Spray and Pray Update

[SD51555]

Well,

The first spray and pray didn't take. We didn't find a single rye plant or radish growing. So...

Here's what it looked like when we came back.


Then we decided to burn and try again.


We're gonna lime tomorrow and reseed. We were able to clean up most of the trash out there. Come spring, we'll be able to get in there with a 4 wheeler and harrow at least. We got a trail blazed in there. Now we just have to widen it out a little further and we can get in there with a truck and really work it over.

 

[SD51555]

It's gonna take a while. We're dealing with ruts, brush, almost no equipment. At this point, I'm claiming victory for any advancement on the plot. The trail in was a win. If I can widen it out, I can get in there with a truck and log chain to drag the harrow around. We build one from scratch that is plenty heavy, I just have to keep working on clearing the land any way i can. I'll get there. I ain't got much else to do.

 

[Freeborn]

If you look around you can rent a skid- steer for $200 for 8 hours of run time. You can get allot of work done in 8 hours with one of those.

 

[SD51555]

It's on the list. Now that we cleaned up all the oak tops that were out there, I can move around with a stump grinder in spring and get the stumps out. After I get those stumps out, I want to rent a skid steer to fill the holes back in and sheer off some more brush. I want to get Rapids Rental to also bring out a brush mower attachment so we can clear our trails again.

 

[SD51555]

Got the lime down today. Put down 150lbs on a 1/6th acre plot. Stood on my stumps and threw it two handed. Seeded the radish and rye again. It's probably going to be thick or nothing. Depends on the rain from here. This project wasn't so bad...

 

[dipper]

When you have thick grass like that you are better off starting off with smaller seeds like rape and turnip. Rye will germinate and actually start growing without any soil contact, but it won't live long when it's stuck in some dead grass.
I also won't be too worried about lime at this point. I would make sure all that grass is stone dead, which some appears to be still green.

 

[SD51555]

Well got the boots on the ground update today. My not-plugged-in-whatsoever brother can't send a pic of any kind, but he said we've got germination on the tillage radishes. Nothing much happening with the rye. It won't win any yield or beauty contests this year, but it's something. I'm just happy we've got enough growing to see if they eat it, and maybe even survive long enough to punch some holes in my clay subsoil.

 

[SD51555]

He also may not have looked very close. We had spots that burned to bare dirt. We also only got a good first rain on Sunday. It could come later on yet.

 

[SD51555]

I will. I'm hoping to make a quick run up there on the front side of labor day weekend.

 

[sandbur]

Sd-I just discovered that zone 172 is having stakeholder teams this winter to set deer goals for the future. Can you contact anyone up there who might get on the teams and try to make a difference? Sign up for the teams will probably be Oct. and part of Nov. We need people involved.

I just sent an email to two area MDHA chapters encouraging them to get involved and to grow our deer herd in 172. One chapter is in Longville area.

Sorry to steal your thread, but I wanted to catch your attention.

 

[SD51555]

I'll talk to my brother and see. Depending on the amount of time, I could move my schedule around the meetings, or my brother could do it, or our neighbor. I'll keep ya posted...

 

[SD51555]

Got a single photo from a friend who was up north with my brother. I did some computer work and chopped it up a little to try to showcase better what's going on. This is about a month since we burned what we could and reseeded. I'm getting more pics tomorrow when my brother gets home. Reminder, this is a rye/tillage radish plot. Each was seeded at 50% of their recommended broadcasting rate.

Take a close look at the bottom photo in the lower left corner. Is that yellowing the early sign of a nitrogen deficiency? I put down ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) at a rate of 240lbs/acre or an actual nitrogen rate of 50lbs of N/acre. That was on July 1st. I wonder if the month of nothing growing and the rain we had didn't wash away some of that N.

 

[SmallChunk]

That...or I have noticed that with all of our rain in our big COver Crop fields that the turnips have turned a slight yellow color for the time being in the lower spots

 

[SD51555]

That makes sense. The few plants that are showing yellowing are at the edge of a low spot.

 

[SD51555]

Got a couple more pictures. Overall, I am very pleased given the limited amount of prep we were able to do. A couple things I noticed though...

This to me looks a bit too thick for these radishes to reach their full potential. However, they are nice and clean and you can see some rye coming in between.


The bald spots on the ground where the guy and wheeler are, are the spots where we burned our thatch. I expected those to come the best, but it was the opposite. Also, there seems to be a dead ring around the outside. I know I got seed to the edges, but it didn't seem to take at all. I wonder if that wasn't a delayed kill from the roundup that I didn't seed after all?


All in, I'm pretty pumped we got it going. I just hope it's not too thick to get some tonnage out of it. But with the clean kill on the weeds, it should make for a nice start in the late spring. We're going to continue a mow-kill/no-till program. Also hoping to go without any weed killer next year too.

 

[sandbur]

Got a couple more pictures. Overall, I am very pleased given the limited amount of prep we were able to do. A couple things I noticed though...

This to me looks a bit too thick for these radishes to reach their full potential. However, they are nice and clean and you can see some rye coming in between.
View attachment 1918

The bald spots on the ground where the guy and wheeler are, are the spots where we burned our thatch. I expected those to come the best, but it was the opposite. Also, there seems to be a dead ring around the outside. I know I got seed to the edges, but it didn't seem to take at all. I wonder if that wasn't a delayed kill from the roundup that I didn't seed after all?
View attachment 1919

All in, I'm pretty pumped we got it going. I just hope it's not too thick to get some tonnage out of it. But with the clean kill on the weeds, it should make for a nice start in the late spring. We're going to continue a mow-kill/no-till program. Also hoping to go without any weed killer next year too.

That looks great!

Did you use ptt for the turnips?

How are you going to no till without round up?

 

[SD51555]

On this plot, I would wait for the rye to head out, then mow kill it. I won't plant anything that won't frost or mow kill. That still leaves just about everything except clover and a few others that won't play nice. All I know is that my radishes were called "cover crop radish." I never asked any further what they were. I was in too much of a hurry and haven't gone back or called to find out. Maybe I'll do that this morning while I'm driving.

 

[SD51555]

That looks great!

Did you use ptt for the turnips?

Finally got caught up on things and called to find out what my "cover crop radishes" are. They are Daikon. No updated pics yet. I plan to head up in early October for a day stop just to take some pics and do some digging to see:

*How far down the tap roots are going
*How big the bulbs are
*Check height and condition
*See how well my rye/radish blend rate turned out

 

[dipper]

Go light on the brassicas and heavy on cereals. Guys always put brassicas too thick. This should be a good confidence booster. Id guess your gonna need herbicide.

 

[SD51555]

Update! I'm going up tomorrow. Stand by for an obscene amount of pictures... (Hopefully it is picture worthy). Just gotta get my shovel and food plotting underwear packed and i'll be off in the morning.