladino and White Dutch. It is THICK!
Full sun no weird shaded spots and we have never tested it for PH because we have grown anything we want here. Unfortunately not much for a hunting spot but we are utilizing the open area anyway for fun and just a little extra food that's on our property vs. the surrounding crop fields.

We planted 2 crabs and a Wolf River on the North end of this plot and they have taken off nicely.


Early May

July 15th


We are able to mow this one and have been doing it about twice a summer to set back the broadleaves and grasses. Even with some spotty weeds its a ton of really nice clover.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

This spot is not on my property but I did it for a friend. Fallow field that we worked up pretty hard and picked rocks.
First year was again Rye, Clover, Oats, Peas and Radish. We had very little rainfall last year but it did make a decent plot and my friend shot a buck out of it in early November. His first with a bow. .
I honestly never got a look at it after we planted but the seeds went in around July 15th 2013 and this was a month later.


This year I got my first look at it April again and we overseed Red and Ladino Clover into the week spots in the clover.

June 28th we tilled a strip through the worst clover and planted a mix of PTT, DER, Daikosh Radish, Graza Radish, Kale, 7 Top Turnips and Vivant Forage Brassica.
We also tilled up the far side of the field and put in RR Corn. Someone forgot the single row push planter....me...so I tilled nice even rows about 2 inches deep and we broadcast seeds. We then dragged a chain and a small log across the plot to fill the rows in with dirt.
The corn was spotty but here are the brassicas at 30 days in between clover strips.


We came back a month later sprayed the corn with gly and fertilized the whole field with 75 lbs of 19/19/19.
Again record rains for the month of August. To our surprise , the corn shot up like crazy. 4 feet on the dry side of the slope and 7 on the low side.
This pic is clover then brassicas, clover then corn. Its 30 yards to the corn from the stand.
Corn was on day 58 of 90 with just a few tassles started. Were hoping in month it has ears everywhere but are not completely sure it will make it.

Radish looked good too.

The clover for the first 15 yards up against the woods and stand was really nice.


Brassicas. Not sure if its yellow from a ton of rian or lack of nitrogen???? Possibly just the short season crops folding up?

 

[scott44]

Nice plots! I really like that "figure 8" plot

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Its a great doe management plot. For some reason its not a big buck spot. Night time pics yes but to tip over a big guy....nope. Oddly are best bucks have come 100 yards in either direction. They are just not willing to come to that opening early.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Thanks Scott Its a neat spot as it is right on the edge of some thick cedar and major bedding area. The plot lays right up against a ridge and there is an old logging road they like to parallel the ridge at times which leads then through the plot.
Heres a view turned just a little more to the right showing about half of the other half of the 8.


These view are actually facing backwards in the stand. At night the deer come out of the cedars and blowdowns towards the plot and eventually dumping out into neighbors ag fields. There is just the right amount of just on either side of me that they cannot walk right at me and need to give me a broadside to get into the plot.

This view shows the wrap around I made in a 20 yard half circle in front of the stand. They can actually eat in the security cover in daylight without having to come all the way into the plot. It worked perfectly last year as I took a big doe who was willing to get into the strip but not stand in the "big plot".
I seeded that with 10 lbs of oats and 10 lbs of rye and tilled it in last week. It is up all over but that soil is still a very low PH and very shaded. In spring it will get a bulk dumping of lime.
You can see the stand in the middle of that dark circle before I planted.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Any opinions on the yellowing of the brassicas on my friends plot? It was the first time I put Vivant, Graza and 7 top in a mix. Just threw the kitchen sink at em basically.

 

[LessRice]

My guess on the yellow brassicas would be too much rain. I's a problem we haven't had too often this time of year. I see it on some of my fields that are a little lower and have stayed pretty damp.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Interesting. I planted some daikon radish in the garden. They are huge but some are hollow and gross inside

 

[tooln]

Looking good. I can't get my deer to eat turnips or radish's.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I have been doing some sunlight trimming on that figure 8,plot for years. The ridge runs mainly north and south with just enough of a wrinkle to put some big trees blocking light on the south end. As u go north the clover is obviously better. I have a small battle with my dad on cutting down just about any tree but I was able to do alot of trimming of branches at least and that certainly helped.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I have asked about girdling the trees that are actually in the plot but we have not done it. We have alot of big evergreen/firs that are pretty useless besides turkey roosting. They are huge and have no branches below ten feet. They are junk firewood as well. I would tip a ton of them over so something better could fill in while making instant ground clutter and thickness. He cannot handle a tree even a junker rotting on the ground. We have very different dreams for the property.

I planted 800 norway spruce and shrubs this spring so hopefully in 5 yrs is will be a much thicker woods on the ground level. The front 20 looks like a park. Nothing low and lots of big mature trees that offer no habitat or browse. The back 20 is a mess of blowndown cedars from a tornado 30 years ago. Again there is very little regeneration of the small cedars. Its his land I just try to do the best I can with it. All the plots fertilizing seed stands and trail work are my effort. Its a little generation gap as far as or thoughts but its great to be able to share some time with him out there regardless. Not everyone has that chance so I try and soak it all up while I can. Last yr I got him his first bow deer and he was like a 12 yr old again.

 

[SD51555]

I'm throwing a flag on this one...


Did you go and pull weeds before you took those pictures?

Just kidding. Those are amazing looking plots! Well done.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

No weed pulling. The brassicas in door county we sprayed with roundup at plantimg time. They are thick enough that nothing competed. The corn we tilled the crap out of the soil and came back a month later when it was about 2 feet tall and spot sprayed with gly on the weedy sections. With all the rain after and the way the corn shot up the weeds didnt have a chance.
The clover in door county on both sides of the brassicas has never been trimmed or sprayed. Its got some ragweed issues but its not dominating the plot so we called it good enough.

The 2 clover plots....shack and figure 8 we are able to cut twice a summer with and old sickle cutter. Keeps them clean enough for me.

The beans and buckwheat plot was sprayed lightly with gly after i tilled and seeded it. There are some weeds but again not enough to get me worked up.

 

[SD51555]

That's my favorite kind of mower for precision work.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

It works well for us. My dad will cut our small clover plots in just a few minutes. He also uses it to keep the 3/4 mile long easement clean and not let any small trees or junk grow up in the roadway. The 3 plots on my land are all 1/4 acre so they cut quickly. . The one in door county is 1/3 acre, and the 15 yr old set a side we ripped up in Iola is almost 2 acres. 1/2 acre of corn that really didnt do well at all. 1/2 acre of brassicas that are doing fine and 1 acre of clover, winter rye and radish. No oats or peas becuase it ended up being a big of a no til. I will add pics of that when I get some more as I dont get there often.

 

[SD51555]

I like a sickle mower because you don't drive over what you're mowing. It gives an OCD guy like me a feeling of perfection.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I get it. Honestly that one clover pic it ticks me off everytime the 4 wheeler goes through there...but it bounces right back everytime. I do try to get things as perfect as possible in preperation. If I half ass the prep I get a half ass plot. Know your soil and what can grow in that PH level and amount of sun and plotting is easy. Praying for rain or no more rain is the wildcard we cant control unfortunately.