Seeding rate

[Mahindra3016]

Asking for a friend that wants to plant a spring/ summer foodplot, I suggested buckwheat, sunflowers and peas, since I have had good luck with that, I was never real precise about my seeding rates in my small 1/4 acre plots since brouse pressure was high. Looking for suggested seeding rates for a 1 acre plot.


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[yoderjac]

Buckwheat germinates and grows quickly and can smother companion crops if seeded to heavily. I'd keep the buckwheat component around 10 lbs/ac and no more than 15. Normal sunflower rates are in the ball park of 3 to 4 lbs/ac for a monoculture. However, since cowpeas will tend to climb the stocks the sunflowers won't tend to shade them out. Sunflowers are a candy crop for deer (not that cowpeas aren't). Sunflowers can easily be killed if nipped of before they are established. So, if you have significant deer pressure you may want to go with the monoculture seeding rate assuming losses. It is just something you will need to get a feel for. The nominal rate for a monoculture of cowpeas is 40-50 lbs/ac. I'd probably cut this back to 25-30 lbs/ac in this mix.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[scott44]

Asking for a friend that wants to plant a spring/ summer foodplot, I suggested buckwheat, sunflowers and peas, since I have had good luck with that, I was never real precise about my seeding rates in my small 1/4 acre plots since brouse pressure was high. Looking for suggested seeding rates for a 1 acre plot.


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I'd say 15-20 lbs of each of the 3 you mentioned, it might be high on the sunflowers depending what kind you get. I use the black oil sunflower seed and just use the birdseed, I usually go heavy on the sunflowers because they don't last long.

 

[Tap]

Asking for a friend that wants to plant a spring/ summer foodplot, I suggested buckwheat, sunflowers and peas, since I have had good luck with that, I was never real precise about my seeding rates in my small 1/4 acre plots since brouse pressure was high. Looking for suggested seeding rates for a 1 acre plot.


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I just did a quick calculation on Green Cover Seed SmartMix. I had to guess a few of your criteria, but here's what the calculator came up with (I used my SW Pa zip code).

For 1 acre...
25 lbs of Iron & Clay Cowpeas (you didn't say what variety of pea you wanted)
4.17 lbs of Black Oil Sunflower
15 lbs of Buckwheat

Those numbers could change slightly if you plug-in different goals that you'd like to obtain. I plugged-in "Supplemental grazing", "Increase organic matter", and "Weed suppression". I also guessed at your planting/termination dates, planting method, and follow-up crop. SmartMix uses those criteria to calculate the mix.

I've posted about SmartMix Calculator several times in the past. It's a great tool for formulating plots.
Try it out...
https://smartmix.greencoverseed.com

 

[yoderjac]

I just did a quick calculation on Green Cover Seed SmartMix. I had to guess a few of your criteria, but here's what the calculator came up with (I used my SW Pa zip code).

For 1 acre...
25 lbs of Iron & Clay Cowpeas (you didn't say what variety of pea you wanted)
4.17 lbs of Black Oil Sunflower
15 lbs of Buckwheat

Those numbers could change slightly if you plug-in different goals that you'd like to obtain. I plugged-in "Supplemental grazing", "Increase organic matter", and "Weed suppression". I also guessed at your planting/termination dates, planting method, and follow-up crop. SmartMix uses those criteria to calculate the mix.

I've posted about SmartMix Calculator several times in the past. It's a great tool for formulating plots.
Try it out...
https://smartmix.greencoverseed.com

Not too far off from my suggestion....

 

[Tap]

Not too far off from my suggestion....

I wasn't disputing your numbers. I was just adding a little info to the OP's question.

 

[yoderjac]

I wasn't disputing your numbers. I was just adding a little info to the OP's question.

I appreciate the addition. There is a lot of variation in recommended rates in mixes. I was just surprised how close the number were with your calculator.

 

[WTNUT]

I saw this thread at breakfast and rather than speculate, I waited until I could look at my notebook. Here is something that works really really well for me. 6#s acre of WGS, 35# per acre of beans, 6# per acre of sunflower seeds, and 5# per acre of buckwheat.

I drill mine as a mix in a Great Plains no till drill, but on tilled/disc land and a broadcast seeder with a final drag, I suspect the results would be the same. As a note and as someone said above, I don’t think it matters how many sunflowers you plant. The deer destroy them early. I think one year I planted 50 acres in this mix and had three sun flowers make it. In lower deer density areas you might have beans climb sunflowers - not here.


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[WTNUT]

P.S. That mix was given to me by DGallow from another forum and it is a good one. I added 50 pounds per acre of triple 19.


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