Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
That pic on post #50 should be a magazine cover, Brian662!!! Bird hunter's high there.
The Home 70
- Thread starter Brian662
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Brian662
5 year old buck +
Photo dump from the past few weeks around the property. Winter has been slowly releasing its grasp but we still freeze/thaw almost every night/day.
Posted in another thread, but have some American plum doing well after three growing seasons.
Kids out messing around when we looked for some sheds. Funny to watch them try to walk through the switchgrass. The background of this pic you can see a vigorous stand of volunteer box elders that are 10-15' tall and thick as hair on a dog.
The aforementioned volunteer box elder pocket. Pics don't really do it justice, I'm going to take the metal blade on my string trimmer through here and create a maze and pocket effect. It's about 1/3 to 1/2 acre. I'm open to suggestions for other ways to make it more habitat friendly. I've got spruce and shrub plantings in here that need my help keeping sunlight because of the prolific growth from the BE.
Some 3-4 year old shrub plantings have gotten big enough that I can remove some cages and shift them to other things in desperate need of protection. I don't see myself spending much more money in cages, just going to continually recycle as necessary.
Posted in another thread, but have some American plum doing well after three growing seasons.
Kids out messing around when we looked for some sheds. Funny to watch them try to walk through the switchgrass. The background of this pic you can see a vigorous stand of volunteer box elders that are 10-15' tall and thick as hair on a dog.
The aforementioned volunteer box elder pocket. Pics don't really do it justice, I'm going to take the metal blade on my string trimmer through here and create a maze and pocket effect. It's about 1/3 to 1/2 acre. I'm open to suggestions for other ways to make it more habitat friendly. I've got spruce and shrub plantings in here that need my help keeping sunlight because of the prolific growth from the BE.
Some 3-4 year old shrub plantings have gotten big enough that I can remove some cages and shift them to other things in desperate need of protection. I don't see myself spending much more money in cages, just going to continually recycle as necessary.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
It was 85 here yesterday Brian. Ha
Badgers80
5 year old buck +
Fun update! That stand of switch is gorgeous 
.
I like your box elder patch idea with the paths. I like your idea of resetting succession on it to help your deer-favored plantings thrive. Keep it nice and thick! It sounds like a great bedroom for deer, shrubs, spruce, and trees surrounded by 8’ tall switchgrass.
I’ll have to send some coyotes your way. Dang things are nonstop over here!
. I like your box elder patch idea with the paths. I like your idea of resetting succession on it to help your deer-favored plantings thrive. Keep it nice and thick! It sounds like a great bedroom for deer, shrubs, spruce, and trees surrounded by 8’ tall switchgrass.
I’ll have to send some coyotes your way. Dang things are nonstop over here!
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Big fan of cutting paths/trails in thick cover. You cut them - deer will use them. Did it here.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Tried my hand at burning about a 1 acre pollinator plot today. Have never done a controlled burn but I've watched a lot of YouTube on it. Conditions were good and it went well. Winds were light and variable but mostly out of the north, they switched south for about 3 minutes mid burn and things got roaring pretty good. I went around to light the backing fire just in time for the wind to switch back from the north and then that starting ripping. Fun times.
All in all a good experience and was easy enough I lit my road side 2nd year miscanthus screen up too. Hopefully it thickens up this 3rd year.
All in all a good experience and was easy enough I lit my road side 2nd year miscanthus screen up too. Hopefully it thickens up this 3rd year.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
That should hatch some fresh greens, Brian! Nice work.
There were a bunch of guys out burning CRP in SE MN last weekend while we were trout fishing. Those burned areas really pop after a rain and some sunny days.
I don't have enough faith in my ability to keep a fire in the desired location, but the guys who know what they are doing end up with some nice habitat.
I don't have enough faith in my ability to keep a fire in the desired location, but the guys who know what they are doing end up with some nice habitat.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Reset some early successional areas dominated by box elder and goldenrod by mowing and transplanted some spruce from my garden nursery into them. Will propagate ROD, and plant some bare root American plum in here as well. Area size about 1/2 acre.
Never got the rain after planting last fall until late October but glad my 3p600 buried the seed enough for eventually germination of my plot.
Never got the rain after planting last fall until late October but glad my 3p600 buried the seed enough for eventually germination of my plot.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Finally got around to planting some beans in my rye, wheat, and vetch from last year. The bucket of my tractor laid it down good and the JD7000 was laying the seed in great. The row cleaners were a hindrance and mostly just got clogged up with rye thatch but the no-till coulters still sliced the soil beautifully.
Front view
Rear view
Feels like work with my supervisor standing there, she's probably wondering what took me to so long to get the summer crop planted.
I will spray tonight, there are areas with marestail, lambsquarter, and thistle that need to be addressed. I'm not expecting much for growth before planting fall plots but it should be a nice thatch layer for the summer heat and be able to clean up the destination food. About 3.5 acres
Same location last night and a few December's ago
I could have killed this buck with my bow for about 10 evenings in a row he was on a pattern in this plot but he already survived the muzzle loader season and wanted to see him get another year. Neighbor shot him last season on Nov 7.
Front view
Rear view
Feels like work with my supervisor standing there, she's probably wondering what took me to so long to get the summer crop planted.
I will spray tonight, there are areas with marestail, lambsquarter, and thistle that need to be addressed. I'm not expecting much for growth before planting fall plots but it should be a nice thatch layer for the summer heat and be able to clean up the destination food. About 3.5 acres
Same location last night and a few December's ago
I could have killed this buck with my bow for about 10 evenings in a row he was on a pattern in this plot but he already survived the muzzle loader season and wanted to see him get another year. Neighbor shot him last season on Nov 7.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
They're dry fertilizer boxes for a starter fertilizer.
T-Max
5 year old buck +
I need to know more. Are you just running starter fertilizer through the box as is? Or did you have to modify it? Those green tubes look larger than what the original fittings would accommodate? How do you like it? Does it put down a decent rate?
Brian662
5 year old buck +
I didn't build it but I'll answer your questions the best I can. I'm not familiar with the green tube setup, they came that way from the guy who built it.
Yes, I like it way better than broadcasting fertilizer, saves a trip and starts it right at the row.
The rate is variable with different gears, but I've left it alone. It puts down about 75#/acre right now, so divide that by 4 rows.
All that being said, 90% of my problems with the unit are centered around the fertilizer boxes and their drive system. Granular fertilizer is very corrosive and I'm always changing out drive chains and getting rusted stuff unstuck, doesn't seem to matter how much I clean it up after planting.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Yeah, drilled last September with my GP 3p600 and we didn't get rain until late October. You can see the emergence on the drilled rows in post #71. It was a 7 or 8 way mix I put in, but without the rain it was mostly a failure as far as fall plots go. From memory it was; buckwheat, oats, WW, rye, vetch, beans, and winter peas.
The winter peas either never germinated or didn't survive the -25F temps we had in Feb, but the other winter hardy species came on strong this spring. Will plan to do similar again this year, but will add some crimson as well.
Did you drill that multi-species mix into standing brassicas or beans? Or was that ground idle prior to seeding in September?
Figuring out the right rotation can be a little tricky and I'm interested to see how your beans do. They should have a great layer of rye thatch to build up the soil and smother weeds.
