Small Plot seeding advice for a 4 grain mix

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Straight to the point here.
Will this be enough to fill up a 1/4 acre field or will it be a little thin?

5 lb of oats
5 lbs of winter rye
5 lbs of wheat
5 lbs of winter peas
1 lb of clover (ladino, white dutch, alsike and one more I cant remember)
1 lb of mostly radish with a little blend of like 6 brassicas that I have on hand.


Details......
So I got wrangled into putting a plot for a friend this weekend. I havent even seen the place yet but its open field next to a main farm field but slightly hidden. 1/4 acre is what we are going for.

I get all my seeds in Green Bay and they have 5 lb bags of a pretty even mix of oats, winter peas, winter rye and wheat for sale now. Really convenient.
Instead of having to mess around with 50 lb bags of each which leaves me with a lot of leftover and a big bill I would like to just pick up a few of these pre mixed bags for this spot.

I know what the seeding rates are on there own and have have some nice plots in the LC grain mix with some radish and clover in there as a kicker.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Shaft]

This is what the LC mix calls for per acre. I would think your a little light based off of this.
Winter rye 50-80#'s per acre (56#'s = a bushel)
Spring oats 50-120#'s per acre (32#'s = a bushel)
Frostmaster Winter Peas or 4010/6040 Forage peas 20-80#'s per acre

Red Clover 8-12#'s per acre or white clover at 6#'s per acre (or 20-40 pounds hairy vetch and 20-30#'s crimson clover on sandy soils)
Groundhog Forage Radish 5#'s per acre

 

[wiscwhip]

I would say on 1/4 acre you could go 3 times that amount on the whole ball of wax and not have too much seed.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

10/4 Thanks fellas. Now you got me wondering if i went light on one of my own plots last night. I did everything i put in this post plus 5 more lbs of peas. 2.5 lbs of clover 1 lb of chicory and about 2 lbs of brassicas. Added 10 more lbs of rye as well. I always overseed a 50 of rye there around opening day though.

 

[wiscwhip]

10/4 Thanks fellas. Now you got me wondering if i went light on one of my own plots last night. I did everything i put in this post plus 5 more lbs of peas. 2.5 lbs of clover 1 lb of chicory and about 2 lbs of brassicas. Added 10 more lbs of rye as well. I always overseed a 50 of rye there around opening day though.

That ^^^ should be fine. It may start out sparse, but the 50lbs of rye will thicken it right up.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Thanks guys. I followed the LC mix pretty much to the tee when I have used it.
The issue I get with grains is the drastic variance on how much to use per acre everywhere you look.
I just took Pauls mix right down the middle of whatever he recommended.
I am going to take a look at this spot now. I think I will snap some before after and a month from now pics of what he has to work with.


I will beef up the grain poundage a lot if I got that route.
No soil test no idea on its background or what his goal is here.

Small plot where he is I am pushing for him to go straight brassicas but grains seem a little more foolproof as well.
On the fence!

 

[wiscwhip]

Without a soil test, brassicas can be a dice roll. If you are really short on N, they may struggle to produce much tonnage.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

That is why I was opting towards grains with just a sprinkle of brassicas.
I have screwed up corn, beans, brassicas......never a heave grain mix. Its too easy to get at least some decent results.

 

[bbcoach]

Bluecollar, Go light on the Purple top turnips and rape. Both of these brassicas have huge leaves and they will shade out everything you plant. Radishes on the other hand will grow straight up and have smaller leaves. Go heavier on the radishes and less on PTT and DER.

 

[mglenn005]

I think it's too light, especially if it's the only food in the area. Deer could keep that tighter than the greens on a golf course.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Good point bbcoach. I never thought of it like that.

Well i saw it tonight. Its level, good sun from 7 am to 4 pm and just off the end of a couple acre field. It shoukd be decent fertility and its grass is cut and its sprayed. Its 25 x 17 yards. I will go grain heavy light clover and some radish.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Well I did the math and its only 1/10th of an acre. So looking at that math I will make it work . I will go up a hair on certain grains. 1 lb of clover should be fine and straight radish will have to go down to about half a lb. All good it will work. I even got the green light to hunt it...perks of helping everyone with this stuff.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

So this is after a little weed wacking and some round up. I guess its getting tilled this weekend. I wont be doing that part. I am facing west in the picture and its wide open 10 acre field behind me.

Not sure what that field will be as its cut and full of manure right now. Neighbors 200 yards away have a couple acre bean field that is still green but sure to be gone in 2 months. Acrossed the road is corn.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Here is the finished product.
15 lbs of rye. I had some left over from another project so I tossed it on.
7.5 lbs oats
7.5 lbs peas
7.5 lbs wheat
1 lb of a mix of Ladino, white dutch, alsike and one more
1 lb daikon and oilseed radish
1/4 lb of rape ptt 7 top kale etc. Just enough to see if it prospers for next years options.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Really nice soil. They brought in a small tractor with a rear pto tiller. Perfect seed bed. Should go well from here if it ever rains again.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Second plot
They talked me into doing the exact same thing in the next field over as well. This was equals out to 1/10th of an acre as well but it is in a different shape. It has a small core circle with 2 long 40 yard strips running out both sides.
One side was going to struggle for sun so all I put over there was a little clover and some rye. I did not have enough seed planned out for this but I did have 1.5 lbs of a brassica mix in my truck. I spread that on the sunny side. I guess its a good test to see if we could just go straight brassicas or if they are a bust in this soil

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Three weeks later. It did not rain a drop for two weeks and only the rye and the spots that get the least sunlight germinated from heavy morning dews we are getting. It rained almost two inches 3 days before this picture nd we got .5 to 1 inch 2 nights ago. I have not seen it in person but it looks like we filled it in well.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

You can see how the area up against the woods and to the left/south are doing better. They only get a few hours of sun and soaked up the morning moisture before the sun starts cooking.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Three weeks in. We got several inches of rain this week and hot muggy conditions. The oats wheat rye and peas are booming. Clover is slow to start as always and the one pure strip of just brassicas is off to a nice start as well.

 

[wiscwhip]

Looking good BCO!